Digimon Adventure 07: Virus
by YukiraKing
Summary: Moments after the last story ended we find our heroes in a situation that there may be no possible solutions to. They find themselves in situations and locations that test the very fibre of their beings and force themselves to limits they have yet to see, all for a common goal that the world promised them: Peace. [took out the humor genre because there's nothing funny about death.]
1. Treacherous

**Y/N:** Have Fun.

 **U/N:** So, as you can see by my sister's author note, writing one for every chapter when they go up so frequently is kind of hard, but honestly she's not wrong. It's kind of a ride in this chapter. We just (like two minutes ago) spliced all the chapters together into a kind of back and forth storytelling kind of way, where the five chapters are kind of mixed together, so I apologize if that doesn't go as smoothly as it could. It wasn't written that way, but for timeline purposes, it had to go that way. Anyway, on to 07 :D And I did mention the story would be uploaded differently, and it WILL be, but the first "Part" will go the same as 06 did with one every other day. Yeah, so I hope you like it :D

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 1: Treacherous**

 _ **Taichi Yagami:**_

The large wooden horse crept slowly through the scar in the sky, moving a foot at a time. Soon the head and neck were through, and we were all just staring at it in horror. Hikari grabbed my hand, and squeezed tightly. DemiDevimon burrowed his face into D'Arcmon's neck. We couldn't do anything to stop it from coming.

"It's a Trojan Horse," Mom whispered, catching my attention.

"What?" I asked.

"A Trojan Horse," she repeated faintly. "The Greeks used one to smuggle their soldiers into Troy. They succeeded. All of the Trojans were obliterated. I'm fairly certain that's why they named the computer virus after it."

"So the computer virus is a wooden horse?" Hikari asked carefully. When she put it that way, it didn't seem so bad.

"No," D'Arcmon said firmly. "They are being theatrical, dramatic. The virus will be hidden inside, just as the Greeks were."

"Then why are we standing around?" I asked, feeling the dread, and helplessness sink into my skin. This was the moment I'd brought about. It was my fault we ended up in this situation. It was _me_ that failed to keep the peace between the worlds—which was literally my job's description. It was _me_ that threatened Rida with war—more than once. Daisuke might technically own the goggles, but I was the leader of the digidestined, everyone—Daisuke included—looked to me for guidance, and I didn't fulfill their expectations. This was all on _my_ shoulders, not theirs. They never did anything wrong. Neither did the digimon, but they were suffering for it.

Hikari pulled on my hand, and suddenly we were racing down the street, back to the Temple Square. Mom was in front of us, though I knew that wasn't where she _wanted_ to be. She had a protective streak a mile long, and I knew that her motherly instincts were kicking in. She wanted to be between the virus and her children. She wanted to shield us against the danger. But I couldn't—and _wouldn't_ —let her. Neither would Hikari.

"Keep moving, Mom!" Hikari encouraged when Mom hesitated a step or two, looking over her shoulder to see if we were still okay.

"We need to catch up to the others," I said, thanking Rei mentally for all of the work-out dates she'd insisted upon, and for not listening when I suggested movies and ice cream instead. "They need to know it's here."

"Hikari!"

D'Arcmon's majestic, powerful voice echoed in the empty square. She was much further behind us than I'd expected, and I couldn't stop myself from waiting for her. I used those fleeting moments to look back at the wooden horse, the smuggled artifact that the DWD stole right out of the pages of mythology. I didn't know where the trap door might've been on the original, but I doubted it was the mouth, as it was now. The jaw of the horse dropped suddenly, the hatch opening, and thick, billowy clouds poured out. They were violently purple, and I half expected them to be covered in lightning, just to add to the creepy factor. This purple smog was going to kill us.

Maybe.

If it could manage to get _outside_ of the barrier—and my fingers were still crossed that it couldn't. I really didn't want my tombstone to say: Death by purple cloud. It wasn't particularly thrilling. I'd prefer it to say I died peacefully in my sleep at a hundred years old, but obviously the DWD were leaning towards the former, more humiliating option.

"Take him," D'Arcmon said once she'd caught up to us. She thrust a squirming DemiDevimon into Hikari's hands, causing my sister to drop my own in the process. It was a simple motion, her letting go of my hand, but I didn't like it. It was like she was being robbed from me. While I could feel the warmth of her hand—and the slight clamminess that accompanied her current terror—I knew she was safe. I knew she was alright.

"No," Hikari protested. And for a second—half of one even—I thought she was talking to me. I thought she was reminding me that she was twenty-three years old, and fully capable of taking care of herself, that she was a digidestined _just_ like I was.

But the second was over quickly, as my brain caught up to the situation around it.

"You're coming with us," I agreed with Hikari. D'Arcmon shook her head solemnly, looking towards the ever growing collection of thick purple that was rapidly taking over the Temple. It was heading in our direction—in all directions really. How thankful I was, that we'd evacuated all living organisms, from within the Temple's walls. I couldn't even imagine the panic, the terror that would be filling the streets if that weren't the case. Digimon running everywhere, desperate to find refuge elsewhere, but knowing that there were no guarantees that _anywhere_ would really be safe.

"I must stay," D'Arcmon said. "You take care of my ward. He's been a very good digimon, and I thank him for that."

"I don't want to leave you," DemiDevimon said. "You were going to come with me to the Coliseum."

"I was never planning to leave," D'Arcmon said, shaking her head sadly, her eyes remained determined though. There was no chance we'd be able to change her mind. "This is my home, and I _will_ defend it. I will try to strengthen the shields. I'm afraid the shield will not be able to contain the virus. It wasn't designed to keep things _in_ , just to keep the enemies out. I will defend my home, and the world my son created, the world his clones fight to protect, and I will buy the digidestined the time they need to ensure the safety of the residents of this world. Do you understand?"

"I don't like it," I said.

"I'm not asking you to," D'Arcmon assured me. I nodded to her. It was her decision. I wanted her alive. I wanted her to come back to us, but I knew there was very little chance of it happening. She understood that too. It was in her eyes.

"What?" Mom asked, horrified and confused. "You mean she's staying? You can't stay! You have to come with us. We can make it. I know we can. Surrendering to the virus isn't the way to go."

"Mom," I said, placing my hand on her shoulder, and pushing her towards the front gate. "Go. Start running. We'll be right behind you."

"No we _won't_ ," Hikari protested. "We won't leave you, D'Arcmon. In a world without light, darkness wins. Without you we're losing light!"

"No," D'Arcmon said. "It is _you_ that must remain. I represent the Holy digimon, but I am not the embodiment of light. That position is _yours_ , and if I do not fight to keep you and everyone else safe, then I will have failed that light. Keep your hope alive, and don't let that light burn out. Now go. GO!"

Mom didn't like it either, but she went without any further prompting. I had to drag Hikari away—and she had to use every ounce of strength she possessed to keep DemiDevimon from flying back towards his pseudo-mother. We had to keep DemiDevimon alive. His partner was still out there waiting for him—I hoped—and D'Arcmon wanted him to have that reunion.

It was hard to leave D'Arcmon behind. She followed us out the gate, passing outside of the barrier, before she stopped, raising her hands in the air and exuding a power stronger than I'd ever seen from her. I didn't see any more of her though, because we were already racing towards the trees.

"What way?" Mom shouted. I was hesitant to leave Hikari, whom I was still dragging behind me at that point, but Hikari's mouth was set in a firm line, eyes narrowed ahead of her, and she was clutching DemiDevimon as if he were her lifeline. She couldn't convince D'Arcmon to come with us, but she could—and _would_ —fulfill D'Arcmon's final wish for her.

Knowing Hikari wasn't about to race back to the Temple, I picked up my pace and raced ahead of Mom, leading the way to the Coliseum, and the others we'd sent on ahead. We'd run into them soon, I knew we would. They hadn't left long before the virus had arrived.

The sounds of our trampling footsteps, the cracking of stray trees, the crunch of the rocks and dirt, was all that echoed around us. The wind had died long ago. I kept waiting for something, some _sound_ from the virus, letting us know that it was coming. But there was nothing. It was a silent killer, and without looking back, I was almost able to forget its existence. We weren't running for our lives, we were just _finally_ taking DemiDevimon to the Coliseum, and _choosing_ to run for the fun of it. It was a stretch, but I knew I could trick myself into believing it if D'Arcmon was at our side.

But she wasn't.

I risked a look back, and was happy with what I saw. The barrier was holding firm. Whatever D'Arcmon was doing was working. The purple smog was pushing at the shield, but was stuck within the dome surrounding the Temple. A smile spread across my face momentarily, but was quickly wiped away. It was still a dangerous virus, and it was still threatening the Digital World, and only D'Arcmon was able to stand it its way.

Suddenly the purple dome didn't look so funny anymore.

The dome disappeared behind all of the trees soon enough, and I had no way of knowing if it was spreading, until we huffed our way up a stupidly placed hill. When Gennai designed this place—or whatever D'Arcmon's son's _real_ name was anyway—did he even _think_ of practicality? Did he think of all the times we'd be running for our lives and make it so the terrain was yet another thing we had to fight against? I distinctly remembered a scene from long ago, where seven young kids and their digimon partners were being chased by a Kuwagamon only to encounter a strategically placed cliff, which we ended up literally falling off of...

Once we made it up the stupidly large hill, I could see that Mom was tiring out quickly. She wasn't used to all of this running. Hikari was looking winded too, but she wouldn't say anything, and I knew she'd just get angry if I pointed it out.

I glanced back at the Temple. _One last time_ , I told myself, vowing to stop focussing on what was happening behind me when I had a mission to complete. The virus was trapped anyway, so it wasn't like there was anything to look at.

But there was.

The barrier exploded, the virus billowing out like molten lava pouring from a volcano. It was moving much faster now, than it was before, and the most horrible sound I'd ever heard accompanied it.

"Was that...?" Mom asked faintly.

"Yes," I said, closing my eyes tightly. D'Arcmon's dying scream echoed through my mind. The horror, the _pain_ concealed within the reverberating cry etched itself into my memory right then and there, and I knew I would _never_ be able to forget it.

"No!" DemiDevimon screamed, struggling in Hikari's arms. "She needs help! We have to help her. Let me _help her_."

"It's too late," I said, knowing I wasn't being comforting enough, but there wasn't anything I could do.

 _ **Mimi Tachikawa:**_

The scream was loud, chilling. I didn't know who it was either—at first anyway. Kiyoko and I turned to look behind us, though the trees marred our vision. It was Palmon that identified the screamer: D'Arcmon. Ice ran through my veins. I knew what it meant, for her to scream with such anguish and pain.

"The virus," Kiyoko said in a choked whisper. His hands were shaking, and his knees buckled under him. He knew something that we didn't, but I was too upset to ask.

"You sure?" Willis asked, having no problem converting his thoughts into words. He was angry though, not emotionally unstable like I was, not absolutely petrified like Kiyoko. His anger had been simmering just beneath the surface since we had left the Temple. But he _never_ aimed that anger at Kiyoko, Palmon or me. He had good control. I just cried all over him and anyone that stood in my path.

"I-it wa-was hi-hit-ting th-the T-Temp-ple fir-rst," Kiyoko stammered. "I-it's c-co-coming f-for us!"

"Get yourself together," Willis told him, kneeling down in front of Kiyoko and placing a hand on either of his shoulders. "If you don't, it _will_ get you. We can beat this thing. We can outrun it in any case. We've got a ways to go, I realize, but we can do it. I believe we can."

"I c-can't," Kiyoko said. "I'm sc-sca-scared."

"Oh, for the love of—" Willis said exasperated, grabbing one of Kiyoko's arms and flinging it over his own shoulders, yanking Kiyoko to his feet in the process. "I'll _drag_ you if I have to."

"Can we go now," Palmon asked anxiously. "D'Arcmon was hit. I want to see if the others got out."

"Don't even say that, Palmon," I pleaded. Koushiro and Tentomon were back there. Our _family_ , not to mention our friends. My heart was beating fast, picking up pace at an alarming rate. "They got out. They _did_. They got out."

"We won't know for sure until we get to the Coliseum," Willis pointed out. His anger had diminished a small bit, but he had a new source fueling it now. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was upset about—and I would know, because I _wasn't_ a genius, and I figured it out. He was mad at Mari. And now her life was in danger, and he was mad that she wasn't here with us. Not that she would've been any safer if she was here. The Coliseum was nowhere in sight, and we weren't even moving! We were sitting ducks, and the virus was going to come for us. Just because we couldn't _see_ it, didn't make it any less of a threat.

"M-Mari," Kiyoko gasped. "Hi-Hideto. I have to go back. I have to get them. I _need_ them."

"You need to stay alive," Willis growled.

"And how am I supposed to do that without them?" Kiyoko asked, his desperation and co-dependence seemed to outweigh his fear momentarily. That was something at least. He pulled his arm away from Willis, and stumbled backwards, heading the way we'd come. Willis scrambled to catch hold of Kiyoko, but he was moving too quickly.

"Poison Ivy!" Palmon shouted, extending her vines to capture our runaway, dragging him back to us, kicking and screaming. "Think about Tapirmon!" Palmon ordered. "He's waiting for you. And if the virus is already at the Temple, it might be too late for Mari. Don't rush in and get yourself killed in vain."

"B-b-but," Kiyoko said, his eyes fresh with tears that were overflowing, cascading down his cheeks. He became blurry as I started crying along with him. Palmon was right. It might be too late for Mari. And if it was too late for _her_ , then Koushiro and Tentomon were probably out of my reach forever. And Taichi, and Hikari, and all of the others. My heart clenched, still beating too fast. My breath was ragged. I looked to Willis again, the source of strength within our little ragtag group. His eyes were shining, but he wouldn't let himself cry.

"She's right," Willis said, shaking his head, clearing it of any unnecessary emotion. He would handle his sadness and anger _later_ , when he knew it was actually warranted. "We might be the only ones left. We can't know until we get to the Coliseum, and I'm sick of waiting around and gabbing when our lives are in danger. I'm not letting myself get killed. I know what that would do to Terriermon and Lopmon. I know what it would do to Jenna, and Mom and her husband. What it would do to Michael, if he's even still around to learn it happened. I'm not doing that to them. It's not about _me_. And it's not about _you_ either!"

"Think about your Mom and Dad, Mimi," Palmon suggested. "Think about getting to them."

"Tapirmon," Kiyoko whispered. "Warg, Melga and Dracomon. I might be the only Alias III left." That set him off again, and he was shaking, struggling against Palmon's vines with renewed strength. Willis stormed over to him and slapped him. I let out a little scream, surprised by the sudden act of violence, but it seemed to do Kiyoko a world of good. He looked at Willis wide-eyed for a few seconds before wiping away his tears furiously with his fingers.

"We're digidestined," Willis growled. "We don't live just for ourselves. We live to keep the worlds safe. We've gave up the chance at normal lives when we accepted our digivices. We need to stay alive. We need to continue to exude our crests and keep the worlds in check. Without us, chaos will ensue. If we let ourselves die, all is lost. We can't avenge our friends if we don't _live_ long enough to do it. So forget about them for now. Forget about the virus, and _start running_!"

"Okay," Kiyoko said, though it was hesitant. Willis nodded at Palmon, and she released Kiyoko. Willis watched him for a second, debating whether or not he was going to run again.

"Let's go," Palmon said. " _Please_?"

"Yeah," Willis said, with a meaningful look in Kiyoko's direction. Kiyoko looked much more subdued, and he nodded, clutching his computer bag in one hand. There was something about those Izumi boys and their computers. They both used them as a crutch, as an escape. It was too bad they wouldn't be able to help us now.

I wondered if Koushiro's computer was still around, but forced the painful thought from my mind.

 _Of course_ it was. It was still with Koushiro, he was still alive, and I had to run now, to the Coliseum so I could meet up with him again. So we could talk and I could tell him it didn't _matter_ that he didn't know my middle name—not very much anyway. Well it _did_ , but I would forget about it if it meant he didn't die with D'Arcmon.

"Guys," Palmon cried in a shaky voice. "Now. We run _now_."

"Palmon?" I questioned softly.

"NOW!" she screamed, as she set off running. Willis looked over my shoulder, and I watched as his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. Kiyoko started shaking again, when he looked too, and Willis reached out to find his arm, grabbing onto it.

I was afraid to look.

But I did it anyway.

I turned and saw a giant, oozing purple wall reaching up to the sky, and moving in our direction, eating the trees and grass and dirt as it passed. It was so thick I couldn't see through it. It was a violent, horrid shade of purple that I'd only seen being shot out of DWD artillery previously. That could only mean one thing: it was the virus.

A garbled scream clawed its way out of my throat, and I took a few shaky steps backwards. I couldn't do any more, until Willis grabbed my shoulder roughly and whirled me around, pushing me after Palmon. I was running again. For the second time in such a short time period, I was running again for my life, and for Palmon's.

 _ **Takeru Takaishi:**_

"Aaarraauugh!" Miyako shrieked as the limp body paled and fell onto her.

Everyone standing around her seemed to have completely frozen. Ken was only feet from where I stood, and although we'd been running, desperate to reach Miyako we had both stopped in our tracks the very moment we'd seen the flashes of violet. My eyes had fallen to Kurayami where she stood, her hands shaking as her fingers curled around the silver and black gun that she had just used to kill another human being.

"M-Miyako!" Ken shouted finally, pushing himself into motion. His shaky legs brought him toward his wife where she was pushing with all her might trying to get the lifeless form of Moretsuna off of her. She was shuddering and groaning, words coming out at random as she panicked. Her breathing was choppy, and Moretsuna was just too heavy for her to move. I wanted to help her, but I was still in shock.

Not only had I just witnessed yet another death... this one was human. This was a person—a man, he had a family, a life, and someone must have loved him. That was wrong. It was _wrong_ that his life had been taken, because he wasn't going to come back... or maybe he was. I didn't know anything about religions, all I knew was that death happened. Frequently. I'd always tried to keep it away from the front of my mind, but here it was, in front of me an impossible to ignore. Not only had a human died, but it had been achieved by means of one of my closest friends.

Kurayami let out a loud scream finally, and her gun was dropped suddenly. I watched the light glint from the silver as it fell. The weapon landed next to Kurayami's feet and she stared at it in horror, throwing her foot back and kicking hard. The weapon soared through the air toward a tree and crashed into the greyish bark.

I stared at the killing machine and then saw something flick in my peripheral vision, and slowly I looked up, noticing the light in the distance. The light was over by the Temple... over by Hikari. What was going on? I tore my eyes away from the horizon and looked to my digivice for the time. It was eight o'clock... the day was running short... wasn't the virus supposed to come at some point today?

Was that it? Was the virus attacking the Temple? Was Hikari first in the line of fire?

" _Breathe_!" Ken hissed loudly. His voice shot through my trance and I stopped my running. I'd already been heading directly toward her. She was in danger—but so were my friends. So was Patamon. Yamato! My parents. Everyone! "Miyako, you have to breathe!"

I looked to my two friends and saw Miyako wrapped in Ken's arms, her face paler than ever. Her eyes were staring toward the corpse lying in the grass only feet from where Ken held her. She was breathing, as Ken had told her to, but it was fast and panicked. Ken had tears in his eyes, trying desperately to keep Miyako under control of her emotions, but that was difficult on a normal day, and this was _not_ a normal day.

"Ken." I said flatly. He didn't even pretend to have heard me. He just kissed the top of Miyako's head as she began sobbing, finally pulling herself out of her trance. "Ken!" I yelled.

He rounded on me, his eyebrows high. "Not right now," Ken said quietly.

I groaned and turned to Moretsuna. I let out a gasp as I noticed the hole in his chest. Slowly his body was deteriorating. Kurayami had shot him too many times, and the affects were kicking in too quickly. His body was leaving us already. He would be gone soon... and there would be no traces of him ever being here at all.

"Kura," I said quietly, turning to where she'd been standing. But she was not there. "Dammit! Kurayami!" I shouted loudly. I spun around and immediately knew she had run off. What was she thinking? Where had she gone? "KEN!" I yelled, rounding on him again, impatient now.

"Takeru!" he yelled back. "I'm trying to comfort my wife!" He looked up to me, angry now.

I looked back to the Temple and saw a cloud of violet shooting up to the skies. A panic shot straight through my entire body, my heart dropping and my stomach churning. "Virus..." I muttered, the words barely escaping my lips. "K-Ken..." I said one more time, my emotions struggling against my control, trying to imitate Miyako's panic attack. I had to keep my head.

But that seemed hard.

Hard because I could _see_ the clouds of violet billowing toward the sky in a tower of ultimate destruction.

Probably.

"H-h-he's g-g-g-gone!" Miyako sobbed, "H-he was-s a h-h-horrible p-p-person! B-b-but now he c-can't ch-change!"

"He never would have," Ken insisted, squeezing her comfortingly.

She pushed him away from her and she turned to him. "You d-d-don't know th-that!" Ken looked appalled and Miyako looked to the man who was only random limbs now, a horrendous sight. "We never h-h-had a chance to talk to him! We never t-t-tried! We t-treated h—" She coughed loudly and grossly as she wiped franticly at her face, forcing the tears away. "H-him just like the digimon," she continued. "We di-didn't ask ques—tions! We j-just killed h-him be-because he was b-bad!"

"He was trying to _kill_ you," Ken insisted.

"So d-did y-you!" Miyako shrieked. Ken looked shocked and backed away from her through the grass staring toward his wife who was so angry now. Miyako tried to stand, but couldn't. She fell back and her back pack fell off of her shoulder. As she repositioned it I could see a key hanging from one of the side pockets. "A-and Kurayami! S-she's not bad! She..." Miyako paused. "She's n-not... is she?"

"No," I insisted. Ken and Miyako both turned to me as if they had forgotten I had been standing there. I certainly hadn't. And every few seconds I checked back toward the virus. At first it had seemed like it was being kept at bay, but it certainly was not any longer. I could see the cloud growing quickly, and it didn't look good. It was spreading now. Kurayami wasn't evil though. She wasn't bad. She did what she had to do to save her friend, and that was important to remember. But I didn't have time to press that fact. "Ken, a word please?" I motioned for him to step aside with me. He shook his head and tried to crawl back to Miyako. " _Now_."

Ken looked to me, worried now and got to his feet, the whole way toward me he shot apologetic looks to Miyako. "What?" He asked, panicked.

"If you look behind you right now," I told him and he glanced over his shoulder quickly. When he turned back his eyes were wide with terror. "That would be the virus we've heard so much about. We need to get to the Coliseum."

"Is it safe?" Ken asked quietly.

I shook my head gently and sighed. "I hope so. I think so. I don't know." Ken looked unsure if he wanted to risk it, but seemed to realize that there was really no better choice. "We have to."

"You're right..." Ken said, and together we turned back to the virus. The clouds of violet were now shooting quickly through the trees. "We have to go now." He decided. We both turned to Miyako and Ken let out a yell of anguish. "Miyako!" he screamed, desperate.

She was gone too. Ken was running already, his screams loud and desperate. He had run straight through the place Moretsuna had once been laying, seemingly not noticing for a second that the man had ever been there at all. He was too eager to find his wife.

 _ **Iori Hida:**_

This wasn't how my search was supposed to end. I was _supposed_ to be walking back with Hawkmon, listening as he chatted away about how good of a job we did. We were supposed to be taking our time and coming to terms with everything that had happened over the last couple of days.

But we weren't.

We were running for our lives instead.

How many times would I have to do this? How many times had it already been done?

It seemed like this would be a never ending fixture of my life. I would lose people, I would fight for what was right, and I would run away from danger hoping to keep hold of my life for just a little while longer. Of course, that was eliminating the time I'd tried to sacrifice myself for Hikari, and all the times I'd stubbornly stuck around longer than I should have and needed to be rescued. The latter thankfully hadn't happened in years. I'd finally become an adult in the eyes of my friends. They trusted me to take care of myself now.

Miyako expected me to take care of her child when it was born.

I _needed_ to get back to the Coliseum. I hoped she'd made it there during the time that Hawkmon and I had been searching for Impmon. We'd found the little guy, sobbing his heart out in a tree, trying to hide from us, but he was making far too much noise for it to be a worthy effort. I'd done the best I could to convince him that others cared for him, and that they were worried about him, but he wouldn't accept it. No one cared except for Noriko. He was sure of it. And she was gone. There was no point for him to be there anymore.

 _Impmon was wiping his eyes, but he was still crying, making it a futile effort. His shoulders were shaking, and he wobbled on the tree branch he'd perched himself on._

" _Come on down, Impmon," I told him. He shook his head and continued crying. I looked to Hawkmon, and he fluttered his wings, flying up and landing on Impmon's branch._

" _Impmon, it is dangerous out here, you must come with us," Hawkmon implored._

" _What's the point," Impmon said in a dull voice. "Noriko's gone. There's nothing there for me anymore."_

" _Tomotsu's there," Hawkmon pointed out._

" _And he doesn't want me!" Impmon cried. "No one cares about me except Noriko, and she's gone. I'm all alone now. I don't fit in there."_

" _You fit in just fine," I told him. "I care about you. And I know Hikari cares deeply for you, even though she only met you the once. She cares for everyone Impmon, and she cared for Noriko too."_

" _How's that going to help?" Impmon demanded. "Am I supposed to replace Noriko with Hikari? Is Hikari going to love me unconditionally because I'm her partner? No. Because I'll never be her partner. I'm Noriko's and Noriko is mine. But she's gone. I can't be there without her. What's the point?"_

" _You could talk to Kotemon," I suggested. "Or Mari. They could help you get through this."_

" _I don't want to get through this!" Impmon sobbed. "I just want Noriko back. I want her back. Why can't she come back?"_

 _Hawkmon and I looked at each other both at a loss of what to do._

In the end, it was Hawkmon that convinced him to go to Primary Village, instead of hanging out in the tree waiting for the DWD to get him.

Knowing what I knew now, I wished we could've convinced him to come with us back to the Coliseum. We were barely ten minutes out when Hawkmon noticed the large consuming mass of purple that was expanding in every direction. We knew right away that it had to be the virus that man had been talking about when he interrupted Mimi's broadcast.

We thought we'd have more time.

Running was second nature to me now, and Hawkmon was faster when he flew, so he chose to do that. I'd started to think that maybe, with the pace we were keeping, we'd be able to make it to the Coliseum, despite the vast distance that stood between us. The virus was still a ways behind us; it would take a while for it to catch up to us.

I always knew optimism was dangerous.

No sooner had I thought that we could make it, did I hear the terrified screams of small digimon. Hawkmon stopped flying, searching the area, fluttering higher for a bird's-eye-view. It took me a few paces before I could slow my momentum and come to a stop. Each second that ticked by was another second that brought the virus closer to us. I hoped that whoever these digimon were, they were small enough for us to carry so we could continue on our way.

Once again, my optimism failed me.

Hawkmon led me into the trees towards a cluster of tiny digimon. They were babies. They shouldn't have been out there alone in the first place. But since there were eight or nine of them—I didn't actually count—there was no chance in just picking them up and racing to the Coliseum with them.

"What do we do, Iori?" Hawkmon asked, his voice growing frantic. I looked back to see how much time we had. The virus was still coming...and it was coming much faster than I'd have liked.

"We have to take them to Primary Village," I sighed, knowing that meant we wouldn't have time to get to the Coliseum anymore. We'd have to stay in the Village, and hope for the best. It wasn't exactly something I'd dreamed about doing, but it was better than getting Hawkmon swallowed by the virus because my stubbornness wouldn't let me give up.

"Will we make it?" Hawkmon wondered, looking like I did, to the virus.

"We'll have to," I told him. "We can't leave them here."

The virus was coming, large, billowing and purple, creeping towards us. My skin crawled and my hair stood on end. I wasn't looking forward to what we'd have to do. I felt the key Jou had given me in my pocket. The weight was far from comforting. If I'd been given the key to the Land of Dreams, I wouldn't have hesitated. I would have opened the gate and walked right through with Hawkmon and all the little digimon. It was a far better fate than racing against the clock.

But it wasn't the Land of Dreams. It was the Dark Ocean. I couldn't in good conscience bring the baby digimon with me into a literal hell.

"Listen up!" I called to them. "We're going to the Primary Village. You're going to need to do your best to keep up." The babies didn't answer, at least not at first. Eventually though, a small black Nyokimon managed to speak in a weak voice.

"We can't go back there," he said in a voice that sounded much like an infant. "The scary thing's back there. I don't want to go back. We _won't_. Scatter!"

"What?" I asked.

"NO!" Hawkmon shouted, as the little digimon started hopping as fast as they could in different directions. I grabbed a Botamon mid-air before he could get too far. He squirmed and squawked, but I was much stronger than him, and he couldn't escape my grasp. Hawkmon caught the two Yuramon in his claws. They wisely didn't struggle. Hawkmon's talons were pretty sharp.

"You'll never get all of us!" Nyokimon shouted at us.

That's what I was afraid of.

"Now you listen here, you meddlesome child," Hawkmon ranted, following after Nyokimon. I had to trust that he would get Nyokimon and the Yuramon to Primary Village. I couldn't follow after him _and_ save the other digimon before the virus reached us. It was impossible. I knew Hawkmon would give his life to protect those little digimon...but that didn't comfort me in the slightest. We would be racing _toward_ the virus after all. We had less time to work with than we would if we were running _away_.

I had to keep my wits about me though. There were five or six digimon that needed saving, aside from the Yuramon and Nyokimon. I had one Botamon with me. I knew I'd seen another one in the group. That left three or four others.

Two of those hadn't made it into the trees yet. I quickly ran to the small blue, furry digimon, Dodomon and tucked him into the crook of my arm next to Botamon. Dodomon sank his sharp teeth into my arm. I winced, and jerked my arm away, nearly dropping the two babies. I gritted my teeth though, and held tightly. His teeth sunk deeper into my skin, and I felt my blood trickling down my arm.

I glanced toward the virus. It was continually creeping forward.

I didn't have time to waste focusing on the pain. I needed to keep moving. The virus would make it to Primary Village soon. Once it did, any chance of these guys surviving went out the window. I could keep them alive with the key, but they wouldn't last long in the Dark Ocean.

Dodomon growled, still biting down hard. Botamon just continued to squawk. I ignored the both of them—with a lot of effort. I had another Botamon to chase down before he disappeared into the trees. He was number six—with Dodomon, Botamon, Nyokimon and the two Yuramon. I stumbled over fallen branches, and slipped on their leaves, but I caught him just as he was diving into a bush.

"You guys need to grow the hell up," I snapped, as the second Botamon started harmonizing with the first to reach an all new level of annoying. Dodomon just ground his teeth into me instead of abiding my orders. "Your friends are going to die if you don't smarten up. It'll be your fault."

Yeah.

I said that to infants.

To be fair, it was true. They were impeding my rescue mission. It would fall on their non-existent shoulders if anything happened to those other children. The Botamon duo stopped their incessant noise, but Dodomon just glared at me. It wasn't the _best_ response in the world, but he'd decided to _quietly_ munch on my arm, which allowed me to use my ears to assist me in hunting down the two—or three?—other children. I kept my eyes peeling, following the gentle nudging of one of the Botamon as she tried to help me. She started cooing and I knew I had to be close. I scanned the area.

My eyes couldn't help but note that the minutes were ticking down. The virus would hit Primary Village in a less than reassuring period of time. I willed myself to believe that Hawkmon was already on his way to the Village with his three.

Botamon squawked and hopped out of my hold before I could stop her. She bounced over to a smoking bush. It took less than a second to realize there had to be a digimon in there, because bushes didn't smoke on their own. Blindly, I stuck my hand into the leaves, pulling it back quickly, yelping loud enough to shock Dodomon into releasing his hold on my arm. He started spitting and I would've rolled my eyes if I'd had the time. It seemed as though my blood was less than appetizing. He should've let me go ages ago. I waved my burned hand in the air. I didn't take the time to examine it. Each second counted. Instead, I reached my hand back into the bush, coming in from the bottom this time. I wrapped my fingers around the bottom of a squishy, nearly cloud-like digimon, pulling it from the bush, dangling it upside down.

"Mokumon," I grumbled. The smoke digimon just slobbered, grinning up at me, proud that it had managed to burn me. Any other time, I might've encouraged his pride, knowing that protecting one's self was of the utmost importance. But in this instance, as his attempts were actually putting himself in more danger, I was not happy.

I was actually incredibly irritated and stressed.

That was _not_ a good combination for me to have.

Mokumon seemed to pick up on this fact, since he sobered up quickly. He blew on my hand as I stood up, making sure both Botamon and Dodomon were all accounted for. I grimaced when I felt his tongue touch me. It was gross and wet, but the virus was more pressing than my comfort.

A tiny bird call was how I'd managed to locate the next of the digimon—Puwamon, a tiny little owl. She'd decided climbing a tree would save her from the virus. A quick scolding was enough to get her down—after I'd implied I was going to leave her behind for the virus—and I started racing towards Primary Village. Time was running out. Between Hawkmon and I we had eight digimon. I'd done my best to get a number out of the babies, but they couldn't speak well, and they couldn't count so it wasn't exactly helpful.

 _ **Sora Takenouchi:**_

It was over.

It was all over, and it was entirely my fault. By this time they'd all be dead. I was to blame. I consciously knew I couldn't blame myself for the pushing of the button. I knew I hadn't done it, but there was something inside me that was _so_ sure it was my fault. There was a small, flickering flame in the depths of my heart, slowly burning away, helping itself to whatever it could find in there. Hope, love... and as the flame grew so too did the fear and the panic. The flames were entrancing, and the longer they burned, the larger they became, and the more convincing they were. With all of my positive emotion having burned out of the confines of my heart, I was left with only doubt.

Doubt that my friends had survived. There was no possibility of that anymore. I'd warned them. I'd warned Taichi, but he'd only had two minutes to go. To run. To hide. There wasn't enough time for him. He was surely dead. Just as Biyomon would be. And Koushiro. And Mimi. And Jou. And little Emiko.

They were gone, and there was no convincing me that it wasn't my fault, because I knew it was. Whether or not I'd been in control of myself when the button had been pushed. It _had_ been pushed, and it had sent out a deadly virus to destroy everyone that I knew and loved, and I had not stopped it. My parents were now dead, and it was my fault. It was my fault because I could have tried harder. I could have struggled harder against the confines, and I could have smashed the computers, I could have begged harder. I could have struggled for the survival of _everyone._ But I hadn't. Not enough. Not hard enough. And now they were _gone_.

Was it wrong that I did not regret for a moment that my final goodbye had been to Taichi? I'd been given one phone call to say goodbye, and I hadn't called my mother, or my father. I didn't even call Yamato. I chose Taichi. I knew he would be at the Temple, and that he was my best bet if I wanted to try to save someone... I knew he'd never have enough time. There was no escape... What if they'd cut the call before he'd heard my warning? Then there would _really_ be no chance for his survival.

I hoped my parents knew that I loved them. I could have said it more. I could have told them how I felt. We had a very complicated relationship... I hope they knew. I hope Jou and Koushiro knew that since the moment I met them, since the first time I'd watched them struggle on our soccer team, that I knew we'd be best friends. I hope they knew that I could never forget them. I wished that Mimi would have fully forgiven herself for the way she had treated me. I knew she hadn't. I could see there were traces of remorse whenever she looked to me. I forgave her... I should have told her again. Takeru and Hikari had been like younger siblings to me since I was _eleven_ years old. My stomach seized up just thinking about their deaths. Thinking about how it was my fault. Thinking that they may not have been back together yet—maybe they were still in different places—and they'd never gotten to see each other one last time. And it was my fault.

Maybe Yamato and Takeru had never made up. Maybe Yamato didn't know I was in love with him. Maybe he didn't care. It was possible that everyone had misunderstood the way I felt about them, and I'd never be able to right their thoughts, or their opinions.

I'd never be able to see their eyes, or hear them laugh, or tell them I loved them.

And it was because of _me_.

And it was because of Director Arnold.

And if there was one thing I was sure of as I ran down the streets, blinking madly through the tears as I pushed past the people, ignorant of what had just happened, it was that Director Arnold was going to take the brunt of my rage, and my pain. He was going to _pay_ for what he'd done. He was _not_ going to get away with it.

I slammed into a girl on the street as I shot around a corner, running as fast as I could from the building I'd been kept in. A building they had convinced me was a prison, but after my escape I'd been sure it was not anything of the sort. It looked like an office building. And there were large trucks waiting outside, trucks that looked to be thick and well guarded. They looked like cattle trucks, to transport large animals. The girl I'd run into fell to the ground and I did too.

"Watch it." She snarled, but then she saw I was crying, and I suppose she had some sympathy for me, because she apologized for being in my way and even offered to help me to my feet. I didn't need her help though. Or her sympathy. I was a bad person now. A person who had sent an entire _world_ into chaos and destruction. The girl was talking to me, but all I could hear was the ringing of the sirens in my mind, a sound that sent an everlasting fear into my very soul.

I shook my head and pushed past her. She seemed to understand what I needed was space because she let me go. I couldn't stop the sirens. They began blaring loudly—too loudly. I could hardly think, or move. The tears were pouring faster than ever now and I was stumbling. I didn't care. I fell against a brick wall by my side and gasped, desperate for air.

I was having a panic attack. But I could barely tell. My mind had disconnected itself from my body, separated by a blasting noise. The sirens.

Every few seconds I fell back to reality and everything hurt. Mostly my heart as it beat quickly and loudly. It felt as if the plug was pulled and the happiness was draining. Like it wasn't possible for me to be happy. Like since the Digital World was now gone, so was I.

And then the sirens decided they liked my pain, and I could not detach myself anymore. I screamed loudly and fell to my knees, wiping my tears, desperate to see something. "Why?" I whispered. I didn't know what I meant; I just knew I needed to stop crying. I needed to find a way to reverse time without that stupid key! I couldn't breathe again but I didn't care. I felt a drop of rain and looked up, expecting the hand of death to just take me away to put me out of my misery. But I hardly deserved that.

As the rain started coming harder I pulled myself to my feet and ran into the streets, not sure where I needed to go anymore, and then I heard someone else scream, their voice piercing through my own personal sirens, and I turned and saw a car heading straight toward me. I locked eyes with the man behind the steering wheel and he slammed on his brakes, the car screeching to a halt, but not before it had hit me. I had been too pathetic to even move out of the way.

I opened my eyes and stared toward the sky, watching as the rain drops fell toward me. I hurt. I really did. Outside, and inside now. I was lying on the paved street; I could feel the loose wet gravel and didn't care how gross it was. I didn't care that my leg was in as much pain as it was. I didn't care that I had just been _hit_ by a _car_.

I didn't even care when the man who had been driving leaned over me to check my pulse. He seemed relieved when I coughed and my tears stopped their silent streak. I was sobbing loudly again, and I sat bolt upright, throwing my arms around him. "Are you okay?" I heard him ask. And I wasn't. My head was spinning, but I was so... hurt. "Who should I call for you? Your parents?"

"T-t-they're dea-dead!" I spluttered. He placed his arms around me and let me cry for an eternity. I didn't even know who he was. It wasn't his comfort I needed, it was the comfort of those who I loved, but that would never come again. Because I'd killed her.

I'd killed Biyomon. She'd been so worried that I'd be the one to die, that I'd leave her again. She thought I'd be reckless enough to get myself killed just like I had the first time. And she was right! I'd just been hit by a car. But it was too late, because she couldn't help me anymore. She'd never be there for me again and it was because the person she trusted the most was the one who sent a virus her way. A virus that was crafted explicitly to delete her very existence.

" _I trust you. I love you." I had said to her._

" _I love you too." Biyomon had replied. "I promise I won't let the Yokomon get hurt, either."_

" _I promise to come back to see you as often as I can." I told her, kissing her forehead. "I'm not forgetting about you."_

" _You're the best." Biyomon said._

But she was wrong. I was not the best. I was the worst. The very _worst_. "Liar..." I muttered.

"What?" The man who was holding me asked.

"LIAR!" I screamed, pushing him away from me.

"No, really." He insisted, "I'm taking you to the hospital."

I turned to look at the man in front of me, finally taking in what I was seeing. His skin was tanned, and his hair was short and blonde. I knew him. He wanted to take me to the hospital because I had no one to do that for me. No one to help me. But I was fine. I was going to show him that I was fine. I'd stand up and walk home, where I'd find Natsuni and Jenna.

"Oh my God." I said, heart leaping into my throat. I pushed the man away and used the nearby car to help me for balance, my hand slipping in the water that had pooled in the dented hood. I stared to the car in front of my as my head pounded and then looked to the man. "Did I do that?"

"No," He said, shaking his head. "It's a piece of crap." He smirked, "You seem okay."

"I'm not." I admitted, "But I have to go home... I have to tell Natsuni that I killed her boyfriend. And tell Jenna... tell her..." I couldn't even finish the sentence, crying loudly now.

"Get in the car," He said, "I'll take you home."

"You don't have to." I said, pushing him away.

"Well I'm not leaving you in the middle of the street," He said, "Come on, get in." I nodded and let him help me into his front seat. He held the door open for me and leaned ahead of me to clear the passenger's seat of CD's and gum wrappers. I sat down before he finished, unable to stand any longer and I leaned back. He closed the door and hurried to the other side of the car.

 _ **Iori Hida:**_

"Almost there," I promised the kids. I couldn't see Elecmon, but Angemon was standing at the border as I raced through the barrier. A collection of in-training and baby digimon swarmed the five digimon I'd brought with me. Angemon rested a hand on my shoulder, and I stood on my toes, trying to see into the distance. I couldn't see Hawkmon or his collected kids. My heart was hammering. "Where's Hawkmon?" I demanded of Angemon.

He opened his mouth to respond, when a Koromon screamed. I looked to see the virus slamming into the far side of the Primary Village. It started curling around the barrier, and some of the tension left my shoulders. The fear I'd refused to acknowledge—the fear that the barriers would be useless—had been lifted. Hawkmon was still out there though—maybe.

"WAAAH!"

"What?" I asked, turning my head.

"He won't make it," Angemon said, stepping forward, out of the barrier. My eyes quickly scanned the area, hoping he was talking about Hawkmon, so that I'd know where he was. But instead of seeing a red bird, I saw a tiny, bawling flower. He was a small sunflower, with a leaf for a tail, and giant tears falling from his petrified, red eyes.

My heart missed a beat.

I'd missed one.

"Stop," I snapped at Angemon, grabbing his arm and pulling him back inside. I didn't stick around to explain myself. I was less at risk than Angemon. I couldn't allow Takeru's partner to die just because I was in pain and tired of running for my life. This little digimon, this Popomon, _needed_ help. I was in the best position to offer it.

So I pushed myself to my limit, racing to get him, and literally whipping him at the barrier, into Angemon's hands. I'd barely had the time to confirm that he was safe before I couldn't see him anymore. The purple virus had engulfed the entirety of Primary Village.

"Damn," I muttered, turning on my heel and racing back into the forest, knowing what I would need to do in order to stay alive. "HAWKMON!" I screamed. I prayed that he was in Primary Village, but I didn't know. I continued to run, screaming for my friend until I couldn't risk it anymore. I wasn't as fast as the virus. Each second it got closer, and I had only seconds before it would be licking at my heels.

"HAWKMON!" I shouted one last time, feeling my voice break—both from overuse and the sheer emotions I was experiencing in that moment.

I shoved my hand in my pocket and pulled out the key I dreaded with all of my being. I shoved my hand forward, losing hold of the key, and fumbling to catch it before it could hit the ground. I managed, but _just_. If it had hit the ground, I'd have been dead. As it was, I wasn't hoping for much better. I thrust the key forward, keeping a firm grip on it this time, and turning it midair, slipping into the darkness that awaited me, shoving the door closed behind me, not daring to peek at how close I'd let it get.

 _ **Mimi Tachikawa:**_

With each slamming footstep, my mind went to my friends.

 _Step_.

Taichi, Mari, Koushiro, Hikari and Tentomon. They were behind us, I was sure of it. They were with Gennai's clones, and my heart squeezed again, knowing that they were all that was left of Hiraga in the Digital World. His mother, D'Arcmon, was gone now.

 _Step_.

Sora. She was safe. She was on Earth with Natsuni, Momoe and Jenna. She was safe from this monstrous wall of destruction.

 _Step_.

Jou. He was at the Coliseum. Who was with him though? Daisuke was, with his baby. And my parents. Takeru was there, the last I'd heard, with Ken and Iori. Kurayami... Yamato? I couldn't remember who was safe. My heart clenched painfully, but I ran on.

 _Step_.

Michael. Poor Michael. I didn't even know where he could be. I hadn't even tried to look for him. And now I couldn't. I hoped Tatum had found him, and they hadn't already been swallowed by the virus. I hoped they would be at the Coliseum when we got there.

 _Step_.

Neo. He didn't count me as a friend. He was too stingy with his friendship to have more than Alias III and his sister, but I wasn't quite so frugal. He helped me save Sora, he _dated_ Sora. I'd seen him a lot, and I didn't hate him. He saw the light, and fought on our side when we needed him. He wasn't the friendliest of people, but that didn't mean I wasn't worried about his safety.

 _Step_.

Hideto. My funny, sarcastic, slightly crazy waiter. I couldn't think of him being gone either. He was one of my best friends. He and Izumi had worked for me so long that I thought of them as _family_. He was still here. He was heading to the Coliseum like the rest of us. He'd been outside, wandering the woods for ages. Maybe Tatum _hadn't_ found him. Maybe he was already _at_ the Coliseum. I knew it would mean the world to Kiyoko if he was there when we arrived. It would mean the world to me too.

 _Step_.

Gomamon. He was, perhaps, the most painful to think about. He'd been missing for so long now, and he was a digimon, taken by the very people that hate digimon the most. There was no doubt in my mind—no hope. He was gone. He _had_ to be. There was no goodness in the DWD.

 _Step_.

I squeezed my eyes shut, ignoring the tears that were still streaming down my face in an unending river. The tears would never dry, I would be crying forever. That's how I felt anyway. Palmon was ahead of me, but just barely. Willis was a faster runner, and he was dragging Kiyoko behind him. Willis didn't want any of us to die, I knew that, but I also knew there was an unspoken agreement that we were to save ourselves. He couldn't save all of us without risking himself, and I didn't want him to.

But Palmon had to be safe. I wouldn't let her take the fall for me. I promised myself ages ago. If it came down to her or me, it would always be _her_ that got to go free.

I wiped my eyes with both hands, stumbling as I did so.

It was so hard to find any hope, or optimism now. I didn't know how Takeru managed it. He was constantly looking on the bright side, finding the good in any given situation. I used to cling to that optimism, but now I was repelling it. I didn't want it. I wanted to be allowed to really wallow in my emotions, to let them take over me, to _feel_ them, _experience_ them. I didn't want to push any sad thought away, to look over any annoyance. I wanted to revel in my anger.

But it was so hard to do any of that when I was so filled with fear.

Fear of the virus, fear for myself. Fear for the lives of my friends and family, and all of the digimon still scattered throughout the Digital World. I was terrified for Palmon, and I wished I had the key to the Tunnel of Time so that I could try to fix this mess. So I could go back and tell them to leave the Temple sooner. But I knew it wouldn't help. I couldn't change the past. Saving Sora was an exception. Neo had passed out in the original time line, he didn't realize we'd already come back and saved her. It had already happened, which was why we were able to succeed in our mission. It was the reason I wasn't able to save Gennai when I tried. I'd just ruined _everything_ , made it worse than it already was.

I didn't want to risk causing this mass genocide myself if I tried to fix it.

But it didn't matter. It was a moot point, because I didn't have access to the Tunnel of Time. The key had been left behind at the Temple, and it was probably gone by now, destroyed in the virus's path—not that I knew it was really destroying everything. I couldn't see _through_ it the first time I saw it, and I didn't look back at it as I ran. I was scared enough without adding that image to the list.

I reached out, to grab Palmon's hand, not looking, just hoping to feel it, to feel her warmth, to know she was alive. I grabbed at the air, finding nothing where Palmon should be. I looked around frantically, slowing to a stop.

"Palmon?" I asked, hoping she had just fallen a few steps behind me, but she didn't answer. I looked to Willis, who was still dragging Kiyoko behind him. They were ahead of me by quite a bit. "Willis! Kiyoko! Palmon's gone!" They didn't hear me. They were too far ahead, and my calls came out as cracked whispers. "Palmon!"

I turned around. I wasn't going to leave her, no matter what. I would catch up to Willis and Kiyoko, and they would be none the wiser. I didn't want to put them at risk anyway. This mission of mine could end up fatal if I couldn't locate my digimon partner quickly enough. I tried to keep my eyes on the ground, or scanning the trees on either side of me. I didn't want to look at the wall of violet that would be my doom. I didn't need to see how close I was to dying. It didn't matter to me, anyway, not until I found Palmon.

 _ **Taichi Yagami:**_

The virus was coming at us, and we needed to be moving. Koushiro and Mari and all of the others were still travelling out here too, and we hadn't even met up with _them_ yet, let alone finding Mimi, Palmon, Willis and Kiyoko—who left before even them.

What were our chances of survival?

I didn't know, but I knew it didn't look good—especially since we _weren't moving_! I was rougher than I intended to be when I pushed Mom and Hikari forward. They didn't protest though, they just started running. I tried to keep both of them ahead of me, letting Hikari lead Mom to the Coliseum this time. I knew my efforts would be wasted, but I wasn't going to let the virus hurt my family. I would stand between them like Mom wanted to for us. It wasn't Mom's duty though. She didn't cause this mess.

We'd lost one of our own. My mess, my _screw-up_ cost D'Arcmon her life, and I could only cling to the slim hope that the virus wouldn't be able to force its way _into_ the barriers, that it could only leave because of the way the shields were designed. I _had_ to hope that D'Arcmon was right about that, because there were little kids at stake, hundreds of baby digimon all around the world, and the three human children. It wasn't just the kids though. There were hundreds of thousands of digimon stowed away behind those shields all across the world, and if the shields didn't hold...

No.

I was going to keep my hope alive, for D'Arcmon's sake. No matter how slim the chance might be, it was still a chance, and we had no choice but to take it. Besides, the virus wasn't a digimon and I highly doubted it carried a digivice, so the barriers would probably work.

Right.

We didn't talk as we ran. We needed to save our strength. It was a long journey, and we'd made good headway, but we weren't even close to being there yet. The virus was coming for us too, not creeping along like it had originally, but it was still a good ways behind us. There was still a chance that we could make it to the Coliseum before it got us...even though I had a sneaking suspicion that it was actually _gaining_ speed.

I forced the ever present virus out of my mind and focussed on running. One foot in front of the other, slamming into the hard ground, sending the shock up to my knees. If I was alive, come morning, I would really be feeling it tomorrow. Mom's erratic breathing was growing louder with each passing minute. Both she and Hikari were slowing as one minute grew into the next. Every time I thought Hikari was going to give up, she would glance down at DemiDevimon, and she would pick up her pace again, desperate to save him. I knew that she didn't care nearly as much for herself, and vowed that if she _did_ give up, I would just toss her over my shoulder and keep running, because she _needed_ to be safe. I'd spent so much of my life determined to make it happen, to keep her safe. She hated it, but she'd have to live with it—because she was going to live, damn it!

I heard the light rumble of their voices first. Tankmon was regaling an enraptured audience with tales of the fight club's escapades. I could hear their awe and laughter. Benjamin and his brothers were discussing the Temple, while Koushiro rambled on with someone—probably his research team—about the benefits of his newest upgrade he'd designed for his laptop. Tinkermon was laughing with Mari about _something_...

But how could they be laughing?

We raced along, through the trees, and then we could _see_ them. Tuskmon was still pulling along the cart, with the six little digimon inside, and all of the important papers, and the digimentals and the extra keys. Tankmon was driving himself backwards so he could tell those same six digimon his stories. The rest of the fight club was wandering at their side, jumping in to add extra details when they were needed. Koushiro was, as I suspected, with Tentomon, Haruhiko, Andromon and Centarumon, and oblivious to the rest of the world. Mari was at the front of the procession, with Izumi, Tomoki, Tinkermon and Meramon. Benjamin and his brothers were right behind them, and in front of the fight club. The two remaining Knights—Dorumon and Kotemon—were at the back, with Koushiro's group, on their guard, ready to strike.

And strike they did.

"Yuuko!" Dorumon shouted, diving at my mother, nearly causing her to fall over. She let him hug her, but continued to run, sort of hobbling in her quest to get away from the virus. Hikari was waving one of her hands wildly in the air, trying to tell them to start running without actually wasting any of her breath.

"GO!" I shouted for her sake. "The virus. It's coming. RUN!"

That got them moving. Dorumon was talking a mile a minute, saying how he'd heard a scream and was really very scared that we were all dead now, and he was just so excited that Yuuko came back to him. He really didn't want to lose his partner. Mom listened to him, but didn't speak. She was bordering on exhaustion, having been running as long as we had.

It became abundantly clear who the best runners were, after only a minute of racing as a group. Centarumon was at the front, easily galloping past everyone, but Meramon was right behind him, leaving a trail of smoldering grass in his wake. Izumi was trailing behind her friend Tomoki, who was keeping pace with Benjamin, and his brothers. They were all quite fast. Mari and Tinkermon were doing fairly well, despite Mari's heels, and Tankmon was chugging away behind them. Andromon, Tentomon and Kotemon were running alongside Tankmon, with Starmon and Falcomon right behind them.

It wasn't _them_ I was worried about.

It was little Candlemon, who had to literally _hop_ away from the virus, or Hagurumon who was flying, but wasn't very fast. It was ToyAgumon, who kept tripping himself up on every branch or stone. It was my exhausted mother, being dragged along by Dorumon. It was Sora's father, who I often forgot was as old as he was, wasn't faring much better than Mom. It was Tuskmon, who was straining to run as he pulled a heavily loaded cart with boxes and suitcases and six other digimon inside.

It was Hikari and Koushiro, who were falling further behind everyone else.

I stayed behind them though. I wasn't going to let the virus get to them. DemiDevimon was scared enough to be as close to the back of the procession as he was. He was sobbing over D'Arcmon's death, and was shaking with emotion. He was the reason that Hikari was still putting forth as much effort as she was.

Constantly, despite my earlier promise, I found myself checking over my shoulder. I needed to see the virus, to track its progress, and to remind myself of the silent threat. It was still there, larger than ever before—large, and billowing, and covering _everything_ in its path. I couldn't see the trees once it swallowed them, and it covered so much of the sky. I didn't know if it was just surrounding them, or if it was deleting them, but I couldn't take the chance to find out.

I whipped my eyes back to the scrambling group when I heard a yelp. Candlemon landed on a stone wrong and was wobbling. Haruhiko wrapped one of his large hands around Candlemon's torso, and started running with him as if he were a torch.

"Go faster," DemiDevimon cried, peeking over Hikari's shoulder to watch the virus. Hikari panted, and put more effort into her strides, pulling ahead of Koushiro just a bit. I glanced back again, and knew that it wouldn't matter how much effort we put into it. The purple storm was coming faster than ever, and it would be upon us soon. But we would try to beat it anyway.

Why the hell couldn't we have left earlier with Kiyoko and the others? What the _hell_ was I thinking, holding off as long as I did? It was stupid. It was irresponsible. And the decision to wait was biting us now.

And then ToyAgumon fell, slamming into the ground and falling into pieces. Haruhiko had to jump over him before he could step on him. He was going to stop, to help ToyAgumon, but Benjamin shouted for everyone to keep going. Benjamin, Hogan and Jose raced back to the fallen digimon. Hogan had his head, miraculously still in one piece, while Benjamin picked up the green piece of his torso—which doubled as his tail—and the majority of the pieces of his arms. Jose had the blue piece of his torso—his chest—and the four pieces that made up his legs. Benjamin was looking around for the last yellow piece of his arms, but I shouted for him to keep going. I'd spotted it, and tucked it into my pocket, swearing that I would be able to get it back to ToyAgumon once we arrived at the Coliseum.

We didn't have time to stop and piece him back together again, and I felt horrible that ToyAgumon couldn't even fight for his own survival anymore. He had to depend on four separate people to bring him to safety. I wondered, momentarily, what would happen if his one piece of arm was deleted in the virus, should I be caught. Would he be deleted along with it? Or would he just lose any function of the arm it came from?

I shook my head as I continued running. I couldn't think like that. D'Arcmon said to keep our hope alive, which went hand in hand with the whole theory that there was no light without hope. And I couldn't help but hope that Takeru was safe somewhere, because _everyone_ was sure to lose hope if he was out here while the virus was bearing down on us.

The light faded around us, and DemiDevimon whimpered. I heard Mom scream, along with Kamemon and Tinkermon, and I realized they were all looking to the sky. I sighed in relief. It wasn't the virus then.

Glancing up, I saw Airdramon, and I was about to call to Tatum, when I realized he'd come without her. He had a Coelamon on his back, but Tatum was nowhere to be seen.

"Where..." I started to ask. I gave up though. There was no time, and Airdramon couldn't speak, so it wouldn't do me any good. But I was worried. Tatum was missing. She'd gone out on a rescue mission with Monodramon in toe. To have Airdramon here alone—well, without Tatum in any case—now was a problem. Tatum went out to find Hideto, and then to find Michael, Neo and/or Gomamon. None of them were here. Where were they?

I didn't have time to even guess. Airdramon was flying beside us now, casting his Spinning Needle attack at the forest in front of us, clearing a good pathway, so that we wouldn't need to weave around trees anymore. And the next thing I knew, I'd raced in front of Hikari, DemiDevimon and Koushiro and grabbed my mother around the waist before heaving her onto Airdramon's back.

"Taichi!" Mom protested. "I can walk."

"Yeah," I gasped. "And you'll collapse and we'll both die when I try and carry you the rest of the way. Or you can hitch a ride, and live."

"Taichi," she pleaded.

I ignored her, grabbing hold of Dorumon and tossing him up after my mother. Mari was on the same page as me, since she tossed Kotemon onto the Airdramon's back too. Haruhiko was trying to figure out how Candlemon could balance on the flying digimon's back, before I threatened to throw Haruhiko on myself if he didn't just climb on. Sora would kill me if I let anything happen to her dad. She'd find a way through the closed gates, and she'd kill me. Mari grabbed Starmon from behind, despite the digimon's protests, and chucked him on too.

"It's too much," Mari muttered, sort of jogging at my side. She was right of course, so I patted Airdramon's side and sent him ahead of us. I felt miserable watching him go, knowing that I wanted to pile _everyone_ onto his back, to save them, even if I didn't get to climb on myself. I'd rather know everyone was safe.

"Tentomon!" Koushiro gasped, from the back of the group. "Digivolve!"

The idea nearly blindsided me. It didn't make sense why I hadn't thought of it before. Tentomon glowed as he grew and shifted to Kabuterimon and then to MegaKabuterimon. While he was doing this, Mari and I grabbed Hagurumon and Falcomon respectively and tossed them into the wagon that Tuskmon was carrying. Tuskmon protested, already exhausted from pulling the six digimon—Datirimon, Kamemon, Sukamon, Chuumon, MarineAngemon and the elderly Wormmon. He didn't have long to protest though, since I unlatched the wagon, leaving him to run alongside Tankmon, who was also too big for MegaKabuterimon to take.

Tentomon, now MegaKabuterimon, scooped up the wagon with ease, and before he could fly off, Benjamin boosted Hogan and Jose into the wagon, with their pieces of ToyAgumon. MegaKabuterimon hesitated just a second then.

"Go!" Koushiro shouted to him. "Save them."

MegaKabuterimon didn't want to leave Koushiro behind, but since Koushiro sounded so sure, he huffed and grabbed Andromon mid stride, despite the cyborg's struggling protests and flew off into the distance.

"Why didn't you go with them?" Mari called to Koushiro.

"You suck at running," I reminded him, feeling guilty for now running in the middle of the group, instead of at the back with him. We'd established a new order, now that there were fewer of us, and in the confusion of everything Mari and I found ourselves in the midst of everything. We had Tankmon and Tuskmon, Izumi and Ilya with us, with Centarumon, Tinkermon, Benjamin, Tomoki and Meramon in front of us. Jackie had joined Koushiro, Hikari and DemiDevimon in the rear.

"I'm a digidestined too," Koushiro puffed. His face was red with exertion, but so was Hikari's, Mari's and Izumi's. I was sure if I could _see_ my own face it was just as red. Tomoki's probably was too. "And as such, I'm going to stay with you, Taichi, until it's not feasible anymore."

I was sort of touched at the loyalty, but I was also ticked off. Some strange sense of loyalty was keeping him from getting himself to safety. I didn't even acknowledge that it was the exact same sense of loyalty that was keeping _me_ here. He wasn't the leader, he wasn't at fault. He didn't need to risk himself. But he glared at me—and so did Hikari, I could feel it on my back, creeping into my soul, and shivered—and I gave up. It was too late now anyway.

"Oh my god!" Izumi shrieked, looking like she was going to pass out. I glanced behind me, knowing what she saw, but had to confirm it for myself. The virus was hot on our heels. I'd been right in my assumption that it was gaining speed. We weren't going to make it.

We just couldn't.

It was an unconscious group decision to just go faster, even if it hurt like hell. We could only do our best, there was no point saving our energy for anything anymore. There wouldn't be a final sprint to the finish. The race had _become_ a sprint. We didn't have time to go any slower. We _had_ to stay ahead of the virus.

Tankmon growled, and I breathed in a cloud of smoke. His wheels were smoking from overuse. I swore. What were we supposed to do now? Tuskmon was better at thinking on his feet than I was, since he slammed into Tankmon's rear and started pushing his friend with all his might. He wasn't going to leave him behind, and I was thankful for his selflessness, because I wouldn't have been able to do anything without him.

Mari had moved ahead of me, sprinting like a cheetah despite the way her heels kept digging into the dirt with every step. Ilya was cheering Tuskmon and Tankmon on, from their left, while I ran at their right. Izumi fell behind, and was now running side by side with Jackie. But she wasn't the only one that fell behind.

Koushiro and Hikari were closer to the virus than anyone. It was practically licking at their heels. I was tempted to run back to them, to _make_ them run faster. She was my baby sister, and she was too close to the virus for comfort, and I couldn't handle it. But she sent one more glare in my direction, and I knew I could do nothing without making her angry.

That's when the worst possible thing happened. Hikari tripped over a tree root, crashing to the ground, skidding a little thanks to her momentum. DemiDevimon went flying to the side, not forward, where anyone could have caught him. I started back for him, or for Hikari, I wasn't sure, but I was stopped.

"Don't you dare, Taichi!" Hikari shouted at me, letting Koushiro pull her to her feet. Jackie ran back for DemiDevimon.

"Look out!" I shouted, staring in horror as the virus engulfed the root she'd tripped on. Koushiro's eyes met mine and he nodded, pulling out the golden key he'd kept in his pocket. With one horrendous, and yet relieving movement he had opened the door, and caught Hikari around the waist as she tried to run, despite her twisted ankle. He threw her backwards, into the door, as Jackie scrambled towards DemiDevimon. Hikari tried to climb back out of the gateway and she looked toward me, so many emotions in her eyes, but Koushiro pushed her back through as he tackled her, closing the door behind him. Half a second later the virus had spread to the spot the door had been.

"Catch him!" Jackie shouted, distracting me from the fact that my baby sister was now trapped in another world that we no longer had any access to, thanks to the fact that Koushiro took the key with him. Jackie had DemiDevimon, and threw him towards Izumi. Before Izumi could even catch him, Jackie let out a strangled, pained yell as the virus swallowed him whole, deleting him instantly.

 _ **Mimi Tachikawa:**_

"Palmon!" I continued to call. She couldn't be too far behind me. I hadn't lost myself to my thoughts for very long. She had to be nearby. "Palmon!"

"Over here, Mimi!" she responded, _finally_. My tightened chest relaxed in relief and I ran at the sound of her voice. She was running back to me, having strayed from the path the boys and I had been running on. She wasn't alone though. She'd found a lost little digimon that shouldn't have been out in the woods at all.

"Lopmon," I gasped. "You should be at the Coliseum. That's the only reason Willis is acting so calmly right now." He hadn't said it, but I knew it was true. The only thing he cared about right now was being reunited with his two best friends, his partners.

"I came to find him," Lopmon admitted shakily. "I didn't think I'd meet the virus. I thought the mean man was just making it up to scare us."

"He wasn't," I said sharply, causing her to flinch. I felt bad, scaring her like that, and I pulled her into my arms. Her tiny legs weren't letting her run very fast. I couldn't let her fall behind, because I knew Palmon would slow herself to match Lopmon's speed, and then I'd lose the both of them. I didn't want either one to perish. "Run, Palmon. Hurry. We'll catch up to Willis. We have to."

She followed my order, and I did something I didn't want to do. I looked back at the virus, and was petrified by what I saw. It was so close now. Why couldn't we be faster? Why couldn't I have lost my temper and left earlier? Why couldn't Lopmon stay in the damn Coliseum where it was safe? It wasn't fair to blame her for Palmon's helpful nature though. I reminded myself that as I started running faster than I could consistently sustain. Palmon would have stopped no matter _what_ digimon she'd stumbled upon. It was her job as a digidestined's partner. She and I shared our crest, and I wouldn't change her for the world. She was herself at all times, and she was _helpful_ by her very nature.

That thought didn't stop me from wishing there hadn't been any digimon to distract her. Her legs were moving as quickly as they could, but she wasn't as fast as Willis. There was no chance of catching him, not until we reached the Coliseum—but I was starting to think that wasn't even a possibility. We should have recognized _something_ on the path before now. We'd taken a wrong turn somewhere, and I didn't know where, but we were hopelessly lost at this point. I wasn't able to identify our location. I didn't know if we were closer to Toy Town, or the Coliseum, or Primary Village. Maybe we were on our way to the beach. I didn't know! It was freaking me out.

"Willis!" I screamed, desperately. "Kiyoko!"

"WILLIS!" Lopmon shouted, nearly deafening me in the process.

"Kiyoko!" Palmon called, panting a little as she did so. A flash of panic flitted through me at the sound. She was getting tired. If she was getting tired, that meant she was going to slow down. A quick glance over my shoulder told me why that would be a horrible, horrendous thing to happen. She would be lost to me instantly.

I was crying again, with renewed fervour, which meant I was tripping over things I shouldn't have been tripping over. We called and called, but I knew it was hopeless. They were too far ahead of us. We could scream ourselves hoarse and it wouldn't help save us. All it would do was take away the energy we could be using to run.

"Palmon," I said, handing over the phone I'd hastily stuffed in my pocket. "Take this, and turn it on."

"What about you?" she demanded, terrified because I'd stopped running. "I don't want it. You keep it."

"I won't," I told her furiously. "You will take it and you will be safe. I'm carrying Lopmon, I'd just drop it anyway. We're going to find a safe zone. We won't make it to the Coliseum. But we can make it to safety. I just need to know you're safe or I won't be able to think straight, Palmon. I won't be able to save us if you're not already safe."

"I don't like it," she said, glancing at the virus that was still creeping up on us. "But I don't have a choice. There isn't time. Just give it to me."

"Keep up," I told her. She wrapped the vines on one hand around her torso, caging the phone to her chest before activating it. I was sure she'd be able to hold onto it. The shield Kiyoko had added would keep her safe. I could only hope I could get Lopmon and myself to a safe zone before the virus caught us. "I'm sorry I don't have another phone, Lopmon."

"It's okay," she told me in a tiny voice. She was terrified, and that was enough to spur me into action. I heard Palmon following after me, and sighed in relief. No matter what happened, Palmon would be safe. I could rest easy knowing that.

I was running with renewed energy, relieved energy, racing through the trees, trying to put as much distance between the virus and myself. The roots and fallen branches tried to trip me, but I didn't let them, glancing at Lopmon's terrified face every time I felt tired enough to slow my pace. A stone I stepped on wobbled, and I slammed against a tree, trying to catch myself before I went tumbling to the ground. The bark was rough on my skin, and it was when my hip hit the tree that I realized there was something still in my pocket, something that _never_ should have escaped my memory.

I had a key.

I didn't know where the key went, exactly, but I was pretty sure it was the Fairyland—what with the intricately designed wings for a handle. It wouldn't be scary, except for the fact that it would just be Palmon, Lopmon and I alone, trapped forever in another world. Willis would never know what happened to Lopmon, and my parents would never know what became of me.

Glancing at the virus, I knew I didn't have long to make a decision. It was getting closer and closer every second, and I couldn't keep up. I wasn't a good runner. The virus was closing the gap faster than I could make it, and I knew Palmon was slower than I was.

I slammed myself through the entwined branches of the bushes in front of me, and I emerged in a small clearing. Finally, I'd be able to make some ground without dodging obstacles. I ran, pushing myself forward on sheer will power alone, and nearly had a heart attack when a dark haired man wearing a baseball cap burst through the trees on my right, dressed in all black. He was followed by a blonde man and a red haired woman, and it was Lopmon that identified them for me.

"Michael!" she cheered. "Tatum!"

She launched herself out of my arms, spreading her ears wide, using them to glide safely into Tatum's arms. She cuddled up with Tatum, momentarily forgetting just how close our doom was getting. She'd made my decision for me. If she was going to take a break, then we wouldn't be able to _run_ to a safe zone. I'd just have to create one of my own.

"Palmon," I called. "You can turn off the phone. I know how we're getting out of here." I pulled the key from my pocket, showing it to Hideto—who I had mistaken for DWD—and the others. Their eyes lit up, and they glanced nervously to the virus.

"Where have you been?" Lopmon demanded of Michael, and he put a hand on the back of his head sheepishly.

"The DWD base," he said. "I was being interrogated. We were running from the DWD so that Airdramon could get to safety, but they stopped chasing us. We just figured they gave up, and we were trying to get back to the Temple."

"And then we saw _that_ ," Tatum concluded.

"Get us out of here, Mimi," Hideto said, pleading with his eyes.

"Palmon!" I shouted impatiently. There was no answer, and I started to panic. She was right behind me. I'd heard her. But I hadn't continued to listen, had I? I was focussing on putting one foot in front of the other, I was focused on getting Lopmon to safety. "Palmon? PALMON!"

I threw the key to Michael, who fumbled it and had to find it in the grass. I raced back the way I came, screaming Palmon's name. I wasn't leaving without her! I needed her to be safe. It was her, not me that needed this.

The others were calling my name, telling me to come back, but I heard them give in and start calling for Palmon too. I heard Lopmon explaining that Palmon had a personal shield, courtesy of Kiyoko, but that didn't quell my fears as much as it had just minutes ago. She was going to be stuck out here, alone and invisible, inside a shield projected from a phone she had a hard time keeping a hold of. This was a disaster in the making. Palmon needed to catch up, so that I could take her with me to this other world.

I felt a pair of arms circling around my waist, lifting me into the air and jerking me backwards. I screamed and kicked and swung my arms, wriggling my body, trying to escape. Hideto hissed in pain when I bashed him on the nose.

"Mimi," he growled. "We have to go."

"No!" I screamed. "NO! PALMON!"

I knew Michael had already opened the gate, and Tatum and Lopmon were already through it. I caught sight of him standing next to a glowing door, but that didn't mean they could take me against my will. I wiggled free of Hideto, and started running back to the trees, only to find out that they were gone, replaced by a wall of purple that was creeping steadily towards me.

Palmon was in there.

I raced towards it, and Hideto caught my arm, dragging me along behind him, using his considerably larger strength against me, refusing to let me find Palmon.

"She's got a shield," he growled. "She's as safe as she can be. You did everything you could. You can't help her now."

"PALMON!" I cried, a heart wrenching terrible cry. "PALMON!"

She can't be gone. I wouldn't let her be. I tried to pry Hideto's fingers off of me, and succeeded, only for him to grab me around the waist again.

"Mimi, you'll die!" he shouted angrily at me.

"I don't care!" I screamed. "I want Palmon. PALMON!"

The world spun around me as Hideto flung me through the gate, still holding my waist as he jumped through too. He threw me to the ground, as he stumbled in behind me. I was on my feet in an instant, diving for the door, _just_ as Michael closed it. I slammed onto the hard ground, and let the choking sobs take hold of me.

Palmon was gone, trapped in the virus with only a shield to keep her from absolute destruction. I didn't even know if the shield would hold up against that powerful purple monster. And I didn't know if Palmon could hold onto the shield even if it _could_.

"PALMON!" I screamed to the sky, before I let my emotions take complete control over me. I had to keep her safe, it was _her_ not _me_. _Please, please, please, be safe Palmon. I need you to be safe._ I couldn't lose her, not on top of everyone else.

She had to be okay.

 _ **Takeru Takaishi:**_

We didn't have time for people to keep running off. We barely had any time to think at all let alone find Miyako. I quickly put that thought out of my mind and pulled my digivice back to my face, looking at the tracker section. She was running too quickly. I could see her light, already too far away. Kurayami too. She was further than Miyako. There was no way to catch her, but if we ran we could catch Miyako.

It was possible.

Good thing too, because Ken was already shooting through the trees toward her, having thought of his digivice as well.

"Ken!" I shouted, "Wait up!"

I ran after him quickly, but he was faster than I was. He was pulling away, powered by pure adrenaline and panic. I felt the same, but it wasn't my wife that was in danger of running full speed toward a virus that could rip her to pieces. Hikari was the closest I had to that, but she was already safe.

I knew she had to be. I didn't believe for a _second_ that Taichi would let her be hurt. It was Taichi that I was worried about, but if Hikari was safe, then so was he. They both would have used one of the keys, and travelled to a different world.

Hikari was safe, and now I was obligated to keep myself safe—for her. Then we would trust that the barriers worked and when the virus was gone I could be reunited with Patamon. All of this was entirely possible. But not if I ran much further.

The virus was coming faster than we were running, and Miyako wasn't slowing down. We would never catch up to her. That was one thing that was not possible. I was sure of it.

"Ken!" I screamed, trying to catch his attention. But he didn't turn back. He didn't even look back, or slow his running for a moment. "Ken!" God I was shouting his name a lot lately. He wasn't slowing down and if he didn't listen to me then he was going to keep running, and he wasn't going to catch Miyako and we would _all_ die. I clenched my eyes shut and pushed myself into running quicker. I had to believe I could catch him. I had to have faith in myself and catch up... I had to. When I opened my eyes I was relieved to see that Ken had tripped.

That was good enough. He was much faster at running.

"Ken!" I screamed, tackling him as he attempted to keep running after pulling himself to his feet. "Ken we're going back!"

Ken punched my arm. Hard. I released him for a second, but tightened by grip immediately, unwilling to let him go, and he fell face first toward the ground. "You're not going to catch her before the virus kills us!"

"I don't _care_!" Ken screamed, tears in his eyes again. "I have to be with her! With the baby! I can't let them go! Takeru get _off_!"

"Miyako has a key!" I screamed.

Ken stopped struggling and turned, confused. "What?" He asked breathily.

"She has a key," I told him remembering the large white key I'd seen in her backpack. "I don't remember which one it is, but she's smart enough to use it. She'll use it and then you'll die not having caught up to her. Do you want to leave her?"

"N-no," Ken admitted.

"Then come with me to the Coliseum," I pleaded. "We're going to find her again, just like we'll find Hikari. And Yamato. And Daisuke and Kurayami. We're going to find them all, and you're going to come with me."

Ken nodded, and relief shot through my body. I grabbed his hand and started running back the way we'd come. I headed in the direction of the Coliseum not totally sure exactly where we were, but I knew the way. I'd been there often. We'd get back and then Ken and I would work together to find everyone. It would all work out in the end.

"And I h-have to take care of Masa," Ken agreed. "He needs someone. I'll be there for him."

"Yes," I nodded, hardly paying attention.

"Wormmon needs me too." Ken was assuring himself this was a good idea, and whatever he needed to tell himself was fine with me because I entirely believed Miyako was going to be safe, and that we would be able to get back with her. We'd find her. We'd find them all. "But he wanted me to bring back Miyako. I promised..."

"We will," I assured him. "Just maybe not right this minute."

"I can wait two minutes." Ken assured me. "Maybe three." I certainly hoped that was all it would take because I didn't want to be the one delivering the news to him that he wouldn't be with Miyako as soon as he wanted to be. I could barely handle the realization that Hikari was in a different world than I was—or that Yamato was _somewhere_. "Takeru!" Ken screamed, a fear creeping in his voice that I'd never heard before. My heart stopped briefly as I looked back to him.

I could not control the scream that escaped my lips as Ken and I ran, our hands squeezing each other tightly. A small cloud of the virus bubbled away from the mass and wove its way through the trees. It was close. I could see the cloud behind us, towering over the trees.

"Where are we?" Ken shrieked.

"We're near the Coliseum." I assured him, hoping against all odds that I was right.

"Are you sure?" He asked, scared.

"Yeah," I nodded, "See? There's the stream."

We ran toward the small body of water, our legs carrying us as fast as they could possibly go. We shot from the trees and I looked to my left, seeing nothing but more trees, and the stream narrowing. My heart panicked once more as I looked to my left, again, nothing.

"There it is!" Ken exclaimed. He pointed in front of my face and as we moved forward I could see just the peak of the Coliseum over the top of the trees. Ken laughed excitedly, but I wasn't as optimistic. I looked back quickly and saw the virus. It was too close. We would never make it to the Coliseum. We couldn't go fast enough.

"We're dead."

The words escaped me before I knew they were coming.

But just as quickly, my mind had been made up. I tightened my grip on Ken, and never stopping our run, I turned sharply at the edge of the stream, heading right.

"We're going the wrong way!" Ken yelled.

"No, we're not," I promised him. I just hoped this wasn't a lie.

And then my foot slipped, the water had dampened the dirt and my foot made a disgusting gurgling sound as it wedged itself into the mud under the surface of the water l was trusting to guide me. Ken grunted loudly as he pulled on my hand, and the two of us fell to the ground. I didn't waste a second and the two of us were running again.

We had to go even faster than before now that we were no longer running away from the virus and instead running alongside it. The virus was moving toward us, but we weren't moving away from it like we had been before.

It was not an even race anymore; it was only our hope against its destruction.

And I had a lot of hope, but with every step I drained of a great portion of my seemingly unlimited supply.

"Takeru it's here!"

Ken's voice was echoing in my head as I looked toward him to see clouds of our inevitable death rolling across the land toward us. It was the final countdown, and I had to force myself to look away from the virus. I had to forget about it and focus on the positive.

I had to get to the Looking Glass.

And there it was, at the end of the narrow stream we were running down.

"Takeru!" Ken screamed again. I instinctively turned my head, cursing myself all the way. The virus was close enough to reach out and touch now. Both Ken and I screamed loudly as my foot caught on something sticking from the ground.

And then I was falling face first into the waters of the Looking Glass. Ken's scream grew loudly as I spun around in the fall. The clouds were over top of the two of us now. We were going to die.

And it was going to happen before I could see Hikari one last time.

We crashed into the water and light enveloped us washing out the horrendous sight of the virus.

At first it seemed we'd been killed and my plan hadn't worked at all. The light was so bright and seemingly never ending. I felt Ken's hand slip from mine for just a moment, and then the water was swishing around us wildly and the currents were strong. And then, the water stopped and a firm hand wrapped around my shoulder, pulling me from the water. I fell onto soft ground and coughed loudly, gasping in the fresh air around us. And then Ken fell into the grass next to me, his eyes wide as he breathed sharply, panic setting in again.

I heard a female utter some gibberish and then I turned sharply to see a large green ball gown obscuring my view of the Looking Glass. When the woman stepped aside I could see the virus, and I almost ran. I would have too if I hadn't noticed that it was contained. It looked a bit like a snow globe, but instead of snow it was just a deadly cloud virus.

"Oh dear," the woman said, her green leaf-like wings stretching out behind her back, "this certainly is troubling, isn't it?"

 _ **Taichi Yagami:**_

"Jackie!" Ilya howled, trying to run at him, but I raced over and caught him, throwing him forward.

Izumi cried out, holding DemiDevimon who was just not having a very good day, and tried to start running away from the virus, but it was fast, and she was tired. Centarumon came to her rescue though, galloping back to her, and circling around, lifting her off the ground and placing her firmly on his back. Tinkermon was on his shoulder.

"Go ahead!" I shouted. "Get there as fast as you can. Don't wait unless you _have_ to!"

Centarumon took my orders seriously, and took himself and his three passengers with him down the path. I could see the Coliseum in the distance. It was still a ways off, but I could _see_ it, and that was something. Meramon took off with wild abandon, racing along the path, nearly keeping up with Centarumon's pace. Benjamin was still clutching pieces of ToyAgumon, and sighed, knowing he needed to continue, and could do nothing for his fallen brother. I stuffed my hand in my pocket while running—more difficult than I expected—and pulled out ToyAgumon's final piece, forcing it into Ilya's hand, giving him a reason to continue to fight. He nodded and raced off after Benjamin and the others.

There were only five of us now.

Tuskmon continued to push Tankmon, putting forth all of his strength, not sparing even an ounce. He was tired, and he was getting slower, but he was still going. The Coliseum was growing closer with each step, and he kept his eyes forward, focussed on our destination.

"You can just go," Tankmon said, his voice shaking. He pushed aside his fear in an attempt to be brave. "Get safe. Leave me here."

"We've already lost two," I snarled. "We're not losing you too!"

I was mad. Madder than I'd ever been maybe. I'd lost two friends today—that I knew of at least—and my sister and friend had been sent to another world because I couldn't save them either. I'd be damned if I let anything happen to Tankmon too.

"Think of your partner," I hissed at him. "Think of him, and don't give up hope!"

I threw myself at Tankmon, hands flat against his bumper, and started pushing, helping Tuskmon gain momentum. He was moving fast now, which was good, but it wasn't fast enough. I heard another slam that sounded like hands against metal and saw that Mari had joined us, pushing him along in her broken heels. She kicked them off on the fly. Another slam sounded, as Tomoki joined us.

"You can save yourselves," Tankmon insisted. "Really, I don't mind too much."

"Shut up," Mari growled through gritted teeth. It was harder work than Tuskmon made it seem.

"But—"

"No buts," Tomoki said. "I'm a digidestined too, you know. And I'm not about to abandon a digimon in need. No way, no how."

"We're almost there," I reminded him. "Put some effort into it!"

His motors strained, but they sputtered back to life, having got a bit of a break. His treads were still smoking, but we could deal with that once we made it there. With Tankmon's help, we were able to really pick up the pace. We were still ahead of the virus, and really, that was all I could hope for at this point.

We continued pushing, and the next time I looked to the Coliseum, I saw people standing inside the barrier, watching us. _Cheering_ us on. It wasn't until we were a little closer that I could make out faces, and identify them.

I tried not to focus on them too much. The virus was ever present and very threatening. It deserved far more of my attention, but still, I couldn't help it. Mari was growling with every step now, and I couldn't hold back my grunting any longer. Tomoki was focussing more on his balance than anything, since his shoes didn't have the best traction and he kept slipping. Tuskmon was so close to collapsing that it was frightening. Tankmon huffed and puffed the entire way.

It was almost enough to block out the voices when we got close enough to see them.

Almost.

I knew Mom was there, because I'd seen her. She was standing with Daisuke. And I could hear her urging us forward. But those cheers turned to horror when we got close enough for her to realize Hikari wasn't with us.

"Hikari!" she shrieked. "Where's my baby!"

I glanced at her and saw her fighting her way towards the barrier, having to be held back by both Haruhiko and Yuudai. Daisuke was trying to calm her down, but she couldn't hear reason, she just kept fighting against the men's hold. Her screams made Haruki cry in Daisuke's arms, he was heading towards us, with Koushiro's father, and Ken's too.

"Stay back!" I shouted to them.

I didn't see Ken anywhere, and I knew where Koushiro had gone. Natsuko was looking horrified and Gatomon was crying.

"Keep going Mari!" Warg and Melga shouted together.

"You can do it!" Tapirmon and Dracomon added.

The four digimon were cheering on their fellow Alias III member, despite the fact they all had long faces. I swore again, realizing that we never ran into Mimi or Palmon, or Kiyoko or Willis. They were still out there. They must've taken the wrong path.

Damn it.

Who else was out there in the virus right now?

I was such a failure. I couldn't save D'Arcmon or Jackie. I couldn't even organize it so that my friends were safe. We all should have gone at the same time. I should have moved my base of operations weeks ago, or at the very least immediately following the last of the evacuated digimon. I shouldn't have waited. It was my decision, which made everything my fault.

I caught sight of a crying Yoshie, and Michael and Willis' parents. It was Babamon that pushed me over the edge though, and made me look away. She was looking around, with Tinkermon sobbing on her shoulder, and I knew that she realized D'Arcmon was gone.

Six more feet, and then we'd be safe.

I forced all of my frustrations at my shortcomings into my hands, pushing with renewed strength. It was my fault. I didn't even _know_ how many faces were missing in the sea of spectators. How was I supposed to tell Tentomon that Koushiro was gone? What about Gatomon? How did I tell Jou that I had no freaking idea where Gomamon might be?

It just made me angry, and I converted that anger into strength.

" **Andromon warp digivolve to... Craniamon!** "

" **Veemon digivolve to... ExVeemon!** "

Our load lightened considerably, when Craniamon and ExVeemon grabbed Tankmon's front fender and pulled him through the barrier. We lost our footing for a moment, before Mari, Tomoki and I pushed Tuskmon through the barrier. I shoved Mari in next, and she collapsed to her knees the instant she'd made it through, and Tomoki followed, falling into Izumi's embrace. I turned to see the virus that I could _feel_ was creeping up right behind me. And there it was, purple, violent and angry. Daisuke reached through the barrier, grabbing my shirt and pulling me through the barrier, calling my name angrily.

The second after I'd entered the barrier, the virus slammed into the shield.

 _ **Sora Takenouchi:**_

I leaned my head against the window and finally got a good look at myself. God I was a mess. A horrible, disgusting, evil mess. An echo of the person I was merely ten hours ago. I'd been punched, arrested, and restrained, I'd killed all my friends and now I'd been hit by a car. And I was still recovering from a stupid panic attack, because my friends were dead.

"Are you okay?" He said before the car started moving. "You need to breathe slower. Stop hyperventilating." As if I could just _do_ that. "Breathe with me." He took a deep breath and I copied, annoyed. Then he breathed out, and I copied again. He did this for at least a minute, but as annoyed as I was, it was helping. Eventually I was breathing normally again, and I was wiping the tears from my eyes. "Where do you live?"

"That way," I said, waving my hand toward my house. "Left." I added when he seemed confused.

"I'm Mantarou," He said quietly, almost nervously.

I didn't even look toward him before saying, "I know."

"You're Sora, right?" I nodded. "Cool. I thought it was you."

There wasn't much talking after that, mostly me giving him directions. I looked down halfway through the ride and saw that my shoes were dripping all over a pile of assorted napkins. Finally he pulled to a stop in front of my home and I looked out the door nervously. What if they were there? How would I tell them? What if they _weren't_? Would I have to go looking for them? "Thank you." I said, turning to Mantarou. "For the ride. And for everything."

"No need to thank me." He said, "I'm just sorry for hitting you with my car."

"I'm sorry about your napkins." I said, handing him the soggy stack.

He laughed and shook his head, "No problem. It's the least of my worries." Then his smile fell. "You sure you'll be alright? Did something happen? Should I call the police?"

"The police won't help. The police are the enemy." I said monotonously.

"Uh, right." He said awkwardly, "Any particular reason you think so? Should... I not let you run free?"

"Your choice." I said, turning toward him, my face expressionless.

"Let me get your door." Mantarou decided, jumping out of his car and rushing through the rain, throwing the hood of his black jacket up over his head. He pulled the door open and helped me out of the car. "It was nice to formally meet you, Sora."

He was smiling at me. Smiling in that way a person would smile if their life hadn't been altered forever. Smiling in a way I wish I could have smiled back. "You as well." I lied. He saw through me. "Well it would have been, were the circumstances different."

"That's more believable." He said. "Hey," he reached into the open car door and grabbed one of the soggy napkins and found a pen sticking out of the cars ashtray. He scribbled down a number and handed it to me. "Call me if you need anything."

"Okay," I said, trying—almost desperately—to smile. I couldn't. "Goodbye Mantarou." He nodded, again, awkwardly and hopped into his car. I turned toward the front door. This was going to be the most difficult thing I'd ever have to do. I knew that even before the universe took one last laugh and pushed me to the curb. Literally. Taking one step I'd tripped and landed on the sidewalk.

"You _sure_ you're okay?" Mantarou asked from the other side of his car.

"I'm _fine_." I insisted, getting to my feet and walking at a quicker pace toward my front door, but it wasn't long before Mantarou was by my side, making sure I didn't fall again. I would have told him to go away if I wasn't sure his intentions were so good. I pulled out my keys, and tried to unlock the door, but it was already unlocked. I must have been in such a hurry before, and forgot to lock it. I pushed it open and stepped inside.

"Sora!" I almost turned and ran. It was weak. I knew it was weak, but I could go, just to get away from them—I could let them live in ignorance. But I knew I shouldn't. I knew I had to tell them. "Oh my God, are you okay?" I turned to see Jenna standing in the doorway, her jacket still on, like she'd only just got back. "You got out of jail?"

"I didn't go to jail," I told her, "not really. I was taken to see Director Arnold."

"What?" She gasped, "That old bat? What's he doing here? He works in New York."

"He's moving," I said, "Or it looks like it. But it doesn't matter."

Jenna looked panic stricken. Like she knew what I was about to say, and she knew she didn't want to hear it. Which was why it wasn't a surprise to me when she wasn't the one to respond. "Sora, tell us what happened?" I stepped from the entrance way and into the living room where Jenna followed me like a wounded puppy, desperate for someone to heal her broken heart. Natsuni had been the one to speak. She was leaning over some kind of paper on the table, she had that same look that Jenna had, though she seemed to have more control over her voice and emotions. But it was neither of them that sent my heart flying back into panic mode.

It was the third girl. The one I hadn't expected to see. The look on her face was _so_ much worse than either of the others. It was a look I could go without ever seeing again. A look that said her world was over—much more than what I felt, much more than what anyone could ever expect to experience.

"Momoe," I said, my voice breaking. "I'm so sorry."

Momoe got to her feet, the chair scraping and she hurried out of the room toward the bathroom, tears already dripping from her chin. Jenna, Natsuni and I watched her go in silence, and when we heard the bathroom door slam shut it was followed by a loud sob, and I turned my head, wincing from the obvious pain Momoe was feeling.

"Momoe!" Mantarou shouted, rushing after her. I watched him go. How had I forgotten his relations to Emiko? To Jou? To _Miyako_?

"What happened?" Natsuni asked, rushing to the couch to where Jenna had fallen after Momoe had left. Natsuni put her arm around Jenna and the younger girl leaned her head into her shoulder, her eyes wide and lifeless. "Sora, just tell us."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and fell to my knees on the hardwood floor. I stared to my hands as they lay limp in my lap. "I... Director Arnold. He showed me... the virus. He showed me..." I couldn't do it. I couldn't tell them I'd pressed the button. How could I tell Jenna that her brother was... gone... because of me? How would Natsuni ever forgive me if it was me who had taken Iori from her? "The virus was sent out. I escaped."

"You didn't see it kill anyone?" Natsuni asked, her voice stronger than her face would suggest. I shook my head, staring into her eyes, amazed at how easily it was for her to look to the positive side. I knew that's what she was getting at. I knew she was implying that it might all be okay. "The shields might protect them." Natsuni said, rubbing Jenna's shoulder. "Think positively. We know Kiyoko is highly intelligent. If the virus is just an expanded version of what they had been shooting to the digimon—and we have no reason to believe that it isn't—then we _know_ the barriers are protective against that. We know they'll be okay."

Jenna looked up, her face bright and she nodded, "You're right."

"Except the virus was sent from the Temple." I said quietly. "Koushiro and Kiyoko designed them so anything could escape, but nothing could get back in. Anyone in the Temple... couldn't have survived."

Jenna and Natsuni were solemn again, and then tears welled up in Jenna's eyes. "Michael wasn't in a barrier anyway." She cried, "He was somewhere out there."

"Or on Earth!" Natsuni insisted, "We don't know that he was even _in_ the Digital World. And if he was captured, like we assume he was, then he'd be with the enemies. Do you think the enemies would let themselves be hurt by the virus? Michael _has_ to be okay."

"Taichi isn't." I said quietly.

"Do you _know_ he was at the Temple?" Natsuni questioned. I shook my head. "Then don't assume the worst." There was a knock on the door and Natsuni jumped to her feet, "That'll be Chiziru." She hurried toward the door, "We have to think positively!" Natsuni opened the door and Chiziru whose hair was much more natural than it had been in a long time, but with a streak of hot pink stepped in through the door.

"Where's Momoe?" Chiziru asked loudly.

"In the bathroom," Natsuni said, "But I think she needs a moment alone."

"No," Chiziru shook her head, "No way." She was off quickly toward the kitchen, then looked around in a panic unsure of where to go, "Mantarou!" She shouted, hurrying toward her brother and sister.

"What do we do now?" Jenna asked, her voice weak. I felt horrible. She'd taken much of my depression. Amazingly, Natsuni had made me feel more hopeful—I hadn't lost all negativity, or even much at all, but it was something. Unfortunately, Jenna looked absolutely _distraught_. "Where do we go?"

Natsuni sat next to her and hugged her again, clearly seeing her pain as well as I could. "We find a way to contact our friends. They're alive, and I'm sure they want us to know. We'll find a way to contact them and then we'll tell them we're okay and that we're going to get them out of the Digital World. _Then_ we will set things right. Prove digimon aren't the evil ones, which shouldn't be hard after what that Director Arnold man just did, and then we'll see to it that he is imprisoned. Hopefully forever."

"But how will we contact them?" Jenna asked weakly. "If they even _are_ alive."

"They are." Natsuni insisted. "We'll find a way."

"The digivices?"

We all looked up to see Mantarou standing in the doorway, his arms crossed. He looked thoughtful. But like he had an idea. And it wasn't a bad one. The digivices were unique. We could use them to make contact with one another—perhaps there was some secret to their making that the enemies did not know. Yes, Moretsuna had one of his own somehow, but that didn't mean they all understood them. Maybe we could work around their block of the two worlds and make contact with them! If, as Jenna had said, they were even alive still.

I pulled my digivice out of my pocket and looked down to it, clicking the screen on. I searched through its functions. There was the clock, the temperature, the map, the tracking devices.

And that's where I stopped. I had zoomed mine out on my walk around with Miyako, hoping to locate Neo or Michael on our barrier inflating adventure. It was still zoomed out now, and I was confused at what I was seeing. Mantarou, Momoe, Chiziru, Natsuni, Jenna and myself. That was six, and that accounted for the six over by my house on the map—but who were the two over... where was that? I knew the streets well. I started visualizing the path to get to where the signals were blinking, and then it hit me.

I jumped quickly to my feet and shot out the door.

"Sora!" Mantarou shouted after me. I was already running through the rain toward the street. "Where are you going?"

"I have to check something!" I yelled over my shoulder, the rain dripping from my face, and soaking through my dress.

"Let me drive you," He offered, "You can't just wander around like this."

I nodded and hurried to jump into his car. Mantarou was driving hardly a moment later. I directed him where to go, my eyes focusing on my digivice the whole time to make sure I wasn't wrong. To make sure I was right in where the signals were leading me.

When he pulled to a stop I jumped out of the car, and heard him slam his own door, chasing after me. I threw the door to the large building open and hurried toward the stairs. "Sora!" Mantarou yelled, "Where are we?"

I didn't answer, but he didn't seem to mind, he kept following closely, and even pulled me to my feet when I tripped on a step, focusing too much on the digivice. And then we were at the top floor, throwing another door open and jumping into the hallway. "Sora, what are you hoping to find?"

"Anyone." I said, my voice breaking. I had been wrong when I had thought all of my hope was gone forever. Because right now it was burning strong in my chest, and if I was proven wrong, _then_ I would find that my hope may be eternally damaged. But for now, I clung to the possibility that I wasn't alone.

And then I stopped outside a big blue door, and froze. Mantarou caught up with me and put his hand on my shoulder. "Whatever you find in here, doesn't change anything. It doesn't mean they're not okay."

"I know." I lied.

And then I pushed the door open. I stepped into the room, and the first person I saw was Katsue. My heart panicked. I was glad she was okay, but that didn't mean I was happy to see her. I selfishly wanted it to be someone else. Taichi maybe. Koushiro—Mimi. _Anyone_.

Then I turned and saw three familiar faces. Akira, Takashi and Yutaka. The Teenage Wolves. And for a second I felt like my heart totally stopped, because I could see someone behind them, his back turned. I didn't want to get my hopes up, but it felt like a pot boiling over on a hot surface.

Then Yutaka stepped out of the way and tapped the boy behind him on the shoulder, and finally he turned around, holding a strange device in his hands. He looked up and his arms fell limp, the device falling to the floor. "Sora!" He gasped. He probably thought I looked horrible. I was drenched in water, surely my makeup had been running. I was a total mess.

"Yamato." I said, my eyes wet instantly. "You're okay."

"O-of course I am." He said, panic in his voice now. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Don't." I said quietly. "Just let me have one moment. I know that's horrible, but I really just need this." He nodded and I could see him swallow nervously, but I just stared toward him, into his eyes. It was calming. But I knew it couldn't last forever. "Yamato... I-I'm sorry."

"Why?" Yamato shot. "Why are you sorry?"

As if it needed to be any more dramatic, the rain that was pounding on the window grew louder and the glass shook, thunder booming from outside accompanied by a violent flash of lightning.

"Because they're gone."

"What?" Yamato asked, "They're gone? What do you mean? Who is?"

"Everyone." I said, my voice catching in my throat. "Gone."

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 06** : The virus is here, but what does that mean for the world and those who live there?


	2. Breathe

**U/N:** So this is the first late chapter of 07. Funny how it's chapter two. Oh well… here it is. This is the first one I wrote alone, and we see some of the other characters paths from the virus. Here we go :D

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 2: Breathe**

 _ **Kurayami Motomiya:**_

Running for my life had never felt so wrong.

I'd done it before, sure. Running from darkness had been my entire purpose until the other Digidestined came along and changed the path my life was heading down. Not to mention Fanglongmon's lies keeping me running from the light. Running from love, running from fate, and now running away from a family I'd always wanted but never deserved.

But all of that was different than running from the fog of violet death that was coming for me now.

It was strange, knowing that I was running directly toward it too, knowing that the only safety was in the home of the infant digimon nearby. It was my only chance of safety because I was just too far from any other hideouts.

It was just impulse that my legs were carrying me to a place I could sit and cry safely, because I didn't even _want_ safety. No. I didn't _deserve_ safety.

I had adamantly refused to believe that I could ever be the person that everyone had known I could be. I was wrong, and they were right. I had done it, taken away the very reason to keep someone safe. Their life. So why should I be granted the honour of continuing the life that was ahead of me?

I didn't want it. I didn't want to become the monster that I was surely meant to be. Some days the darkness would seem so easy to control, and then a simple trigger would set it off, flooding to every corner of my soul and forcing me to do bad. I'd nearly killed Moretsuna before, but I stopped myself. Only to do it for real mere moments ago.

My jaw dropped and a scream escaped my lips as I fell to my knees. I couldn't breathe suddenly. Those memories would never leave me alone. The sight of the holes in his back growing and seeping through, deleting him like an unwanted file on a computer. But that wasn't what he was. He was bad, and he was hurting my friends, but he was still a human being. He was a person, and I'd seen so many deaths in my life already, but never had I been the sole cause of one.

Slowly my head lifted and I caught sight of the purple fog shooting toward me and everyone else. To Haruki. Daisuke. Labramon.

The only people who loved me anymore. Now that my grandfather was gone, there was no one left for me. He was the only person who'd ever truly loved me from the start. He was gone—Moretsuna had killed him.

Rage surged through me again and my fingers curled up in the damp dirt I'd fallen into. "Stop!" I screamed, realizing my anger. I threw the dirt aside and fell to my side, landing painfully on a few stones poking through the ground.

It was with a painful flash of my grandfather's smiling face that the tears started. I could not stop remembering what had happened to him. How had someone so pure left this world with such hatred? Murder left no room for kindness, and it was not fair. It was not something I could bear to think of any longer.

But I wouldn't _have_ to.

Just a little longer and the fog would take me. Moretsuna would have his revenge on his killer. Surely he was behind this. Surely the man with no sanity left had concocted the force of destruction big enough to wipe out an entire race. Genocide was the greatest evil above only murder. It was only fair I was taken along with it.

I had killed someone. I was wrong. I did it. I killed someone. Norn was wrong. Hikari and my friends were wrong. Dr Chiryo was right. I was broken and damaged enough to take that out on someone else. Haruki would never be safe with me. So what purpose did I have of going on?

" _Just because your therapist tells you that you could kill someone doesn't mean anything."_ Norn had told me not long ago when I had fallen into the same position I was in now, " _The man is insane. I know you, I really do. I trust you and I care about you. You couldn't hurt a fly. Not on your own accord. Kurayami, you're not the darkness you think you are. You are merely a dam keeping the negativity from the world. That's a big burden to play, but I would bet money that you would never kill someone._ Especially _Haruki."_

And she was wrong.

If she was wrong about me, was she wrong about my purpose in this world? Was I really a dam keeping the negativity from the others? If I were to die, would darkness pour in through my heart and devour the world, just as it was doing to me? Was it worth it? To chance the lives of everyone who had put their trust in me, just to take my own pain away?

Selfish.

I was selfish.

I couldn't do this to them.

I had to keep going.

I willed myself with all my might to simply stand up. I had to get up. It was one of the hardest things I'd ever had to do. And then I was running and stumbling and whatever else I could do, forcing my way toward Primary Village.

The leaves on the trees were curling up with anticipation as their fate ploughed toward them like a wrecking ball, destroying all life in its path. The air seemed calm and stale, but it didn't know what was coming. Not like I did. My feet were sliding in the damp, murky ground as I slammed my heavy shoes with every stride. Every step seemed to set off a chain of thoughts and flashes of memories.

My grandfather taking me from my mother one night when she was storming through the house, screaming like a banshee. I didn't understand then. But I understood _now._ The darkness was taking her heart.

My father unable to look after me, being too caught up in his own grief to look after a child.

Crying myself to sleep, on the nights I actually managed to get _any_ sleep, afraid of the eyes in the darkness watching me, waiting for me. Preparing me for a time when my heart would be dark enough for them to take.

Being trapped in the darkness with Dragomon's oppression.

Fanglongmon destroying towns—homes—lives. The tears poured faster when I remembered the war against Gennai's Agents… He had taken so many lives in one night. He was heartless. And I shared that heart for so long.

Apocalymon taking the life of one of my only friends. But I didn't care then. I hadn't even had my own soul.

I saw my mother's lifeless body.

Then a flash from her eyes as she drowned her son.

A flash of that portrait in my room. My supposed uncle meant to watch over me to keep light in my heart. A fat load of good that did.

My mother's body decaying in front of me as the darkness finally left her heart.

A reflection of a monster standing over Moretsuna in Dr Chiryo's office. And then his death by the hands of the very same monster.

I had become the monster the world had always been conditioning me to turn into. I had finally allowed the darkness in and succumbed to the weakness of my nature and let my pathetic willpower fail me. I had killed a man, left everything behind, and lost everything I'd ever loved.

And now I was going to lose my own life too. I could see Primary Village just ahead of me, waiting at the bottom of the hill, animated and filled with infants. But the virus was faster than me, and I would never be able to beat it. I couldn't. I'd been selfish to try to die. If I'd been stronger, smarter, _better_ … than I would have been able to beat the death machine into the village, and the supposed dam of negativity would live on to soak up the darkness meant for everyone else. But if that dam was shattered, than the negativity would reach Daisuke and Labramon. And Haruki.

With a furious scream I pushed with all my might, kicking off the ground as hard as I could, staring toward the sky, dead ahead, as the virus came in contact with the barrier from behind. At least I knew the barriers would hold, but there was no chance I'd be as safe as everyone inside. I wasn't fast enough, even with my extra force and determination.

My mother had taken the darkness from her father and passed it to me. If I died here, the darkness would simply move on to Haruki. I didn't need proof to believe that. I needed to live, to save him from the fate I was falling prey to.

For a moment it seemed that I may actually win the race with the increased speed I had gained from rushing down the hill. But then I tripped.

And all I knew was tumbling and crashing and flailing. I screamed, with more fury than fright or pain. And then I had reached the base of the hill, coming to a complete stop, laying on my back in the wet grass. I opened my eyes and saw the virus creeping down the barrier just over top of me.

With a panicked squeal I rolled to the side and entered the barrier as the fog crashed to the ground and continued on its way, seeping across the grass the way that I'd come.

My heart was pounding hard enough that I could see my chest thumping along with it, my breathing was hasty and pained, and I could not muster enough strength to actually remove myself from my place in the dirt. But I'd made it. I was alive now, even if I didn't deserve it. Haruki deserved it. He needed me to live so he could be happy, and even if I was meant to live an eternity of sadness—it would be worth it, just for him to be the person I wish I could have been. My grandfather had said it best. He had Daisuke's heart. I could _never_ infect that with darkness.

I would never forgive myself for even taunting Daisuke with darkness when Fanglongmon was at his highest threat. I could never allow either of them to feel what darkness really felt like. To know what it was like to really be alone. They would both thrive on love, and that was something I'd always wondered; was darkness really the opposite of light, or was it truly the counterpart to love?

"Close call, there."

I gasped and sat bolt upright, turning my head sharply to where a dark figure was sitting, his arms crossed looking to me, rather unimpressed. I recognized him as Devimon, and I relaxed, oddly. He was sitting underneath a tower of lettered blocks in the shadow they cast from blocking the violet light from up above.

"I came here to be alone," Devimon said, "If I was to die, I wanted to be alone." He looked up to the fog above us and sighed as a complete and total stillness seemed to settle in around us. "I suppose you Digidestined aren't entirely useless after all. These bubbles you've concocted really have come in handy."

"Wasn't me." I said, but my voice was weak and worn. I was suddenly very aware of the tear stains on my cheeks so I pulled the sleeve of my sweater tighter and wiped my face, turning away from Devimon to look to the fog. It was strange that it was emitting light. Something so dark in aura and intent should not have been producing something as soft as light. Though, fittingly, the light was dim, damp, cool and inconsistent, just barely sneaking its way through the folds in the thick foggy clouds.

"Either way," Devimon said, leaning back against the tower of blocks. "I'm impressed." And then he actually smiled. I didn't mean to be rude by staring, but I was in shock. How could someone made of pure darkness be smiling and thankful and… kind? He raised his brows and leaned forward again. "Something wrong?"

Before I could answer I heard a high-pitched voice coming from my left and I instinctively ducked behind Devimon to keep hidden.

"Come with me!" The voice said, "I'll show you where the others are!"

The voice that responded was accented and lower, almost elegant. It was Hawkmon. "That would be nice. We'll need to find a way out of this mess as soon as we can."

"You don't have to go, you could stay with us!" The higher voice said. "Biyomon is here, she'll be happy to see you."

"Yes, I am aware she's here," Hawkmon replied his voice louder now as they were passing close by. I pressed myself up against Devimon and saw Hawkmon walking side by side with a Nyokimon down a path that weaved around more blocks and children's toys.

"You're pretty smart!" Nyokimon said brightly, "Hey! I'm Nyokimon by the way."

"Yes, I'm aware of that too," Hawkmon, folding his wings.

"' _Aware_ '" Nyokimon mocked, "What a funny word! Ha ha!"

Hawkmon stopped walking and looked down to the Nyokimon. "Are you doing alright?"

Nyokimon shook her whole body and then looked to the ground, "Just nervous."

"No need to be nervous." Hawkmon said, patting the Nyokimon's back. "Come along. I'll keep you safe." Nyokimon seemed content with this and she and Hawkmon continued down the path to where Biyomon was apparently waiting.

I sighed and leaned back knowing I'd gone unseen and laid back on the soft ground of the Primary Village. I was more comfortable laying there than I'd been in quite a while, but I knew it was no time to sleep. Not now. Not even if I _could_ manage to forget everything that was going through my mind. "So why are you hiding?"

I had almost forgotten Devimon was still here. I opened one eye and looked to him, trying to ignore the eerie way the violent tinted light cast long, drooping shadows across his face. I closed my eyes again and shrugged my shoulders, "I just need some time to myself."

"I know what that's like." Devimon said. I felt him standing, his weight caused the ground to shift and I slid toward him slowly. I stopped myself by grabbing to the loose material that made up the ground and looked up to him. "Don't worry," He told me with a gentle look, "I won't tell Angemon you're here. He's in charge around here now. Well, him and that loud red creep."

"Thanks," I said feeling mixed emotions of having Angemon here. It was comforting, and horrible. He needed to be with Takeru and with my son. Hope was the only thing that could keep someone searching for the light, and I needed them to always help Haruki do just that. To always find the light, even in the darkest of times. "Well, I'll let you get to your sulking then." Devimon said, using his long legs to take him along the path Hawkmon had just gone.

I fell back again, but kept my eyes open now. I knew already what I wanted to do in my time alone. I wanted to not be alone. Conflicting, yes, but also true. I needed one person to come to me and tell me what I'd done was okay. If she could do that, I could maybe convince myself that I'd be okay too.

"N-Norn?" I said, my voice weak. There was no response, only the chilling wind seeping in from the virus, hopefully carrying only clean air. "Norn?" I said, my voice more clear this time. Still there was no response. I waited a moment more before shouting out, "NORN!"

But she did not come.

And she would not come.

I had disappointed her, just like I'd disappointed myself and my friends. She had been so sure of the person I was, and I had proven her wrong and became the darkness she fought to keep at bay. I was her enemy now. She wouldn't come… she wasn't going to come back for me.

I closed my eyes tightly, trying to listen to the silence and imagine what it could have been like if the virus had reached me. What it would be like to live an eternal nothingness with no more pain.

But the sounds of the babies' cries were too loud and I could not block them out. I threw my hands over my ears and began crying again, thinking of the baby I'd left behind. Thinking of everything I'd left behind.

I was alone now. Just like I wanted.

 _ **Neo Saiba:**_

"What just happened?"

Her words echoed around my brain like a painful pounding of a drum, reverberating straight to my core. It was loud, constant and strong. It affected me as much as it had simply because of the faces that formed as a result. Everywhere around us people were curling their lips into the same malicious, yet slightly guilty, smiles. Everyone aside from the two of us, Evelen and myself, seemed to have understood the severity of what we had just lived through. What had just happened, and why we had been so rudely forced out of the Digital World at such a quick pace. Her father, the one who had rushed us, was the one in charge, and oddly the one with the least excited expression. Like he simply did not care about what had just happened. Like it did not please him, or put him off any.

Kansui, Evelen's brother was smiling smugly along with the others. So much so that Evelen rounded upon him when no one bothered to give either of us an answer. The three of us were standing in the midst of the mob, everyone seemingly watching us, waiting to gauge our reactions when Kansui inevitably told us. We were pushed against the metal fence that was concealing the now hazardous concrete stretch, the caution sign hanging over Evelen's head. I tried to keep that far from my mind, as it was entirely unsafe, not to mention disgusting, and instead let my mind focus on all the faces slowly getting closer.

"Answer me." Evelen shot, slamming her fist into her brother's arm. "Why did we have to go so fast?"

I turned my head, eyebrows raised, to Kansui who smiled, and looked to his father. "Father, shall I explain." His father did not look away from the sky where he was staring, and Kansui faltered, then turned to his sister, "We won, my dear."

"What does that mean?" Evelen said through gritted teeth.

"It means a virus has plagued the Digital World and it has deleted all life." What he said could not _possibly_ be true. How had we been in league with the enemies, literally inside their base, and not heard any news of an oncoming virus. I for one did not believe it. Kansui seemed the type to be a compulsive liar. But why was my built in lie detector not alarming me of his falsities?

Evelen turned to her father, pushing Kansui aside. "Father!" She shouted. She looked ready to scream again but slowly his head turned toward his daughter. "What did you _do_?"

"I did nothing, Evelen." Maugrim said with his rocky and cold voice. "I merely stepped aside, and allowed personal matters to settle themselves."

"But you _knew_!" She shrieked, swinging her fist back and then flying it toward her father. He caught her arm just before her fist hit his chest and he threw her back quickly, where she slammed against the metal fence.

"Of course I knew!" Maugrim said, his voice loud and chilling. The entire crowd was now silent as they watched his face turn red, highlighting the scar on his cheek. "I have told you before I refuse to indulge myself in the affairs of the lesser minded." Evelen blinked back tears, but next to her Kansui stood, his arms crossed as he nodded away to everything his father was saying. He did after all think lesser of anyone aside from his father and himself.

"But that's _cold_." Evelen said, angry. "You're heartless!"

"Hold your tongue, girl." Maugrim said firmly. "You would do well to not speak to me in such ways." He took a step forward, and his leg buckled slightly. My eyes fell to his right thigh where he had dark fabric tied tightly, like he'd been wounded. Had he had something to do with the destruction of the base?

Kansui nodded once again, this time going as far as to stand next to his father. "You see, my dear sister, Father and I had a plan all along." Evelen looked furious still, but Maugrim's face calmed, uninterested. Almost annoyed. "Do you recall that errand I asked you to do earlier this very day? The one in the basement? That was because father spotted a girl in the sky. She was going to foil our plan. But Father and I, together, thought quickly. You were sent away, and were none the wiser."

What in the world did a girl in the sky have to do with any of this? I was quite lost honestly, but potentially as angry as Evelen. I surely would be if I were to find that Kansui's claims of a virus were proven to be true. A virus sent out into the world to delete all life would imply Rei and Dracomon were killed. Kiyoko. Mari. Hideto. He still thought I hated him. Could he not see in my face that I found his family to be as utterly intolerable as he did? Was he simply blind to the obvious truth that I would always be his friend? I owed him that much. After all he'd gone through with me, I would be a fool to let him go. He was a wonderful friend. Often irritating, but wonderful all the same. He could not _die_. Nor could Rei. Or Dracomon. Or any of the others. Well, I didn't care much about the lives of most of the others. But Allias III. My sister. My partner. They meant something to me.

"You're a horrible person," Evelen said, a single tear falling from her face. She turned to her father and begged him with her eyes. "Tell me he's lying."

"He is not." Maugrim said, his face emotionless. His brows flicked inward as the news settled in. "You may relax, girl." She looked up, appalled. How could he expect her to relax now? Even I understood that logic, despite knowing nothing about women. "The shields the humans erected shall remain intact. They will hold firm and they shall be safe."

I nearly sighed in total relief. They would all be safe. I knew it to be true. Hideto had not been within the confines of a barrier, and yet I knew him to be smart enough to rescue himself in time of trouble. Evelen did not find the same relief that I had. "But the digimon?" She asked, immediately regretting her decision.

Every eye turned on her, and the malicious smile faded into an equally vile frown. The eyes all shot hatred Evelen's way. They could not fathom the idea that she cared for the creatures. "You care more for the digimon than for our own plan?" Maugrim asked, his voice low, a scarcely audible growl. Evelen looked away, ashamed, and said nothing. They had a plan that did not involve the digimon? In which evil cult had I found myself indulged within? Were they were not the scum I had initially thought them to be, but merely bystanders? A third party in the war that was seeking neither peace, nor glory, but something else?

Maugrim turned on the spot and stalked out of the clearing. Every figure in his way was quickly removed as though his glare could part them like the Red Sea. Bitoru and Aesop, Maugrim's right hand men followed quickly behind him, keeping close. He seemed annoyed at their proximity but did not ask them to leave.

Many others in the crowd made their leave, taking their cue from Maugrim's absence and stalked off allowing me a clear view at the abandoned shack I had followed Evelen into merely ten days ago. Kansui seemed to be following his father as well, as his personality would suggest he would, but instead he took a stand in front of his sister and smiled. "Father is brilliant." He said with immense admiration. "Taking us out of the Digital World while he still could. I knew all along of course. He trusts me greatly. You, he does not." He looked down to Evelen. "And to think, you care more for those digimon than for your own happiness. Foolish. They were not meant to survive. With them gone there is less in our way. I won't say I'm happy they're gone, but that's only to not upset you further. Because I am. I'm glad the scum are defeated. Just as Father—" Evelen had punched him directly in the face and before I had even absorbed the wonder of the moment she had gone, pushing her way through the crowds.

Kansui was spinning around, clutching his bleeding nose, gasping and nearly convulsing. I was about to set off after Evelen when a hand was placed on my shoulder. I turned to see Aesop, one of the kindest people in the camp. "Maugrim would like to speak with you." He said to me softly. I turned to see Maugrim standing, his arms crossed, gazing toward me. It seemed to me that he didn't like to be kept waiting, and so I followed Aesop toward him, not hesitating a moment. I wasn't particularly scared of the man, although that seemed to only aggravate him, rather than set him off.

I stopped in front of him as he sat down on the step leading to the shack, and he rested his elbows on his knees as he leaned forward, relaxing, his massive arms hanging down in front of him, almost menacingly. Like he wanted me to understand just how much stronger he was than I. "You wanted to see me?" I asked, crossing my arms, my eyebrows raised.

Maugrim looked up from the ground, and grunted his answer. He was silent for a moment and I seriously considered turning away, uninterested in watching a man as his face tightened and twitched. But soon enough he did make the trip worth my while. Or he attempted to I suppose. "You are hardly welcome." He said simply.

"I may not entirely be welcome here," I told him, smirking slightly. I gestured toward the hazardous waste dump, "but neither are you. This is a government owned property that is meant to be avoided. I don't think anyone, even someone as menacing as you has any claims over who sets foot here."

Maugrim ground his teeth together, furious, and then he leaned back, his shoulders popping. He reached his hands out and wrapped his fingers together, cracking his knuckles threateningly. "You may stay." He said, as if had been choice. "Because I am indifferent to your status at this time. If, at any point, I decide you are a detriment to my goal, I will not hesitate to kill you." I had to admit to being a _little_ nervous that time, but I played it off by rolling my eyes. Bitoru looked to me, shocked, like I was an escaped patient from a nearby asylum with the way I was speaking to a man he was evidentially frightened of. "Moretsuna is dead, and I am down one pawn. You will fill that role nicely."

"Oh, you'd like me to lash out irrationally at anyone and everyone?" I asked, once again, rolling my eyes. It was now a nervous twitch, but I was sure it seemed like I was simply irritated.

"No," Maugrim said, nearly cracking a smile. "I have other plans for you." He looked up and locked eyes with me and I was met with the stare of intense ferocity, coldness and hatred. I chose not to respond, instead watching as he stared, waiting for him to blink, to move, to breathe. But he did not.

Instead, the eye contact was broken by Kansui who practically materialized next to his father, tissue handing from both nostrils, catching the blood. In his hands was a binder in which he propped open on his lap. "Father," He said proudly, "I was wondering which suit you think I should buy next. I was thinking perhaps the navy suit. But this deep navy one looks inviting too. What do you think?" As he finished his sentence Maugrim stood and walked off, not bothering to answer his son for a moment.

"Just remember," Maugrim said, "I'm watching you." It was clear he was talking to me and not to his own son who nodded quite awkwardly. But then Maugrim was off, without looking back once.

"Mhm, right." Kansui said, "I agree. Deep navy matches just a little bit _too_ well with my eye colour." Bitoru and Aesop turned to follow Maugrim and Kansui looked up to me. "Which is a dark blue, as you can see." They weren't. I turned and walked away. He was annoying, and needy. I wanted to see Evelen, he was of no use to me at the moment, if ever.

I pulled my cellular phone from my jacket pocket and called Hideto.

" _The number you have dialled is two stars to the right and straight on until morning._ "

I paused staring at the phone. That was odd. The Digital World and Earth had been able to be contacted through our phones for quite a while now. What was it that was keeping him from me? Were the worlds still separated so absolutely? We'd been able to get through with that strange device that Kansui seemed to understand more than either Evelen or myself. Perhaps I could use it to return to the Digital World and find Rei, Dracomon and the others. Though it could be dangerous. The virus could still be afoot. It seemed impossibly rash to set foot in the Digital World without a better understanding of what was going on.

But still, it wouldn't be a bad plan for later.

"Neo! Darling!" I immediately tried to think of an escape plan, but knew it was futile. She'd already seen me. I turned to her and saw Yorokobi rushing toward me. Her arms open wide. She hugged me tight and I squirmed in her embrace until I could push her away. "We've won. Isn't that wonderful?" I raised my eyebrows, annoyed. But who was I to say anything? I'd deleted the Digital World myself once. "In the end my useless brother picked the wrong side."

"He's not useless," I said flatly.

"Not totally, no." Yorokobi laughed, "You are right there. He gives me great joy to think of him. Now." She let out a high laugh, "Now that I know I was right and he was wrong. I do so love being right."

I would have argued more, but her father intervened. "Dear," He said, stepping out of the crowd. "Your mother is searching for you and your brother. Have you seen him."

"Oh, no." Yorokobi shook her head. "The last I'd seen him he was wandering around with that blanket slung over his shoulder like some _hobo_." She shuddered at the thought of being related to him. "Truly remarkable who you find yourself related to, isn't that right Neo?" My first thought was my mother, and that irritated me. I wish I'd thought up a clever retort to defend Hideto, but instead I'd agreed with her on whichever subconscious level my mother settled at. I'd not spoken to her in years. I didn't care for her voice, or her attitude, or the way she treated Rei. I simply didn't care if I ever spoke to her again. "Well, I'll be seeing you, Neo!" Yorokobi said, "Mother awaits." Shigoto, her father, led the way through the crowd for her, probably to find Puraido, her brother. He was acting oddly, but who was I to judge? I was infiltrating an enemy base. Unsuccessfully, I might add, as Maugrim was entirely onto me and I had been brought on as a prisoner and nothing more.

And my kidnapper was dead ahead finally, sitting by herself, leaning against the metal fence. I walked up to her as casually as I could possibly muster, and stood over her with my hands in my pockets, casting a shadow. She looked up, her eyes dry now, angry. "What do you want?"

"I want to talk." I told her, as gently as I could. "You seem upset."

She rounded on me, her fingers curled into little fists. "No offense, _Neo_ , but this is none of your concern." She snapped, "I humbly request that you keep your nose out of my personal familial quarrels."

"How distant could you possibly be?" I asked, irritated.

Evelen looked flabbergasted, her mouth dropping open, annoyed, " _Me_?" She shot, "Me? I'm distant? Coming from the man who took a year and half to tell me his _last name_!"

"Oh, so this is payback?" I asked, "I've kept things from you and now you won't talk to me?"

"Oh it must be about you, right?" She asked, getting to her feet, "I couldn't _possibly_ have anything in my life about _me_. It's always about _you_. Or _him_. Nothing could ever be _my_ problem, or my life. I don't get to have one of my own apparently because—" She paused, apparently she'd said too much, "You, Neo, are a bundle of broken goods. That's what you are. You're broken."

As if she was one to talk. Everything I'd learned about her since I'd practically forced her to open up to me had been proof that she was definitely beyond repair. "I'm only trying to help you."

"And I don't want your help, Neo!" She yelled, "I don't mean to be rude, but how is this so hard for you to understand? I don't want you meddling with my life, I want you to stay out. I want you to back off, and I want you to stop talking to me more than once a week. I told you I wanted to keep things private and you were okay with that. But now, you're stalking me and hanging around the people who know what little they do about me? Well even if you find things out from them, you won't from me. I want you to go away."

I stood, silent, staring at her. How could one person be so utterly, irreversibly closed off from anyone around them? It was like she had actually removed her mind and heart from her body simply to keep them safely hidden from those around her. Truly, she was insane. And I honestly hadn't the foggiest idea of how to respond to such ridiculousness.

"Neo!" She yelled, "Get lost! Leave me alone!" I still merely stared at her as she anxiously ran her tanned fingers through the ponytail on the top of her head. " _Fine_. I'll go." She turned and walked off, her feet stomping with each step.

"Whatever." I said under my breath.

"Oh what was that?" She asked, turning back.

"You had to have the last word, didn't you?" I growled. "Little Evelen won't let anyone in because she has a compulsive need to know more about those around her than they will ever know about her. The little princess has a trust problem and now it falls on everyone else to bow to her every whim." Her bottom lip quivered like she was about to scream her little head off, like I'd gone too far. Instead of responding, she crinkled her nose and turned back, storming off. "You are so _damaged_!"

"So are you Mr Saiba." She said loudly over her shoulder, "So shut up."

"I knew it." I said under my breath, turning away from her and letting her go. "She just _had_ to have the last word. She's so frustrating." The words seemed fake to me as they escaped my lips. She didn't seem frustrating to me at all. She seemed genuine. Like she was a real person... a person who had not gone through what I'd gone through, and yet possibly just as bad—worse maybe. Not caught up in the nonsense of the Digital World, not anything else. Just a person who was as damaged as I was. And I chased her away, because I was a bad person. But if I was right about her, then she wasn't a good person either. Not particularly. She'd come back, because we were both horrible people.

That, I was hopeful for.

But as for now, I'd wait around for my first orders as Maugrim's newest 'pawn'. Because that's all this was to him, was a game. I merely wondered what the prize would be for him when he won.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** What's on The Other Side of the Door for Kiyoko and Miyako? Where are they? What troubles have they found themselves in?


	3. The Other Side of the Door

**Y/N:** I wrote these two pieces at drastically different times. I held off with Miyako's until we were finished with the first two arcs. I didn't need it until then, and I didn't realize how hard it would be to get back into this headspace. The intensity was much easier to access when I wrote Kiyoko's. I hope it isn't _too_ apparent when you're reading it though! I hope you enjoy the chapter.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 3: The Other Side of the Door**

 _ **Kiyoko Izumi:**_

My feet skidded against the ground, as I tried to catch my balance. Willis was just a much faster runner than I was capable of being. I continuously tripped over roots and twigs and stones, and each time he had to pull my arm up, catching me before I could fall on my face. I was tired, and my arm was aching. It felt as though he was trying to pull it out of its socket, and my wrist was being rubbed raw from his tight grip. My arm itself felt like it was made out of jelly, swinging loosely through the air as I scrambled to keep up.

Hundreds of trees passed us by, and I kept looking ahead, hoping for any sign of the Coliseum, or any other space that had a shield over it. I tried very hard to put my faith in my technology, but it was difficult to do. It had never been tested to this extreme, and I had sort of hoped it wouldn't _need_ to be. I didn't get my way though, I rarely did. I wanted to stumble into Hideto on our flight away from the virus, I wanted _him_ to be the one trying to pull me out of danger since my legs were too stiff to move on their own. I was too scared to flee properly, and that was the reason I wasn't angry with Willis for the rough way he was dragging me behind him.

He was saving my life when I couldn't do it on my own.

Everything he'd said earlier, about Tapirmon and Warg and Melga, and even Dracomon. If I was the only one left—if Mari was gone, and Neo and Hideto were lost, then they would need me. I tried to picture myself being positive and helping them, but I couldn't. I wasn't capable of the responsibility that was being placed on my shoulders. I needed _them_ more than they would _ever_ need me. I was weak—in mind and body. I wasn't able to support anyone, not without making a fool of myself and making the situation worse. I'd proved that when I tried to support Mari through the loss of Lalamon.

I failed at that, and I would fail at this too. I wouldn't be strong enough to make it through this emotional blow. This virus had ripped away all the people I held dear. Not even all of Team Mom had made it through alive. Most of them were residing in the Coliseum, but I knew Yuuko had waited with her children. She was there with Mari and Koushiro—the only family I had.

"Why aren't we there yet?" I asked, miserably. "Why is it so far away?"

We'd been running forever, and I was too scared to look at the virus. I was too scared to save myself, and I knew even Willis wouldn't be able to help me if I seized up completely.

"I don't think we're going the right way," Willis admitted, ashamed of this truth. As he said it I knew it was the real reason. We'd taken a turn and ended up going the wrong direction, and instead of being able to save ourselves, we were just running to delay our deaths.

I wished I had the optimism Takeru had.

I didn't want to die.

"Do you know what way to go?" Willis called loudly. At first I thought he was just yelling at me, but I remembered Mimi was running behind us. "Mimi? What do you think?"

Mimi didn't answer, the only sounds in the air were Willis' footsteps, and my stumbling.

Willis stopped running, and I fell to the ground, throwing my hands out to catch me—only to topple over because Willis had yet to let go of me.

"Mimi?" he asked, sounding scared.

I looked back, even though I didn't want to, and I saw trees, and nothing else—except for the wall of purple death that was moving ever closer to us. It was much closer than I expected it to be. We were running as fast as we could go. We couldn't do more than we were.

"I'll go find her," I said. "I'm just slowing you down."

"No," he said fiercely, shaking his head. "No. You stay with me. Mimi will be fine. She's got a key. I gave it to her. She'll be able to make an escape, the virus won't get her."

"We can't leave her," I said in a broken whisper. I'd already lost my cousin, my boyfriend, my former boss and Mari. I couldn't lose Mimi too. I wasn't close to her, but I didn't want her to die. I didn't want her death to be on my hands. I didn't care if she _did_ have a key. Shouldn't that just make it more important for us to get to her? Couldn't she save _us_ too? "Not when we're so close."

"What did I just say?" Willis asked, sounding incredulous. "She's going to be fine. She's got a key. I gave it to her knowing something like this might happen."

"What about us?" I whispered. Thankfully he didn't hear me. I was glad he didn't know how much of a selfish coward I was. It wasn't exactly a secret though. I fiddled with the strap of my semi-waterproof bag. "What if I make a shield right here?" I offered, unlatching the bag, ready to pull out my computer and get to work.

"Then we'll just be stuck right here, forever," Willis said, shaking his head. "And think about it. By the time you booted up your computer and got the program ready, we'd be toast. The virus is spreading too fast. We need to keep moving. We've got to be close to _somewhere_."

I hastily clicked the fasteners back in place, nearly clinging to Willis' hand when he reached for mine. He pulled us along, the same as before, but I was different now. I was more frightened, more upset. We'd lost Mimi in addition to all those other people. Even if Mimi used her key, she'd be gone from us forever.

For a moment, I thought I heard her calling for us, but I pushed the thought out of my head. It was just my subconscious summoning up illusions. Willis continued to lead us away from the virus—the virus I no longer could keep my eyes from returning too. I checked on it four or five times a minute. I needed to see how close it was, how much faster we'd need to go if we were to continue to survive.

I tried to focus my thoughts on Tapirmon, on Yoshie, and Satoe, Kae, Natsuko and Rei. They were all at the Coliseum, weren't they? Shouldn't I be trying to get back to them, and not focussing on what I'd lost? I could dwell on that later. But nothing was sticking. Tapirmon lasted the longest. I saw his face each time I closed my eyes, but eventually he too was washed away by my fear. We weren't going to see them again, whether we found a safe zone or not. We weren't even headed in their direction. I couldn't see how Willis' absolute desire to see Lopmon and Terriermon again could possibly be enough of a driving force to keep him moving forward.

My eyes sought out the virus again, and it was so close now. Too close for comfort, not that its presence was ever comforting. Mimi had to have been swallowed up by now, unless she managed to escape through whatever gate her key was able to conjure up.

I ripped my eyes away from the monstrous violet wall, unable to stop the tears that were forming in my eyes. I was too scared to think anymore. I could only count. Each second that passed, each footstep we took. I counted it all. We'd passed eighty-seven trees before I couldn't keep my eyes away any longer and I had to look at the virus again.

It was closer still. We weren't going to be able to escape. We should have went back to Mimi when we had the chance, at least we'd be on a different world, and nowhere near this horrid purple storm that was growing with every second.

The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, having slammed into something solid. Willis didn't stop moving at first, dragging me along the ground behind him by my one hand. Sticks and rocks dug into my back and I let out a strangled yelp.

"I'm so sorry!"

"Rei?" I gasped. She was on the ground too, looking at the virus behind us, and getting to her feet. Willis yanked me onto mine before I even had a chance to _think_ about moving.

"Keep moving, if you're going to talk," Willis instructed. And we did as he bid. We started running again, this time I was able to put a _little_ of my own effort in, though I thought it made me move slower. Just having Rei with me was enough motivation to keep fighting. She wasn't Hideto, or Mari, or Neo, but she was one of us, and that had to be enough.

"I went home," Rei explained, answering my unasked questions. "I wanted to grab a few things, and to put up a barrier. I got the barrier up, but I left all my stuff back home when I caught sight of the big, wooden horse. I knew it had to be the virus, and then the purple started spreading. I couldn't get to the Temple, I couldn't run right at it. That would be suicide. I just started running in a different direction. I wanted to get to Taichi, but I couldn't. I couldn't get to him."

She sniffled, and I started crying again, in response to her tears.

"I know he's safe though, because he's _Taichi_ , and Taichi is always safe," she said, though she didn't seem to believe her words entirely. "And now I don't know where I am, and I'll probably die out here."

"No one is going to die," Willis said sharply, cutting of her explanation. He was probably really annoyed by all the crying, and I tried to toughen up—I really did. It just didn't work. My tears came harder and faster than before. I was a lost cause. Sooner or later he was going to realize this, and ditch me to save himself, like I told him to earlier.

I was afraid for when that happened.

Rei squealed, and pushed herself to run faster, passing in front of Willis. I looked over my shoulder, knowing exactly what she'd seen. The virus was _right_ behind us. If I tripped now, Willis would have to leave me, because the virus would catch me before he was able to pull me up.

"Damn it to hell," Willis growled.

"What do we do?" Rei cried.

My eyes were now looking ahead, and I understood what had them upset. We were closed in. A cliff face was ahead of us, and it stretched out on an angle to our left. The very landscape was corralling us into a trap. On our right was a river. We had nowhere to go. We couldn't possibly climb the cliff fast enough to escape the virus. We didn't have much more land to run on before we ran into it either.

"The water," Willis announced. "We built a barrier right into the water, remember?"

I did, vaguely. I was more focussed on the diminishing ground in front of us. Twenty feet and we'd be goners. Eighteen, sixteen, _twelve_.

Willis jerked my arm, leading me to the water. I saw Rei dive in with a near perfect technique, and then Willis swung me ahead of him, and I was crashing through the water's surface, catching just the barest hint of a breath before the water was all around me and I was completely submerged. I opened my eyes, seeing Willis sinking next to me and watched as the virus floated across the surface above us, blocking out whatever sunlight was available to us under the water. I rolled myself over, hoping that the advertising was right about my laptop case, and locked eyes with Rei. Hers were just as wide and frightened as I knew mine were.

We couldn't stay under the water forever. It just wasn't logical. We needed air, and we needed it soon. My half-breath was already threatening to escape, and my lungs strained for some fresh oxygen. I turned to Willis, hoping he had a plan, and saw he was digging around in his pocket. He pulled something out, but I didn't see what it was. Large bubbles of air escaped from Rei's mouth. She flung a hand over it to try and keep what little she had left inside, and I grabbed her arm, before my own air escaped me.

Stupidly, my instincts kicked in, telling me to breath in, and I sucked in water instead of air. Willis' hand dived between Rei and me and then he turned a purple key—amethyst maybe—opening a door to an unknown world.

We were sucked, water and all, into the door, and I landed, rolling on the hard, dark ground, coughing and spluttering. I heard Rei's coughs too, and turned my sore, waterlogged eyes towards Willis who was on his feet, pushing his way through the still rushing water to close the door. The water was coming too fast though, and he couldn't do it alone. I trudged through the water, and lent him my strength to get it closed. Water rushed into my face and I spluttered some more, and then the door was closed.

I sank to the soggy ground, causing the remaining water to splash around me. I was soaked to the bone, and the cold air bit at my skin. Shuddering, I wrapped my arms around myself, trying to keep hold of what little warmth was left. My wet, blonde hair stuck to my face and I had to push it out of my eyes, knowing it was a complete mess now. The black streak—the result of years of Sigma's presence—didn't seem to want to behave, as it continued to fall into my eyes.

I squinted into the darkness surrounding us, trying to locate Rei and Willis. I could make out slight outlines, and I knew they looked just as much like drowned rats as I did. Having identified which was Rei, I crawled over to her, knowing she was safe. I didn't like darkness. Out of my long list of fears, the dark was actually near the top of the list. My shivering wasn't just due to the cold. I was petrified. We'd nearly died from the virus, and now I was going to catch hypothermia, and die in the cold, dark land we now inhabited.

"That was...something," Willis said with a dry laugh. Rei laughed with him, but I couldn't bring myself to find any humour in our situation. It was as if Willis took me from one horrifying situation, into my worst nightmare. I could hear chilling voices being carried by the wind that chilled my very bones. We weren't alone in this world. There was chanting and cheering in deep, ominous voices.

I just wanted to curl up and hide. It was something I even tried to do, but Willis didn't seem to share my opinions on this new world. He got to his feet and clapped his hands.

"Well, if we're going to be living here for the rest of our lives, we really ought to have a look around," he said with as much enthusiasm as he was able to force into his voice. I let out a little wordless whine, and Rei patted my arm.

"I can't move my legs," she said carefully.

"That is a minor setback," Willis said slowly. "But Kiyoko and I can carry you. You can't weigh that much." Another whine slipped through my lips before I could catch it.

"You'll be fine, Kiyoko," Rei said gently. "We won't let anything happen to you. Now help me up. I'd almost forgotten that I was paralyzed. This isn't exactly the reminder I might've hoped for though."

My skin crawled uncomfortably, and I was scared out of my mind, but I pulled Rei's arm over my shoulder while Willis did the same with her other one, and we pulled her up so that she was practically standing between us. Her feet dragged a little while we walked in the direction Willis chose. Howls came from every direction, and the chanting was continuous. I jumped at every sound, whether it was a twig breaking between our feet, or the heavy breathing of the wind against my skin. It felt like someone was breathing down my neck, and I wanted to scream and run away.

Eventually, we could see some form of light in the distance ahead of us, and I gravitated towards it, no longer needing to be forced along with the others. I needed that light. It would dispel the darkness and give me some peace of mind.

I thought it would, anyway.

Instead, we found ourselves passing small, handmade huts as the forest ground gave way to dirt paths. The streets were bare, everyone that lived here was gathered at the sources of light. They were also the source of the chanting. I wanted to crawl out of my skin the nearer we got to them. The heavy, deep voices were chanting the same phrases over and over again. I couldn't understand what they were saying, and I guessed it was their own magical language. The wind picked up with each repeated phrase, dying down only when the chanting gave way to cheers.

We dripped water all over their nice dry paths, and soon we found ourselves among the native people of this land. I was surprised to see that they were digimon. I spotted some undead digimon, and a few fallen angels. Mostly though, we were surrounded by wizard digimon and demons. Digimon smaller than me, with silvery, purple fur and fox-like faces were dancing around the first bonfire we came to. The black belts strapped all over their white pants jangled with each dancing step. They had their black gloved hands to the sky, and the fire was reflected on their white faces and chests. I took a step closer to Rei, nearly tripping myself with her feet. She sighed.

"You're fine," she told me. "They might be friendly."

But their glares made me feel otherwise. They weren't the only digimon around either. They were dancing with other digimon, around their size. These ones were brown skinned, and furless. Red pants covered their jumping legs, and glistening metal gauntlets covered their wrists. Their hair burned the same colour as the flames and their tails were literally on fire themselves.

"I think I know what those are," Willis said quietly. He'd spent a lot of time around Tatum, since Michael became his brother, and they'd all moved in together. I knew I could trust whatever deductions he made. "Strabimon and Flamemon...I think..."

More chanting came, louder as we grew closer. The huts around us got larger too, as we made our way towards the central bonfire. We could see it from where we were, but there were still two smaller—though each bigger than the last—fires between us and it.

The second fire was surrounded by three different digimon. There was a Wizardmon—not ours though, as he didn't recognize us at all—and two others that looked rather similar to him. Willis identified the one dressed in white, with the snowflake staff and the cape bearing the night sky on its underside, as Sorcermon. The third digimon was wearing a red ensemble, and a flaming hat. He bore no cape, and in place of a staff, he had two oversized matches—one with a red tip, the other with blue. This evidently was a FlaWizardmon.

I ducked down when a woman in red with an excess of black belts swooped overhead, cackling all the while. She had extremely large hands, and a black cape whipping in the wind behind her. She also had a pointed hat, and was being followed by a nearly translucent spirit of a black cat. I heard it's snarling and hissing as it circled around the three of us before it shot after the Witchmon.

My breathing was incredibly fast by this point, and Rei couldn't say anything to help calm me down. The fact that a Karatenmon was tossing an effigy into the third bonfire didn't help matters. He laughed sadistically.

"That's a Wisemon," Rei mentioned, pointing to the tall digimon that was hovering over an open book next to a hut, some distance from the open flames. His head was hooded by a piece of material that encircled his shoulders, and draped down his back, looking nearly like a set of wings. He wore a long, simple, brown tunic that reached to his toes, and held two orbs in his hands. He was murmuring a different chant than the others, and he laughed lowly when the orb in his right hand let of a small burst of fireworks. Several other digimon cheered at them, and demanded more. Wisemon seemed to appreciate the attention.

"Excuse me," Willis called as we reached the centre of the town. The largest bonfire was blazing before us; several effigies were already smouldering away inside the flames. This fire seemed to attract the scariest of all the digimon.

One had blonde hair hidden beneath a blue bandana. He wore white clothing, with a grey bag tied at his waist, and several grey scarves around his neck, their ends blowing in the wind. His tattered cape looked to me like ancient wings, each scrap of withered, fragile material were the feathers in my mind. The cape nearly distracted me from the jagged, red blade he held in his hand. At our approach, he stood taller, looking down on us from his full ten feet. I'd never felt so small as I did when he narrowed his eyes directly at me. _Reapmon_ , Willis had whispered.

"What do you want?" he asked taking a step towards us.

"I was wondering if you could point us in the direction of who's in charge around here," Willis said, though his confidence wasn't quite as strong as it had been before.

"Our Lady?" another digimon snorted. I turned to look at a digimon with brown fur and skin. He wore baggy, black pants with a white sash and a short shirt that matched. His chest was covered with silver plating, but his abdominal muscles—which were scarily well defined—remained uncovered. He had bare feet with armoured plating, and his long grey hair was blowing in the wind from under his black cap. He remained on bended knees, his long, gangly arms were out of proportion with the rest of him. But he wasn't frightening in the same way as Reapmon. It was his weapon that I was most afraid of. He bore a long staff, with a crescent blade on one end, and what looked to be one of Gargomon's gun-hands on the other. He casually shifted the weapon so that the barrel of the gun was facing our way.

I was afraid my heart was going to break out of my chest at that view.

"Sagomon," Willis hissed.

"Now, now," a third said reprimanding us. "It's not nice to whisper whilst in good company."

He was tall, and reminded me of a forest sprite. He was dressed in green armour, and had three arrows embedded in each of his shoulder plates, and a large red and silver spear on his back. He was the least threatening of the lot of them. And that wasn't saying much.

"I'm Zamielmon," he told us. "And you are trespassing."

"Not on purpose, I assure you," Willis told him.

"The question remains, _what_ to do with you, though, doesn't it," Reapmon asked.

Suddenly, I felt faint.

"You could take us to your leader," Rei suggested lightly.

"No," Zamielmon said. "That wouldn't do at all."

"Zamielmon is right," the final horrifying digimon said. He was a horse-riding warrior with golden armour covering both the rider's shadowy form, and the horse's midnight coat. The rider was wearing a cape the colour of the bonfire's dancing flames, and wielded a pair of swords. I didn't look much closer at him, as I was distracted by his horse. Its face was a red skull, half covered with his golden armour, but its _eyes_. There was a shadowy void, with white pinpricks for pupils. I couldn't look away. I leaned closer to it petrified and entranced all at once. "Our Lady doesn't see outsiders."

I was okay with that idea. I didn't want to see this Lady anyway. Her subjects were frightening enough, thank you.

"Zanbamon," Willis said hopefully, gaining confidence when the digimon acknowledged that this was his name. "We're kinda lost, and we need some advice."

Zanbamon reached down, sheathing one sword, and picked up a flaming stick, holding it up. All the digimon around us scrambled to grab hold of a torch as well, and if they couldn't, they grabbed pitchforks and other frightening things that a mob might need. I was crying at that point, because I could see where it was heading, even if Willis was too optimistic to catch on.

"Our Lady doesn't see outsiders," Zanbamon repeated. "And we don't take well to them either. Leave, or we'll _make_ you."

"We'll go then," Willis said quickly, and Rei let out a cry. She was entirely dependent on us at this point, and I found that I was frightened at the thought too. What if I tripped? What if they decided to chase after us anyway? I wasn't a fast runner, and I wasn't good at it either. I'd proven that when Willis needed to drag me away from the virus. I'd be dead, and I'd be taking Rei down with me.

We hastily raced back the way we came, and the chanting started again. The digimon we passed whispered as we went by—"Are they Fallen Angels in disguise?" whatever that meant—some pointing, others cackling. The Witchmon swooped down again, and her cat didn't leave us alone until we were out of the warm light of the smallest bonfire.

We were in the dark again. I hated it. I hated this world. I was shivering like mad because I was still sopping wet, and the fire had been the only bright point—literally—this world had to offer. Now we'd been chased away from the only source of heat into the darkness, and their chanting had started up again. The winds howled and swirled around us, and Rei had started crying long before Willis decided we were far enough away from the town to make camp.

"I'm going to find some wood," he said. "Preferably, something dry. Kiyoko, you find some rocks or something. We're going to have to make fire. We're a couple of geniuses though, so it shouldn't really be a problem for us. Right? Right."

He stumbled off, picking up random dark lumps off of the ground, hoping to find sticks of wood, and discarding the lumps of leaves that he came across. I wanted to do as he told me, I really did. But the cold had seeped into my bones and I was having a hard time making my fingers function. It didn't help that I was literally _terrified_ of the dark. Instead, I listened to the song Rei was humming from her place, leaning next to a tree, and I pulled my laptop out of its case, hoping against the odds that the advertised water-proof layer wasn't just a hoax.

The light on the screen lit up with one push of the button, and I drew comfort for the light it emitted, kicking away anything that made questionable shadows. A rock pile that's shadow looked suspiciously like a wolf was the first to go. I huddled as close as I could to my computer's light, and once the system was fully loaded, I started playing around.

Then I realized exactly what I had access to.

"Willis," I said in my shaking voice—my shivering wasn't helping matters. "You should find a cave or something. I've got a better idea."

He insisted on taking my laptop to act as a flashlight on his search, and I found myself curled into Rei's side as she pet my hair and continued to hum. It took him a good while to find anywhere even remotely suitable, and for a few minutes there I thought he wasn't going to come back at all. But he did. Between the two of us, we managed to help Rei along and juggle my laptop without dropping either. The cave was dry, and protected us from most of the wind. I set my laptop on the ground, and took a few steps back—after pressing a few keys in the correct sequence.

"Are you bringing us back to the Digital World?" Rei asked, hopeful.

Before I could answer, the world around us changed. We weren't in the Digital World. We were somewhere safer. Mask Square, my own personal world, a place that Sigma let me create entirely, where he let my imagination go wild.

"There're mattresses over there," I said, gesturing to a pile of mattresses and bed frames that were all still in their packaging. "There are sheets with the clothes. I'd get changed into something dry, and then I'm sure we could find Hideto's space heaters somewhere in Mari's collection of appliances."

I walked over and picked out a thick pair of flannel pajamas that Mari had picked out for me, and grabbed the housecoat that Hideto picked for himself. I changed quickly, peeling off the heavy, cold clothes and slipped on the closest thing I had to a connection with my best friends. I threw some of Mari's chosen pajamas at Rei, who smiled thankfully at me, and I hunted down the space heaters, surrounding the three mattresses Willis had laid out. I used Mari's red bedding for myself and left Willis to help Rei with anything else. I was freezing, I was tired, and I was scared.

And despite having Rei and Willis, I found I was actually quite lonely.

I felt the heat sinking into my skin, letting the warmth lull me away from my thoughts, and fears and worries, and drifted into a deep sleep, praying that my nightmares wouldn't come back, now that Tapirmon wasn't here to eat them for me.

But I knew that they would.

 _ **Miyako Ichijouji:**_

My eyelids fluttered open.

The sky was dark. I couldn't remember how long I'd been outside. I absolutely couldn't fathom why I was on my back staring up at the sky. It must've been a cloudy night, because the stars decided not to put in an appearance.

"Oh good, you're awake."

I sat up quickly, resting a hand on my stomach reflexively. Who was there? Why didn't I _know_ him? My eyes locked on a man in a dirty suit. He was covered in sand, and he looked like he'd been here awhile. I didn't recognize him in the slightest. I wondered if I _should_.

"What did you do to the Goutokuji girl?" he asked me.

"Mari?" I questioned, moving my hand from my stomach to my head. It was pounding. The man didn't look dangerous. He looked disheartened and lost. He needed a good meal and some sunlight. His eyes were haunted, and his cheeks were growing hollow. I knew instinctively that I would be able to outrun him if my instincts turned out to be wrong. It had happened before.

I hadn't thought Kurayami was capable of killing a man.

My head throbbed. I couldn't remember what happened _after_ that. My mind was stuck on Moretsuna's eyes, vacant, _empty_. I could still feel him collapsed on top of me, could still feel his skin on my own, feel his hands wrapped around my neck. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to force the memory away, trying to focus on anything else—the headache, my baby, or this stranger that knew Mari.

"How many fingers do you see?" he asked, sounding concerned over my confusion. He held up three fingers. I told him, and he nodded to himself, his shoulders relaxing. "She's not the one that sent you here? She sent me. I figured you must've made her mad, you arrived so violently. And for her to send you _here_ in _your_ state...that's unforgiveable."

"Mari didn't send me," I told him. I knew that for certain. I couldn't even remember when I'd last _seen_ Mari. She was with the others, in the Coliseum maybe. She hadn't been with me when Moretsuna tried to kill me. Takeru was there, with Ken...and _Kurayami._ She'd shot him, time after time. I could still hear the gun firing at him, could still _feel_ the way his body had reacted when the concentrated blast of virus hit him.

Virus.

 _The virus_.

"I was running," I murmured. "From the virus..."

 _Moretsuna was on top of me, but he wasn't whole anymore. He was disintegrating. I was shrieking. Ken and Takeru weren't doing anything, just standing there, frozen in shock. Kurayami was shaking, but I couldn't comfort her. I was afraid, and I was screaming. No one was helping me. I was so scared. Ken came. I was pushing Moretsuna away. He helped me. I wasn't breathing right. The baby could have died. I'd almost lost my life. If I died, so did the baby._

 _How could I risk the baby?_

 _I was a bad mother. Ken's hands were on me, one patting my back, the other on my knee. He wanted me to look at him. I couldn't. I couldn't look away from Moretsuna. He was dead. I'd watched him die. He died on top of me—on top of my baby. My baby was present for his death. I was a really bad mother. My baby wasn't born yet and I'd led him (or her) into danger. I'd put my baby in danger. I'd watched a man die._

 _Kurayami was screaming. Loud, horrified,_ terrified _. She threw the gun. The bad gun. The gun that killed a man. I didn't like that gun. It killed Moretsuna. He was bad. But he was alive. He wasn't anymore. He was gone. I was there. He died. I watched it._

" _Breathe!" Ken hissed. His voice was loud, too close. I couldn't do as he said. Moretsuna was dead. I'd watched the life leave his eyes. His hands had been on my neck. I could still feel them. He was dead. I was safe. He wasn't. He was dead. I'd watched it happen. "Miyako, you have to breathe!"_

 _I couldn't do it. My lungs wouldn't listen. I couldn't focus on breathing—just on Moretsuna._

" _Ken," Takeru said._

 _I lost what little control I had left. I was sobbing. He was gone. I watched it. He was dead. He was bad. He was alive. Now he's not. My shoulders wracked and Ken kissed my head. I was a bad mother. I was a bad person. He was dead, and I didn't save him. I should have saved him. I was a digidestined. We were supposed to be the good guys. Moretsuna was dead now. We always killed the bad guy. Why did we do that? Why couldn't we try talking first? LadyDevimon turned into Minervamon when Satoe talked to her. She wasn't not bad anymore. Maybe Moretsuna might not be bad if I talked to him._

 _I could never find out, he was gone._

 _I'd watched it happen._

" _Ken!" Takeru yelled._

" _Not right now," Ken answered, holding me tighter. I didn't need his attention. Takeru needed it. I liked it, but I didn't need it. I didn't deserve it. I brought our baby into danger. I was a bad mother. My eyes stayed on Moretsuna. He was right there. Not really. Just parts of him. Just bits. He was going away, disintegrating like a digimon would. He was being deleted. Noriko was shot too. She was dead too. Was this how she went? Did it happen like this? My breath worsened, and spots were appearing before my eyes. She was gone. Moretsuna was gone. I watched him go. I didn't see her. I was happy I didn't see her. I saw him. I was still seeing him. He was going away. It was terrible. It was justice, for all the digimon he'd taken away. It wasn't right. He didn't deserve it. No one deserved it. He was mean. He tried to kill me. I didn't like it. I didn't like him. He should still be alive. He shouldn't have died. He did. I watched it._

 _Takeru said something quietly. I couldn't hear over my own sobs. My mind was whirling too quickly. I was caught in a loop. "Dammit! Kurayami!" I gasped. Kurayami was gone. Kurayami was running away. Why were they letting her go alone? Ken and Takeru were both focussed on me, more than her._

" _KEN!" Takeru yelled. It scared me. It was so loud._

" _Takeru!" Ken yelled back. "I'm trying to comfort my wife!"_

 _He shouldn't be. I wasn't worth it. I almost lost our baby. I almost died, taking our baby with me. I should be left to suffer in silence. No. It was important that I_ not _allow that to happen. I needed to be calm and relaxed. Stress and trauma were bad for the baby. I was a really,_ really _bad mother._

 _Takeru was mumbling to himself again. I was too distraught to hear a word. "H-h-he's g-g-g-gone! H-he was-s a h-h-horrible p-p-person! B-b-but now he c-can't ch-change!"_

" _He never would have," Ken insisted. He squeezed my hand. I pushed him away. He couldn't know that. I told him so. He looked appalled. I looked away from him. He was wrong. He_ had _to be. Moretsuna was bad, but he wasn't inherently evil. LadyDevimon was bad. She's not evil. She's Minervamon. There was a chance. Everyone has a chance. Moretsuna was just bits of limbs now. I sobbed loudly at the sight. He was gone. His face, his eyes, his vacant, empty eyes were gone. Why did they still haunt me? "We never h-h-had a chance to talk to him! We never t-t-tried! We t-treated h—" My words were interrupted by a hiccoughing, coughing mess. I wiped my face, snot, tears and all, wiping my hand on my shirt. "H-him just like the digimon. We di-didn't ask ques—tions! We j-just killed h-him be-because he was b-bad!"_

" _HE was trying to_ kill _you," Ken said._

" _So d-did y-you!" I shrieked. He backed away as though I'd burned him. I probably_ had _. I said what I did to hurt him. To make him realize that_ he _had gotten a second chance, and it was hypocritical of him to not offer one to anyone else. Ken had actually gotten a_ third _chance, since he joined Fanglongmon six years ago. We'd accepted him back. I'd married him. I gave him another chance. Why couldn't he do the same?_

 _Because Moretsuna was dead and it was too late._

" _A-and Kurayami! S-she's not bad! She... She's n-not...is she?"_

" _No," Takeru said firmly. I'd forgotten he was here. He was looking towards the Temple every few seconds. I wondered if that was where Kurayami went. It probably was. I focussed on that, not looking at Moretsuna, but I slipped and looked again. He was barely there anymore, there were barely any signs that there had once been a whole, live person there, barely a sign that he'd ever existed. Takeru called Ken away, and I was happy for it. Kurayami went towards the Temple. Ken was being irritating. Moretsuna was dead. There was a digivice on the ground. It was Moretsuna's. I slipped it into the side pocket of my backpack. I would keep it. He'd tried to kill me. He was bad. But he was dead. He didn't need it anymore._

 _Kurayami was alone. I looked to the Temple and saw a large cloud of purple heading our way. My body was moving before my mind had a chance to catch up. I was running towards the purple long before my mind was able to supply what it was. Ken was screaming for me, but I didn't stop. Kurayami was running towards the purple, so I would too._

 _It was an embarrassingly long while before my mind was able to catch up. Ken and Takeru were long behind me. Kurayami needed me. But I was running towards the virus. I remembered the threat in the sky. A virus was coming, and that's what this was. Kurayami was running at it. I wanted to help her. I wanted to save her. But I couldn't do it. I wasn't going to be able to run fast enough to catch Kurayami_ and _get to a barrier. I would never reach the Temple. It was already covered in the virus. I couldn't see Kurayami. She had too much of a head start. I didn't know if she'd even gone this way. I'd assumed she had, because Takeru was looking this way, but my mind supplied me with his real reason, and I was embarrassed again. He wasn't looking at Kurayami, he was monitoring the virus. I was running towards it, without knowing if Kurayami was even there. There was no point to continue. But there was no point to turn around either. I would never outrun it._

 _I'd risked my baby again._

 _I'd put my baby in danger of deletion_ again _. It was an occurrence that happened far too often. I was not a suitable mother. I was a bad mother. I needed to stop thinking about anything except my baby. My baby was my first priority. I needed to keep it alive and safe. I couldn't do that running towards the virus, and I couldn't outrun it. My mind was starting to work its way back into a panic, but I remembered the key I'd been given. The virus was getting closer. I couldn't waste any more time. I took it from my backpack's side pocket, where I'd stuck Moretsuna's digivice, and opened the gate, tucking the key back in my backpack when I was finished. I looked to the virus once more, and took a deep breath. I would be alone forever the moment I stepped through the gate. It was for the good of my baby, but it still frightened me._

 _I took it at a bit of a run, slamming the door closed as I did so._

 _The run had been a mistake. The sand under my feet gave way, sending me sliding down a hill, and I fell over, when my feet flew out from under me. I hit my head, and then there was darkness._

Sand?

I looked down to ground I was sitting on. It was soft, and I picked up a handful of sand, letting the grains slide through my fingers, making a cloud of dust as they fell back to the ground. The sand was grey. The sky was dark. When I listened, I could hear the sounds of water crashing into the grey, sandy shore. It was close. A cursory glance was all it took to find it. It was a darker grey than the sky.

I knew where I was.

"The Dark Ocean," I whimpered.

"Well yes," the man commented, though I'd interrupted whatever story he was telling. "The ocean is really dark. I wonder why that is..."

I tried to focus more on what he was saying. I wasn't alone. I needed to remember that. I may not know this man—and Mari disliked him enough to send him to the Dark Ocean—but he was alone here before I arrived. He found me and watched over me while I was unconscious. He could have hurt me then, but he didn't. I didn't think he _would_ hurt me either. I got the distinct feeling that he was just happy to have someone to talk to, even if I wasn't listening very well. He wanted company. I didn't know how long he'd been trapped here. I couldn't offer him a way out, but I _could_ offer him company. And _maybe_ his company would be enough to keep Moretsuna's empty, dead eyes from appearing every time I closed my eyes.

I couldn't be alone.

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I wasn't listening. I know I should have been. Could you tell me again, how you got here?"

"Oh," he said. He looked a little deflated that I'd not been paying attention, but he brightened up again at the idea of speaking to a person. I felt bad for him. He must've been so lonely. "I came to inform Miss Goutokuji that her parents would indeed be pursuing a second legal action, this time with her monetary inheritance as their target. She didn't like that idea, and I saw all the digimon that were living within the library. That could be enough to sway the judge to our favour, and then she was leading me to the door, and shoved me into this place. I am certain that this is _not_ where that door usually leads. In any case, I've not been able to find it again. I was quite surprised when you came through the door so fast. You fell right away. The door had already closed. I guess you're stuck here with me. Someone should really put a leash on that girl. She's dangerous. It wouldn't be difficult to put a case together against her now. Not with her sending both of us to this place just because her parents wanted to take legal action with a justified cause."

"Shut up," I said, clenching my hands tightly into fists. "Using digimon as evidence wouldn't work. Digimon aren't bad. The DWD is bad. Mari's _parents_ are bad. You're a lawyer, aren't you? You should be working to fight the _good_ fight. You are in a good position to help us fight for digimon rights, but instead you're working for terrible people trying to pry the inheritance a grandmother left her _only_ family. The people you work for aren't eligible to any of it. You know that right?"

"Of course I do," he snapped. "But what should I care? I get paid either way. I work for my client, doing my best to build a case that could win them what they want. I'm not the judge. I don't get to decide who wins. I just try to fight for whoever pays me."

"That's sad," I sighed. "You help the wrong ones win just for money."

"I need to live, don't I?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "Not that it matters now. The Goutokuji girl sent me to hell, _just_ because she was irritated with her parents. I wasn't the one pursuing the matter. Well, I _was_ , but just because I was hired to. I don't know why she took it out on me. Her parents will just get another lawyer, and I'll lose one of my best clients. That doesn't matter though, because I'll never find a way out of this hell so I'll never _need_ clients again."

"This is hell, isn't it?" I murmured. It was where all the evil spirits went when their bodies were killed. They became shadows, but I didn't need to worry about them now. Norn had purified them when Yggdrasil was defeated. I wouldn't have to worry about a repeat of Sigma. But it didn't stop me from adjusting the sleeves on my arm and checking over my shoulder nervously.

"I want to go home," he said. His voice was soft and desperate, and it made my heart clench.

"We'll find a way," I promised him. "I'm a digidestined. We _always_ find a way. I'm going to help you. I'm stuck here too, you know. We're in this together. There's going to have to be some ground rules though. Don't insult my friends. Mari's one of my best friends, so stop complaining about her. You can _think_ it. I just don't want to hear it. And _don't_ hate on digimon. I love them with all of my heart. The good ones, the bad ones and all the ones in between. They have the personality range that humans have; they have the brain capacity that humans have. They learn, they grow, and they speak our languages. I don't care if you don't like them. Do not let me hear it. Hating digimon is no reason to help the bad guys. The Goutokuji's aren't nice people. I don't want to get you out of here only to find that you've decided to use Alias III's digimon against them in the courtroom just so that you can get Mari's parents to win. I won't have you doing that."

"If you can get me out of here, I won't say another word about digimon in my life," he swore. It was a little dramatic, and I was going to get him out anyway. I couldn't raise my baby in hell. That was a horrifying thought. And I wouldn't leave him behind just because he didn't think kindly of digimon. Moretsuna should have gotten a second chance, but he didn't. He got killed instead. I wasn't going to let this happen to this man.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Bengoshi," he supplied. Was it his first name? His last? I didn't know. He didn't offer anything else though, so I knew he preferred this name to any alternative.

"I'm Miyako Ichijouji," I told him. "I'm nearing four months into my pregnancy. I am _not_ having my baby in this world, so we're going to have to get moving. I would prefer we didn't have to stay here for even another week. I don't know how I'm going to accomplish that, but that's my goal."

"You don't have any ideas, do you?" he asked. He didn't seem hopeful at all. I sighed. It was one of the ways the Dark Ocean could affect a person. Any negative thought was built up out of proportion, and the positive thoughts were minimized. I could already feel my hope slipping away, but I was stubborn enough to keep hold of it. I had a baby to look out for.

A baby that deserved to grow in a world without such negative effects.

"I've been trapped here before," I informed him. "My husband saved me that time. Mari helped him, just so you know. But...Winter lives here, and she sort of rules over this land to the best of her abilities, because she's a fairy queen. She lives in a castle."

"I've yet to see one of those," Bengoshi muttered sadly.

"It's not _right_ next to us, no," I said. "But it's by the beach. And I think I can see the top of the tower I was held prisoner in from here." And I could. It was quite a long ways away from us though. We'd have a bit of a journey ahead of us. I wasn't looking forward to it. Maybe if we ran the entire way...but should I really be running so much right now? "Come on." I started walking in the general direction of the tower. "You know what you could do, when we get you out of here? You could build a case up against the DWD for what they've done. I know technically digimon don't have rights, but they killed a girl—Noriko. And then they sent a virus out into the Digital World. That's why I'm here. I had to escape or else my baby would be killed. My husband was out there too..."

"I'm sure he's fine," Bengoshi said quickly, patting me awkwardly on my back.

I'd been so fixated on Moretsuna's death and my escape that my mind hadn't once even considered the fact that Ken and Takeru were somewhere behind me, possibly searching for me when I'd gone through the gate. I should have waited for them. The Dark Ocean was no picnic, but it was better than being dead. Kurayami was out there too. I should have looked longer. I could have saved her too. She had a little baby to look after. I'd taken away Haruki's mother.

"My baby's not going to have a father," I gasped out, the pain taking hold of me.

"Maybe not, but you won't know until you get us out of here," Bengoshi snapped. I couldn't even yell at him for being selfish, for not caring that my husband was probably dead by now. I dropped to my knees and vomited all over the sand. He let out a girly squeal and jumped away from me. My stomach lurched again, and emptied itself. Ken was out there. I'd seen what the virus did to people. I could _see_ it happening to my Ken so easily. I threw up once more. My hands were shaking, my stomach proceeded to hate me, and I got sick again. After that, it was just a bunch of dry heaves. My husband was in the virus. Takeru was there too. They were being ripped to pieces, deleted slowly, probably painfully. It was a fast process. I'd seen it happen to Moretsuna. His body disappeared, leaving a grotesque pile of pieces before I'd run off. Was that all that was left of my baby's father right now?

How many of my friends had been out in the virus?

How many of them were just remnants of themselves in piles on the ground? How many had disappeared altogether? When I'd slipped away from the Temple, so many people were still there. How many had escaped before the virus had struck?

I heaved again.

My head was spinning and I was starting to see stars. I couldn't pass out though. Not until I reached the castle. I trusted Winter to keep my baby safe. She'd watched over _me_ while I was a child. She could help me now. She might also have food, which my child would need, even if I felt too queasy to attempt eating. I had only a few snacks in my backpack. I was lucky I'd thought to pack my prenatal vitamins.

"We can't wander around," Bengoshi told me, trying to comfort me by rubbing my back. I forced my tears to stop. They would have their chance to fall when I reached the castle. I couldn't be myself right now. I could succumb to the panic. I was going to be a mother. I'd already made too many mistakes. I couldn't afford to make anymore. My baby needed safety. Winter was the only one that could provide it.

"We're not wandering," I snapped. I pulled myself to my feet, and walked around the disgusting mess I'd made on the sand.

"They don't like it when I try to leave," he whispered.

"Who doesn't?" I said. We were the only ones here, aside from Winter.

"The shadow people," he confessed. "They're always lurking. They hide behind the rocks and jump out if I try to leave the circle." It was only when he mentioned it that I realized we _were_ in the centre of a ring of rocks. It seemed vaguely sacrificial, and I definitely wasn't going to sit around and find out what these non-existent shadows wanted to sacrifice us for.

"Don't be ridiculous," I ordered. "Norn purified the shadows. They aren't here anymore." I believed my words. Really, I did.

"You think _I_ am being ridiculous?" he demanded. "I've been trapped here for ages. I eat only once a day. I don't ask questions because I'm _afraid_ of what they feed me. They want something."

I ignored him and walked to the edge of the circle. Several tall, very real, very scary shadows stepped out from behind the rocks surrounding us. I backed away instinctively, grabbing Bengoshi's hand while I did so. My eyes were wide and I couldn't blink or look away. Their twisted bodies stood tall and angry with their long, stretched out arms dragging along the sand.

"Not so silly now, is it?" Bengoshi asked, shaking in his boots. He was hiding behind me, but the shadows weren't interested in us anymore, since we were in the circle, and not escaping anymore. They wanted us to stay here, and I wasn't going to let them win. I couldn't let shadows walk all over me anymore. I couldn't keep bowing down to the enemies that always wanted me to feel pain, like Sigma had. I was not the same girl who he had found, crying in her bed. I was Miyako Ichijouji, one of the Holy Three and a soon to be _mother_ and these shadows were not going to get the best of me. Not today.

I squeezed Bengoshi's hand and started _running_ passed the rocks. I passed by them before the shadows could stand up. They were silent, but I _knew_ they were chasing after us. I could feel them watching us as they struggled to catch us. It was a horribly familiar sensation to see nothing but simply _know_ they were there.

This wasn't a good idea. I knew that. They would be able to catch me in no time. I wasn't fast, and I was pregnant. But I was _pregnant_ , and dedicating all of my energy and instincts to keeping that baby safe. I could escape these shadows, run fast enough to get to the tower. I could do it to protect my baby. I would do anything to protect my baby. Ken was as good as gone to me—something that still made me sick, and caused tears to start streaming down my face, even though they were expressly forbidden from doing so until I was in the castle. This baby might be all I had left of him.

I would protect it with my life, and the both of us—and Bengoshi—would make it out of the Dark Ocean alive.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** The tables have turned and the game has been switched around. With these differences, how will the learn to cope with Everything that Has Changed and how will they find one another?


	4. Everything Has Changed

**Y/N:** The world Koushiro finds himself in is not one that I particularly enjoyed writing in. In theory it was amazing, but in actuality…not so much. I hope you enjoy reading it more than I did writing it though.

 **U/N:** Uhm, well I wrote Jou here, and while I don't necessarily remember a lot of it, I know it was really hard to get into the mind of someone who just went through what he did. So that was weird. Especially since he's a dad already, like that's hard enough as it is.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 4: Everything Has Changed**

 _ **Koushiro Izumi:**_

It was gross here. Muck and mire surrounded us on all sides. The icy water seeped through my shoes, into my socks. I'd lost all feeling of my toes within minutes of arriving. There was something wriggling in my shoes, and I prayed it wasn't a leech. I wasn't equipped to deal with the little bloodsuckers. The chill of the water—and fear of whatever creature took residence in my footwear—came in second only to the smell. The slime that made the water thick, and gave it an olive green hue was putrid, and the vines draping low over the branches of the trees let off a musky scent that clashed horridly, causing my head to spin. The only other vegetation was cattails and long, blades of grass growing in bunches with their roots far below the water's surface. I heard the croaking of tree frogs, and the buzzing of several hundred wings. Mosquitoes were everywhere, I was half afraid to breathe in case I swallowed a few. I spent more time swatting them away than I did observing my surroundings. The mosquitoes weren't the only insect filling the air either. There were flies—black flies, deer flies, _dragon_ flies—everywhere, and grasshoppers jumped from blade to blade of grass.

There were fallen trees, covered over with the same green slime that filled the pond, leaving the logs unsuitable to rest on. I wouldn't have either, because of the incomprehensible amount of snails they all seemed to be housing. There were bird calls in the air, and I guessed they were distant hawks, egrets and herons. I flinched away from the spiders that descended from the vines and branches overhead, and nearly had a heart attack at the sight of a snapping turtle biting at the water gliders.

If there were snapping turtles in this swamp, I wondered what other dangerous animals were out there, lurking, waiting to make us their prey. I knew crocodiles made swamps their homes, and cougars, black bears and anacondas did as well. I was just thankful there appeared to be no dry land whatsoever in this swamp we'd landed in, or the wolves, wildcats and bears might actually descend upon us.

I didn't escape the virus just to die a bloody death, thank you very much.

I fingered the fraying straps of my faithful laptop case, thankful that I still had _something_ of my life to keep me sane. I couldn't handle being in a swamp forever. I'd need to explore, and find an exit—hoping to avoid all predators along the way. This was not my first visit to the Land of Dreams. This was simply the _worst_ trip. Not once in any of my previous visits—purely for educational purposes—had I ever ended up in a swamp. Summer had designed her own haven within this world, where the flowers always bloomed out of season, and her vegetable garden always remained fruitful. There were sweet little rabbits, and fluttering butterflies, and the air was consistently at a pleasant temperature. There were no pesky, bloodthirsty insects that attacked when the night had fallen, and the sky was always cloud free—unless Summer wished to find shapes within some. This was literally a land where dreams came true—not that I'd ever felt the need to put that theory into practice, as I'd come simply to observe—so _how_ did we end up knee deep in a swamp that shouldn't be here in the first place?

This world wasn't like Earth. There was no solid animal kingdom, only animals that were wished into being could be present. That was the only thread of hope I had that assured me that there were no bears waiting to strike, no wolves on the prowl, no wildcats ready to devour us. No one would _wish_ for carnivorous enemies, right?

But the snapping turtles and mosquitoes made my hope waver. I started looking twice at every fallen log, to assure myself it wasn't a hungry crocodile luring us into a false sense of security.

It worried me that I was the only one being wary though. Hikari continued walking ahead of me, splashing her way through the icy waters, every once in a while shaking the slime buildup off of her shoes, before plowing forward again. She never slapped at the mosquitoes, she didn't see the spiders, she wasn't being attacked by leeches.

I was starting to think they weren't after her at all, targeting _just_ me.

It was ludicrous to think so, and I shook the thought from my mind. I needed to find dry land, so I could investigate my stowaways. I needed a chance to think, and the smells weren't helping. The thick, heavy, _hot_ air was making the scents stronger, overpowering any thoughts I was able to conjure up. I looked to Hikari, annoyed that she could ignore her surrounding so completely. It wasn't fair. She wasn't even _trying_ to take stock of our location, wasn't trying to find a way out, a way to safety. She was just glancing from left to right, sighing when she didn't see something she wanted.

And she huffed any time I got close to catching up, storming away with renewed fervour.

In short, the Land of Dreams appeared to be a misnomer, as this was clearly my own personal hell sent to punish me for some reason or another, though I couldn't for the life of me identify the reasoning. The only thing I'd done lately was reveal that I didn't know Mimi's middle name, and I didn't think she was capable of wishing up a swamp for me when she was on an entirely different world.

It was my turn to sigh.

Mimi, Tentomon and Palmon were all separated from me now. They, hopefully, were with my parents right now. Hopefully, the shields had been able to stave off the virus' attack, and _hopefully,_ Mimi and Palmon had been faster than I thought them capable of, and had actually beaten Taichi to the Coliseum. But that was depending too heavily on hope, and it wasn't my crest. I didn't have an abundance of it. I knew we should have met up with Mimi and Kiyoko at some point during our hasty race to the Coliseum, but we hadn't. I didn't even know if Taichi and the others were able to keep up their energy and stay ahead of the virus. They could have been swallowed into the purple storm moments after Hikari and I made our escape. Even if they _had_ made it, the shields might not have held up. I didn't have a thorough understanding of them, I hadn't had the time to explore the codes that created them, I didn't _know_ what they were capable of.

Hikari and I could be the only ones left.

No.

Sora was on Earth. I needed to remind myself that. My parents and cousin and partner and girlfriend might have perished, which was incredibly painful to think about, but the virus wasn't able to take _everything_ away from me. My best friend was trapped on Earth, but she was safe from the virus. There was only a slim possibility that I would ever meet her again, but the knowledge that someone that was dear to me was still alive, and the idea that the DWD wasn't able to rid the worlds of _all_ the digidestined was enough for now.

It would have to be. I couldn't change the past, and I couldn't change what was happening in a world in which I was no longer present. I couldn't even change what was happening in the world around me. The swamp was bubbling now, big bubbles that spread the odorous water everywhere when they popped.

I looked to Hikari again, she was growing more frustrated with each step. Her fingers were curling into fists, and as they did so, the bubbles came more quickly.

Perhaps the world literally _was_ a hell designed for me, and it was _Hikari_ that was punishing me. I couldn't see why though. I had saved her life, and I'd run through the scenario time and time again since arriving. I did the right thing. We weren't going to be able to catch up with her brother. Nothing we did, no amount of energy we used, would have brought us closer to them. We were simply slowing the procession down. I'd seen how Jackie and Taichi were holding back, staying nearer to us when they should have been thinking of themselves. They should have been racing against the clock, trying to save their own lives, instead of ours.

And then she tripped.

There weren't any other options at that point. I'd barely gotten the door closed before the virus had gotten us. If I hadn't closed it when I did, neither of us would be alive either. And as Sora was the only other guaranteed life that we knew of, really, I wasn't going to apologize for doing what I did. Hikari was the light of the worlds, if we lost her, we'd lose everything. I realized that all crests were important, but I also _knew_ that everyone—every friend and foe—put more stock in light than any of the others. Hikari was the horribly important eighth child, Myotismon _and_ Dragomon had both chased after her, without light, the darkness couldn't be balanced, the worlds would fall into utter chaos. Without the crest of knowledge, people just became passive and idiotic—I would know, I gave up my crest and became exactly that whilst in the home of Vademon when I was ten years old. That hardly compared to the loss of light.

Besides, holding Taichi and Jackie back could have resulted in either of _their_ deaths in addition to our own, and I knew Hikari would never want that to be the case. I had done the right thing.

I had.

So why was Hikari so mad at me?

It was just us now, in this new world. Until we could find a way to get out and get back to assess the damage the virus had caused—to see how many we'd lost during its reign—we were all each other had. Typically, it wouldn't have mattered to me if one friend was angry with me, or all my friends, but typically, we weren't separated and trapped in different dimensions with no knowledge of any one else's survival. I was in a situation I was both unfamiliar and uncomfortable with. I'd just started grieving for Gennai for heaven's sake. I couldn't lump everyone and everything that mattered to me on top of that grief. I wasn't capable of handling it.

Not alone.

I pushed the thoughts from my mind again. They were wrong, and my friends were fine. Mimi was hanging out with Jou right now, ranting and complaining that I didn't know her middle name, and Jou was trying to calm her down, and point out that logically I couldn't know _everything_. Kiyoko was with Mari , Hideto and Neo—who someone had to have saved—and Willis was telling jokes with Michael and Gomamon—who were both miraculously saved as well. Everyone else was dancing around and cheering because the shields were holding up just fine and everyone was happy, because they knew that Sora was safe on Earth, and that Hikari and I were in another world as well, so no one was dead.

A frown found its way onto my face. It was the most unrealistic, unbelievable thing I'd ever thought of. What exactly was this odour doing to my mind?

Hikari huffed again, and a particularly large bubble exploded, splashing my face with green goo. I gagged, trying to calm my stomach. Vomiting wasn't exactly something that would've helped right then. She let out a small shriek of frustration and spun on her heel, heading to the right, hoping that whatever it was she was after would be there.

"What are we even looking for?" I asked, wiping the slime off of my face, and gagging again.

I didn't receive and answer. She sighed and stomped off faster than before, leaving me to hurry to keep pace. The water splashed up and soaked my shorts, staining the khaki material green. I sighed this time. Mimi had given me these. She'd be so upset to see them, and I didn't want to add that onto the middle name thing.

And then I remembered Mimi was probably dead, and I sighed for a completely different reason.

I had to force the thought from my mind. It was too much for me to handle, and I called out to Hikari again. "Maybe I can help," I offered. She stopped and forced her fingers to uncurl from the fists they'd become. The bubbles stopped popping, and the water calmed itself, becoming still and even. She took a few deep breaths before turning to face me. She didn't let too much of her anger show on her face, but her eyebrows were furrowed slightly, and her lips were turned downwards.

"I'm looking for the looking glass," she informed me with a relatively calm voice. "It will help us get back to the Digital World, which is where we need to be right now."

"It could also get us to Earth," I realized.

"No," she said firmly, harshly. She took a deep breath again. "We're going to the Digital World."

"But—"

She didn't let me continue, storming off again, looking for the pool of clean, clear, sparkling water that was actually a pathway that connected a few worlds together. The looking glass was the pathway that the fairies used to travel between worlds, though I knew they were capable of travelling without them. There was no looking glass in the Dark Ocean, and I knew that a fairy resided there, and she came to Earth and the Digital World with relative ease.

The looking glass was actually a brilliant plan, though my idea of going to Earth was actually the more realistic of uses for it. We didn't know if there was a Digital World to go back to at all, but we did know that Earth was still there, and we'd be able to meet up with Sora, and whoever else was still on Earth, no matter how uninvolved they happened to be.

"I've actually been thinking over plans to get out of here as well," I told her after another ten minutes of unsuccessful searching. I didn't think the looking glass would be in a swamp, but I figured it was wise not to share that observation with her. She tilted her head, to show she was listening, but she didn't look at me. I would take what I could get. "I want to see if I can replicate what Kiyoko—though now that I think about it, Sigma is the more probable culprit, in reality—did under Neo's command. He was able to _force_ his way through the worlds, which allowed us to meet up with our partners again, and led to us defeating Fanglongmon and Dragomon. Do you remember?"

She inclined her head, and I pushed forward, no longer caring if she remembered or not.

"I can't do it here though," I said, gesturing to the swamp that surrounded me. "I'll need the use of my computer..."

She sighed, and pointed to her left. I followed her finger and found myself looking at a circular piece of dry land. I was _sure_ that hadn't been there before, but I found that I ultimately didn't care. I slapped at the mosquitoes again, as I made my way through the thick sludge and climbed out of the water, shaking the goo off of my legs and shoes. I got as comfortable as I could on a rocky, uneven surface with thick, hard pieces of beach grass growing under and around me. Once I settled in, the grasshoppers descended, hopping around me, pleased as punch to have a dry place to play. Tufts of green leaves grew from the ground, followed by bright, orange blossoms that smelled distinctly like skunks—imperial crowns, more commonly known as skunk plants, how... _pleasant_. I couldn't get too comfortable, now that I was on dry land. No. That wouldn't be punishing me at all. I rolled my eyes and pulled out my laptop.

I didn't have any idea of where to start, or even _what_ exactly I was looking for, but Kiyoko had done it—or Sigma had, either way, history had proven it was a possibility. I started typing away, trying very hard to focus on what was displayed on the screen in front of me, and not the mosquitoes or grasshoppers, or the skunk plants, or the croaking tree frogs, or the squawking birds. I couldn't have my mind wandering; when it wandered it went places I couldn't let it go. People I couldn't bear to think about and places I might never go again.

But no matter how long I spent, plugging away at my computer, I couldn't keep myself from glancing at Hikari, checking on her. She was still looking, growing more frustrated. Her eyebrows were furrowing, and she looked anxious, a little scared.

The coding, the screen, _focus_.

I looked up again, after a few minutes, and saw her curled up in a hammock that I _knew_ wasn't there before, her knees up to her chest and her hands curling in her hair. She had her eyes squeezed shut, and her mouth had contorted into a grimace. It was strange seeing Hikari look like that. She tried so very hard to be happy all the time. I didn't always believe it—I was a realist, and thusly rather skeptical—but she always put forth the effort.

But she wasn't now.

I slammed closed my laptop, mentally apologizing to my oldest, most trusted friend—no matter that he was an inanimate object—and hoping that I didn't cause any damage. If I was going to be stuck here forever, I was going to need my computer to keep me from delving into madness.

"I can't do it," I said, hating to admit defeat. I had no idea what I was doing, and Hikari's mood was distracting me. I wasn't infallible, I wasn't a miracle worker. Given enough time and access to research material, I might be able to figure it out, but it could take months, maybe years. I supposed I now had all the time in the world though. We weren't going anywhere. Maybe I would find access to Sigma's realm of knowledge. He knew things I'd never even dreamed of knowing. But I _was_ in the Land of Dreams now. I would just have to dream up a solution—if I could figure out _how_.

"Are you going to talk to me now?" I asked, when she didn't make any sign of having heard me. She lifted her gaze from her knee caps to glare at me.

"Why should I?" she demanded.

We lapsed into silence. I pondered over her anger, wondering how she was capable of feeling so much of it towards me, when I'd never seen her possess so much before. Even when she was angry at Taichi for locking her in his house when she could have been helping to save the world, she wasn't _this_ angry.

"I saved your life, you know," I said. I wasn't bragging, and I wasn't demanding any thanks for doing it. I was just stating a fact. Pointing out that maybe not all of her anger could be justified, that I didn't exactly do something completely horrendous.

"Did you?" she asked with a slight hollowness to her bitter voice. I didn't know how to respond to that, but thankfully, she continued without wanting an answer. It had been rhetorical. "DemiDevimon was my responsibility. I dropped him and you didn't let me save him before you threw me into this world! It was D'Arcmon's final request. She trusted me with DemiDevimon's life before she sacrificed herself to give us a head start. And you didn't let me do what I promised her I would."

D'Arcmon was dead.

It was a blow to the chest, even though I knew, logically, there was a chance everyone could be. It was different, knowing it was a probability, and having it confirmed though.

"She sacrificed herself and I couldn't even keep one measly promise, because of _you_!" she hissed, throwing her feet back to the ground, causing a large splash of swamp water. She threw her hands up in the air dramatically. "And now I'm safe. Big deal. Is DemiDevimon safe? I don't know. What about Mom and Taichi, huh? They could be dead for all I know, and I wasn't there to help them. I could've done something, I know I could. But now I can't even know if they made it. They're my family, Koushiro. And I don't know if they're alive!"

"I do understand your fear," I told her. "My parents, Tentomon, Mimi, Palmon, all of our friends...they're all in jeopardy too. They could all be dead, and I can't do a damn thing to save them either. You're not alone, Hikari."

"But they're all behind the barrier. The barrier would hold," she said in a faint voice. "Wouldn't the barrier hold? Oh god. What if it didn't? Takeru, Gatomon. All of our friends. They could all be dead. See! Don't you see why it would have been better to just save yourself and let me help?"

"What could you have done?" I demanded. "How could you have saved them?"

"I don't know," she shouted at me. "But there has to be _something_. And now I'll never know. My family is probably dead, and I failed D'Arcmon, and it's all because of you! I _hate_ you!"

I paused in shock, unable to comprehend what she just said. Hikari didn't hate anything. It was a part of who she was. She might find someone unpleasant, or she might dislike someone, but she never _hated_ anything. I did what I knew Taichi would have wanted. I saved her, for him just as much as I saved her for the sake of the worlds. I knew that Gatomon would have appreciated it. And I did understand her fear and her anger about losing everyone. I wasn't letting myself think about it, but that didn't mean it wasn't there for me too. I wasn't heartless, just socially stunted.

"Hikari," I said shakily.

She wasn't listening. She was on her feet, trudging through the swamp waters once again, faster this time. I slipped my computer in its case, and slogged after her, ignoring the bugs and the smells and the sounds. She shouldn't be alone now, and I really didn't want to be either. We'd get lost in this world so quickly, and we really ought to stay together. She sped up when she heard me coming, running as best she could through the thick sludge.

The vines on the trees above us started snaking together, weaving themselves into a net of sorts, blocking my path. I tugged on them, and when they wouldn't budge, I intended to squeeze through them, but she'd already thought of that. Trees sprouted from the water, growing much faster than they should be capable of, reaching up to the sky, getting taller and thicker, until they created a solid wall behind the net I was half-tangled in.

I couldn't get her. I'd never be able to catch up, even if I were to go around the trees, I'd never catch up. She was gone, and I was alone with my thoughts. I looked around me. I'd needed to get out of this swamp, and I needed to find something to distract me, because my thoughts weren't going to be good company.

 _ **Jou Kido:**_

There was total silence for the first time since any of us had set foot into the Coliseum. Once the bravest of the residents had gone out to watch the virus' progress we had all listened to them calling and cheering. It was impossible to not hear them. But the second they stopped cheering, everyone took a deep breath and never let it go. Even Emiko, who was using her tiny hands to hold my forearm as tight as she possibly could. Monmon was next to her, trying to be the protection that he promised her when he partnered up with her, and Bearmon was looking much more powerful, standing between the three of us and the doorway. This was our family now. Broken, and in danger of complete deletion.

I should have had hope. I knew that. And until the total silence, I had a little bundle of it keeping me going. But once everyone became quiet it seemed there was no point. The shield hadn't held up. It had broken and now we were all going to die. And even as a father, there was nothing I could do to save my daughter. I took potentially my last look of her face, and it hurt me to see the tears in her eyes.

Never, should someone so young, be so scared. And what was worse was that this wasn't the first time her life had been in _serious_ danger.

The first noise in nearly a full minute was a choked off whimper, and every eye in the open antechamber turned toward Otamamon who nuzzled his head deeper into Jun's arms. A tear rolled down Jun's cheek and my fists clenched on their own. She'd been saved only to be killed? Was that how this was going to go? The enemies were going to kill her anyway even after everything I'd done to save her. Had it been pointless? Was Jun, and everyone else going to go the same way Noriko had gone?

Noriko's pleading eyes flashed into my mind once more and I fell from the perched position I'd been sitting in. Emiko gasped as her hand slipped from my arm and she practically threw herself into my arms, not wanting me to leave her. I wrapped my arms around her and held her as tight as she would allow keeping her as safe as she could be.

I caught Shuu's eyes as he did the same to Jun, holding her close. He tried to smile to me, but couldn't. I knew how he felt. This seemed so unfair. Happiness was meant to last forever. Shuu and Jun were supposed to get married and have children and live happily ever after now that she was safe—they were supposed to understand that you can't push things off until tomorrow when tomorrow is never certain, and get married spontaneously or something. Not die in each other's arms with Shuu's cowardly brother pretending to be a hero nearby as he held his child.

Then Monmon was creeping into my embrace and I allowed it, holding him as well. It was only fair. He'd been so good to Emiko, and they were attached now. There was an unbreakable bond between the two, and that meant I shared that bond. But it also meant that she would be feeling something I could not feel. I wasn't jealous. I was happy for Emiko to have her partner with her, but I was sad to know that Gomamon was out there. But he would either already be dead, or he'd be on Earth. The enemies would not wait out this storm... not unless the shields really worked and they had one of their own.

I jumped when I heard a loud sound of something hitting the cold floor. I turned to Unimon who was standing over my father and Aimi. The group was close enough for me to reach out and touch them. Dad looked to me and for a moment we just stared at one another. Cho, Eri and Kazue were not far off, clinging to one another and crying silently. My family was here, and we would go together, or we'd stay together.

Well, not _all_ together. Gomamon was still out there somewhere... Shin was missing in action—or more accurately, he was missing in idleness—and no one had heard from him in what seemed to be forever. And the girl I had met so long ago who flirted with me constantly without me having any idea, the girl who had grown into a woman and changed from someone who did not know digimon existed to someone who now worked in a building where all digimon are tracked for safety through her base, that woman was not here. She was safe. I knew she was safe. She was on Earth, and she'd been helping people the last I'd heard from her. I'd called her a million times since, but the calls couldn't go through. I couldn't even remember the last thing I'd said to her... it had been so long ago. I wondered if she would remember. As the safe one, that was more important anyway.

She would live, and carry out her dreams keeping the memory of those she loved alive. Most of her family was still on Earth too. Poor Chiziru though...

I let my eyes train in on Masa who was sitting with Kunemon, holding him closely, too scared and confused to cry. Kae Ichijouji was with him too though. She had left her husband and her partner to ensure that this boy was going to be happy and in a warm embrace when he died.

And then the doors were opening.

A horrible shriek from Satoe Tachikawa filled the room, echoing around. Emiko's grip of me tightened and a panic set through the crowd. The virus had come through the shield and was now pushing the doors open with its force. This was it. The end.

A quick flash of my first days in the Digital World filled my mind. And the day I met Taichi. The day I'd found my crest, and when we fought Apocalymon. When Emiko was born, when I'd been married. Everything was flooding into my mind.

But it was all for nothing.

The doors parted to reveal something much less horrifying than the virus. At least momentarily. Behind the crowd I spotted the violet fog. Was that the virus? It was still coming!

A total relief washed over my body when I noticed the fog trapped outside the shield. It held up. The shield didn't break when the virus came to it—and we were totally safe. At least for now—and that gave us more time to figure out an escape. I couldn't stop the grin from settling on my face and I looked to Emiko, kissing her forehead. "It looks like we're going to be okay."

She leaned back, her eyes wide and wet, and she shook her head, not believing me. "H-how?"

"The shield." I whispered to her, "It's keeping us safe. You're going to be okay Emiko."

"But what about _Mom_?"

She'd called her 'Mom'. Not 'Mommy'. She was growing up, and it was because of the situations she'd been put into. It wasn't her fault. I silently prayed to whatever Gods might be listening that my daughter would catch a break for the rest of her childhood. I didn't want her to look back to the horror she had gone through in the future and feel she missed out on a childhood where she wasn't in constant danger.

"She's safe too." I promised. "We'll get her back." Emiko nodded, wiping her eyes and then she hugged me again. Over her shoulder, as she embraced me, I finally got a look at those who had made it to the Coliseum.

I saw Centarumon was walking with a Coelamon and Tomoki; Koushiro and Sora's fathers were walking together with Ken's not far behind. Yoshie Izumi was holding a sobbing Yuuko as the two made their way in through the doors; Little Kotemon and Dorumon were following the two of them as Digitamamon greeted them by the entrance; Natsuko and her boyfriend Yuudai were walking together, searching the crowd for Lunamon; Tinkermon and Babamon were both crying as they walked into MetallifeKuwagamon's open arms; Four Gennai clones were walking in together next, holding broken parts of a ToyAgumon; Falcomon, Candlemon, Hagurumon and Starmon followed them as a Tuskmon and a Tankmon followed behind with Shuu's Meramon. Shuu was quick to get to his feet and rush toward him with Jun's insistence.

Just past the larger digimon I saw the final group coming in. Tentomon and Gatomon walked in together, each of them looking horrified and distraught, Monodramon was right behind them trying to keep them moving and motivated. Daisuke was next as he walked with Veemon, holding Haruki in his arms. He was staring toward the baby, not breaking eye contact even to blink. I looked behind him, hoping to see Kurayami but found Mari instead, Warg, Melga, Dracomon and Tapirmon flocking around her, happy to see she was alive. Then Izumi stepped inside, DemiDevimon in her arms. Her face reminded me only of Mimi, and my heart pounded as a chill set into my skin. I slowly let my eyes fall behind her, begging those same Gods I'd just prayed to that Mimi would come in next, but it wasn't her.

Taichi was the last one. He stopped in the doorway and looked around, his face totally void of emotion, and he turned and closed the doors to the Coliseum, blocking out the virus from view. When he turned back from the door he was greeted by the same chilling silence that had been filling the room before. Only when Agumon jumped to his feet and ran toward Taichi to hug him did anyone say anything. And they all spoke at once. Emiko jumped in fright when the room exploded with questions, but they were quick to die down because Taichi raised his two hands in the air and everyone became silent once more.

We all stared at him, waiting for him to tell us what happened, but he looked confused. He didn't know what to say, and finally he turned his eyes on me, and stared for a moment. "I need to talk to Jou." At first it seemed to make no sense. Why me? But as he walked past each of the Gennai clones, collecting the broken ToyAgumon I understood more clearly. Taichi led the way out of the Antechamber, stepping over everyone along the way. I got to my feet, Emiko still clinging to me and asked if she wanted to come along. She nodded and so I set off. Monmon and Bearmon were coming too.

Taichi was silent all the way to the infirmary where the door was open a crack. He used his foot to open it wider and stepped inside. I followed him and watched as he gently placed the pieces of the ToyAgumon down onto the bed Jun had once resided in. He didn't make eye contact with me as he walked past me and toward the door, he simply waited for Bearmon to jump inside before closing the door. "Can you fix him?" Taichi asked, looking to ToyAgumon.

"Of course." I said, handing Emiko off to Taichi and pulling my chair up next to the broken digimon. It was simple to fix, like a puzzle. I got to work immediately, but knew there was more Taichi wanted to talk to me about. "What happened out there?"

Taichi looked to Emiko in his arms and shook his head. "I don't really want to talk about it." He admitted. "I just needed to get away for a minute."

"You relax," Agumon insisted, pushing a chair toward Taichi and forcing him into it. "It's been so long since I've seen you and I can't say I've ever seen you this stressed out! Everything here is being taken care of really well. The food preparation is all set, and I've been keeping everyone busy. I know you left Takeru in charge, but whenever he left I stepped up, he's gone right now actually, so I guess—"

"What?" Taichi asked sharply, leaning forward in his chair. "Where is Takeru?"

"We suspect he went to Primary Village to see Patamon," Agumon explained as I attached ToyAgumon's tail. "He didn't tell anyone where he was going, but I'm sure he's okay."

Taichi didn't respond right away, and instead just leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes gently. "What about Kurayami? I noticed she wasn't there. Daisuke looks depressed."

"Uh, okay, I don't know that either," Agumon admitted, pulling himself onto Noriko's old bed. I forced myself to keep her out of my mind. It made me even more nervous than I already was. Taichi hadn't told us anything about what had happened on his end, and it was killing me.

"Did Miyako ever make it back?" Taichi asked, his voice on the verge of breaking as he finally opened his eyes again.

"No..." I said quietly. I hadn't even known she was on the way.

"What about Kiyoko, or Willis?" Taichi asked. "Mimi? Are they here?" I shook my head again and dropped the green foot I had been holding. I quickly composed myself and attached it to the yellow leg of the digimon. His body was almost ready, and I wanted to get him back together right now so Taichi and I could talk seriously about what had happened. I put the blue piece back onto the body and then reached for the head with the hopeful looking eyes. I quickly set it on top of the body and ToyAgumon let out a triumphant yell, thankful to have his body back together. "And..." Taichi asked, this time his voice did break, and he stopped talking all together.

"She's not here." Agumon said, knowing who Taichi was talking about. I was sad to admit that it took me a moment to realize he must have meant Rei. "She went back to get something from home. She wouldn't let anyone stop her. She was going to go find you. I think she was scared."

Taichi set Emiko down and stood up, walking across the room, his face in his hands. I could hear his quiet breathing, choked and stifled as he tried to keep calm. He turned quickly and kicked the chair by my desk, sending it flying across the room.

"Bearmon," I said quickly, "Take Emiko to our room. Keep her busy." Bearmon acted quickly, taking Emiko's hand and leading her to the door. She looked to me, begging me to not make her go, but she had to leave. Monmon rushed after them to help keep her out of the room. I could hear her complaints, but blocked them out. "Taichi..."

"Don't," He said his voice thick with emotion. He let out a choppy breath and fell against the wall, sliding into a sitting position. He looked up to the ceiling for a moment and Agumon watched him, his own eyes welling up with tears. "It's my fault." Taichi said, and then he just broke down.

He was _sobbing_. I'd seen him cry before, mostly out of frustration, but nothing like this. He was gasping for breath and tears were pouring down his face. I moved to his side and threw my arms around him, hugging him, and he hugged back, but I knew it wasn't going to be enough. It would never be enough. But there was nothing more I could do. "Maybe she put up a barrier in your house." I offered, "Maybe that's what she went to do?" Taichi didn't say anything, but it didn't seem to help him any, so I didn't try again. I just let him cry for a while, as ToyAgumon tried his best to comfort Agumon who was crying just as hard as Taichi now.

"I-It's _my_ f-f-fault!" Taichi choked out, pushing me away from him. He threw his hands to his hair and pulled his legs up, resting his elbows on his knees. He sat for a moment, staring toward the floor through the gap in his legs, and then he took a slow shaky breath and wiped his eyes. He swallowed thickly and looked to the desk nearby for some help, pulling himself to his feet.

"You can cry, Taichi," I told him from my place on the floor.

He took another deep breath and then shook his head, turning to me, "Not right now I can't." He turned to the dusty mirror on the wall and tried to compose himself. "I'm supposed to be a leader. I'm supposed to go out there and keep everyone under control as we figure out what to do next. I'm supposed to make the plan, carry out the plan, and win the war that I started because I'm an idiot." His voice broke again and he adjusted his hair and slapped himself in the face to knock some sense into himself. "The only thing I have left of my family is Agumon and my mother, and right now that means I have less to lose than anyone else. I'm going to take control again."

"Hikari?" That was all I could muster, but Taichi didn't respond, he just turned to the door and on his way toward it he stopped and helped Agumon off of the bed he was sitting on, and together they strode out of the room.

ToyAgumon was quick to follow them and I pulled myself to my feet, racing toward them. I caught up to them in the hallway outside, and Taichi was walking with confidence toward the entrance of the Coliseum, not saying a word. When we reached the large chamber it seemed that we'd walked right in on a funeral. Everyone was silent again, but the groups had all been meshed together. Those who had come in from the outside were now amongst those who had stayed inside the Coliseum.

The first thing I spotted was Mari sitting in a corner, holding Terriermon close as he sat, shocked. Armadillomon and Wormmon were being comforted by Betamon who had backed himself into the corner opposite Mari just to make sure no darkness would sneak up on him. Labrmaon was crying as Veemon held him close, and Daisuke stroked his head, still holding Haruki in his other arm. Jun and Shuu were next to him with Daisuke's mother holding back her tears, a hand on Daisuke's knee that was raised to keep Haruki in a protective little shield. What remained of the Digimon council was all grouped together, Babamon and Tinkermon were still crying silently it seemed. Everyone else, which mostly consisted of family and their partners, were crowded in the center of the room, every one of them had someone to hold. I noticed Kae still had Masa in her arms.

Taichi grabbed a small step-stool from behind Katsue's desk in the corner and marched straight into the group of our parents, gently pushing Yoshie Izumi out of the way as he set the stool down and stepped onto it, to be seen more clearly, even if everyone was already sitting, aside from Tuskmon and Tankmon who were both too big to know what to do with themselves as they took up a large portion of the room.

Taichi cleared his throat, more to gather attention than to create silence because a pin could probably be heard falling to the floor. "I..." Taichi didn't seem so sure what he wanted to say, "I'm s-sure you all know what happened by now..." He said quietly.

"No!" Satoe said loudly, "They won't tell us. They want _you_ to tell us."

Taichi looked, very briefly, like someone had punched him in the stomach, but he nodded, "Alright," He said with more confidence than I expected. More confidence than I felt for sure. I was terrified to hear this. I didn't want to know what had Gatomon and Yuuko sobbing so hard. I didn't want to know how or why Mimi did not make it to the Coliseum. I didn't want to hear his stories. I was tempted to leave. To just find Emiko and pretend everything was okay. But I didn't.

I stayed, and I listened.

"The tanks that were surrounding the Temple left behind... weird, purple stakes," Taichi explained, "And then they left. We thought we were safe, but the tanks were never the threat. They only led us to believe they were."

"Are you implying that my friend died because of something that was not a threat!" a Roachmon called from behind Kae.

"No," Taichi shook his head, "I'm not saying the tanks weren't _a_ threat. They were just not _the_ threat. They were something to keep our focus while the enemy created a virus. The stakes they left behind were tracking devices, similar to the red orbs that many of you have had firsthand experience with. But this time they were not tracking a digimon, they were just pin-pointing a location for the virus to strike." Kae stood abruptly, Masa in her arms and she hurried from the room, taking him quickly. She was right. He was too young to hear this. _I_ was too young to hear this. "Sora called me earlier. I guess the barrier between worlds was broken just so she could. She was in danger, but she risked her life to warn me the virus was coming. And then it did. D'arcmon held it off for us, but she couldn't hold it forever, and she was lost in the mist." Tinkermon howled in despair, and Babamon held her gently. "On the way we lost another." My mind panicked. It couldn't be Hikari. I looked around and shock hit me when I realized how sad Tentomon looked even if he couldn't cry. Where was Koushiro? It wasn't him, was it? "Jackie," Taichi said quietly. My eyes fell to the Gennai clones, who all hung their heads in respect for their fallen brother. "But the rest of us... are okay."

"Then _where_ is Hikari?" Yuuko gulped in air between her sobs. "Where is she?"

"And Iori!" Meiyomon called out. I saw him holding Fumiko who looked like someone had literally ripped out her heart. "Where is my brother?"

"And my _Mimi_!" Satoe cried.

"Where is my son?" Kazuya asked at the same time, and that seemed to be enough reason for everyone to start screaming out questions and accusations, blaming Taichi for everything. He looked frustrated, calling out to them to calm down, but none of them did, each of them seemed to only get more and more frustrated until they set Taichi off too, screaming along with them.

"Shut up!" I looked away from my dad who was trying to calm Satoe to see that Mari had pushed Taichi off of his stool for a moment, and she had screamed so loudly and forcefully that everyone stopped in their tracks. "If you want answers, you all need to keep quiet because this is serious. This isn't a game, and not one of you is more important than the next. Taichi is one person and can only answer one of you at a time. So form a line like a bunch of six year olds or grow the hell up and take turns."

The familiar silence settled in again as Mari somehow managed to be cold enough to convince them all they were wrong, even in their despair. Taichi thanked Mari quietly and stepped onto the stool and nodded, "Hikari and Koushiro are in another world." He said nodding. "They're safe." Yuuko made a strangled noise of relief as Yoshie held her and smiled, however momentarily. "I don't know which one, but they're safe." Taichi insisted. "Willis, Kiyoko and Mimi all set out to the Coliseum hours before we did. I don't know where they are." Willis and Mimi's parents started crying, and so did Tapirmon, but I noticed Terriermon still looked to be in total shock. "Hideto was gone looking for Neo, but he never came back. Tatum went to find him and Michael, but I haven't seen either of them. Jenna and Natsuni both made it back to Earth, and so did Sora."

"So the virus didn't get her?" Toshiko asked, composing herself well.

Taichi nodded, "That's right."

"You said she was in danger though," Haruhiko said, "what kind of danger?"

"She appears to be in prison." Taichi said awkwardly, "But she's alive, and that's what I needed to know. She'll be okay, I can promise you that."

" _Prison_?" Toshiko gasped loudly, but Taichi moved on.

"I've been told Takeru and Kurayami both left." Taichi said, "I don't know where they are. Meiyomon, I thought Iori was here still—"

"He isn't." Meiyomon said flatly, "Neither are my siblings." Shinsetsumon and Shinramon looked affronted, "Most of them." Meiyomon corrected.

"I don't know where they are." Taichi apologized, "Does anyone have any information?" No one said anything. "No one saw Iori leave?" Still nothing.

Wait. I'd seen him leave.

"Outside!" I said suddenly. I'd been so caught up in listening to what was going on that I didn't remember my own experiences. "When I was coming back with Jun's antidote I ran into him. He was going outside. I gave him the key Willis passed on to me."

"He had a key," Taichi said, "That's good news. He's fine. He's one of the most logical people I've ever met. I know he used it. Iori _has_ to be in another world as well." Without solid proof, I didn't know that I would believe it. But it was hope, and that was something. That was enough for now. Especially for Fumiko who was laughing now, so pleased to have heard of her son's safety that she didn't know what to do with herself. Meiyomon was hugging her tightly and together they celebrated quietly. "Miyako is gone too." Taichi remembered. "No one could find her, and we think she left the Temple. She is not here."

I heard a whimper from the doorway and saw that Kae was back. She was crying now, but trying to conceal her tears, "Neither is Ken." She cried out, turning and leaving again. Kazuya hobbled to his feet and followed her as fast as his legs would take him.

Then Taichi looked toward Pal and Pul and I thought he was going to bring up Rei, but he diverted his eyes, "That's all I know," he said, nodding slowly as Agumon pulled Gabumon through the crowds toward Taichi. He looked down from his place on the stool and looked to Gabumon, and panic visibly set in on his face. "What is it?"

"Yamato is gone too," Gabumon said quietly. "I don't know where he went. I woke up one morning and he had disappeared." Taichi froze and stared at Gabumon for a long time. His face looked completely shocked and frustrated at the same time, and then the sadness showed as he bit his lip.

"That's all I know." Taichi repeated, jumping from his place on the stool and pushing through the crowd again. Agumon and Gabumon were right behind him, and I wasn't much further. I didn't will myself to follow him, but I was doing so anyway. He had pushed behind Tankmon and headed straight up the stairs through the archway. Gabumon tripped on the stairs and I stopped to help him to his feet only to have someone run into me.

"Sorry," Daisuke said quietly. Soon we were back up and running, straight up the stairs and out into the open arena of the Coliseum. It was mostly barren, void of anything aside from grass, and of course, Taichi. There were benches surrounding us and it felt as though millions of eyes were watching us, as if it were some cruel joke to have us locked in a fighting arena with no escape. Above us, rolling across the dome shaped shield was the purple fog that could only have been the virus. It was terrifying to see the thing that could have killed any number of our friends. Including, but not limited to D'arcmon, my sister-in-law and her husband, two of my very best friends, Iori and Mimi and even my partner, Gomamon.

My eyes fell to Taichi who was standing nearly perfectly in the center of the Coliseum, looking up to the sky, to where the virus was practically threatening to come in to kill us too. To where the sun was trying to reach us, but was unable to, so the light that poured through the fog was tainted and dim. It felt like a rainy day, only instead of rain clouds, it was simply death hovering above us.

"Taichi?" Daisuke asked, moving forward, following Agumon who had already rushed off toward him.

"Is he okay?" I turned at the sound of Dracomon's voice and saw that he was surrounded by digimon. Tapirmon, Warg, Melga, Armadillomon, Tentomon, Wormmon, Gatomon, Veemon, Labramon, Betamon and Gabumon. Standing amongst them all was Mari, holding Terriermon in her arms. This was all that was left of our team of Digidestined. Twelve digimon with no partners, and two people with none of their own. Two complete sets were all we had left. Luckily they were in our two leaders...

I turned back to Taichi, Agumon and Daisuke and when Veemon set off toward them we all did the same, moving as one, Veemon leading us all. And then we were with the others in the middle of the arena. A place literally designed for people to fight for their lives. And that was what we had to do now. It was something impossible to ignore as the violet tinted light poured down on us.

"It's my fault." Taichi said again.

"It isn't," Daisuke assured him.

"I declared war on Earth and then they sent a virus to kill us all." Taichi said flatly, "So if it's not my fault, whose fault is it?"

"Taichi," Gatomon said firmly, "You need to forgive yourself. You were trying to help."

"Gatomon's right," Agumon insisted, "Please just forgive yourself."

"I can lend you the strength to learn how." Armadillomon offered. "I-I don't know what else to do with it now."

Veemon rushed to Armadillomon's side and hugged him, "You heard them. Iori is alive." Armadillomon nodded, but was so unsure.

"Yamato wouldn't want you to blame yourself," Gabumon said timidly, "He always trusted you blindly. You were his best friend Taichi, and trust is important in friendship. He would have followed you off of a cliff if you said it was the right thing to do. And I agree with him. You did what you had to do."

"And besides," Labramon said, "The war isn't over yet. This is the first strike."

"But it wiped us out!" Tapirmon shouted.

"You do not know that," Tentomon shook his head, "The enemy may have inflicted total mayhem, but we all survived and we must have faith that our partners and friends survived as well. We must trust in them to come back. And even if they do not, we will not give up. We will fight to the very end."

"That's right!" Agumon agreed, "We're the partners of the great and powerful Digidestined. We have the crests inside of us."

"Speak for yourself," Warg said, rolling his eyes.

"Hideto has ours." Melga said, more politely, "And Kiyoko and Neo have theirs as well."

"It doesn't matter!" Agumon insisted, "We'll fight for our rights. And we'll do it at Taichi's side."

"You can't." Taichi said quietly. "Daisuke's the leader. Talk to him. He didn't kill anyone today." Daisuke wound up and punched Taichi in the shoulder, apparently very hard. Taichi looked annoyed as he favoured his arm, "What the hell?"

"Don't even," Daisuke shot. "You know exactly what the hell."

"He's right, Taichi," Mari insisted, "You can't hold this against yourself."

"How can I not?" Taichi asked, "I've made a terrible mistake."

"Anyone can forgive themselves from something horrible they've done," Wormmon said, "Once everyone they love forgives them too."

"And we _all_ forgive you." Betamon assured him.

Taichi looked unsure still. "You need to look at it from a different perspective," I told him. "If you look at the night sky, you see a billion stars. Each star shines brightly on their own, but until you see them all together you'll never understand the beauty. Taichi, you're one star in the sky, and you need to mentally separate yourself from your job. We're a team, and we all made the mistake. Together. Just because you are the ambassador doesn't mean this is all on you. Because there are no rules anymore, not after this. And I know this is entirely out of character, but I think it's fitting." Taichi finally turned, and looked at me, "We're not going to play by the rules anymore."

"I like the sounds of that." Taichi said flatly.

"So whatever your plan is," I told him, "I'll be behind you one hundred percent. Just like always."

"Me too," Agumon agreed, jumping up and down excitedly.

"We all will." Daisuke summed up what was sure to be a long team building agreement. "So that's the plan?" Daisuke asked, "We're going to break all the rules to get what we need out of this fight?"

"Yes," Taichi agreed. "They may have annihilated us in the first battle, but the war is _not_ over. And that, my friends, we _will_ win."

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Daisuke experiments with what a Holy Ground means to him, while Michael and Mimi explore a whole new world.


	5. Holy Ground

**Y/N:** This was a hard chapter to write, because I had to deal with a lot of different emotions from a lot of different characters. I hope the differences come across while you're reading it, because I tried quite hard to make things different.

 **U/N:** Oh, well I really like writing as Michael, and even though what happened to them was horrible it was refreshing here because Michael found relief in it. He had just been kidnapped, nearly tortured, and starved, and so going to this new world, even though it's not great, he's free and he loves that, so it was good to put him in a situation where he could just chill for two seconds.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 5: Holy Ground**

 _ **Daisuke Motomiya:**_

I was numb. I hated it, but I couldn't do anything about it. No matter how much I was freaking out inside, I was a frozen statue, staring unblinkingly at the wall of my room. The bed might have been comfortable, but I didn't notice. I'd been staring at the wall for hours.

It was all well and good to keep motivated and positive when I was surrounded by other people, others that expected me to be strong, and have all the answers. It was after Satoe had demanded I tell her Mimi had a key for the third time that I decided to get out, to hide away. How was I supposed to know if Mimi had a key? Why couldn't she remember that I didn't know for longer than twenty minutes? Why was it that everyone in the damned Coliseum thought that the digidestined had to know the answers for everything? I was just a person. I probably knew _less_ than Haruhiko Takenouchi, or Shuu. They were at least members of Koushiro's research team.

Out of the four remaining digidestined, I held out the longest. Taichi escaped early on, saying he needed to start planning the next step in this war of ours, and everyone was so excited that he was trying to fix things, that they respected his privacy. Mari had disappeared not long after. She just slipped away while no one was watching, and I hadn't seen her since. I had a sneaking suspicion she was using the occupants' respect for Taichi in her favour, and was hiding out wherever Taichi was. No one wanted to interrupt him. Jou managed to get away by using Emiko and Masa as excuses. He had to take care of them, make sure they were dealing with things alright, and had been given a wide berth as a result.

Not me though.

I was too nice. I stopped to talk to every digimon that tried to catch my attention. I tried to be reasonably hopeful, and supportive. I tried to answer questions diplomatically, and vaguely, while still actually providing some sort of an answer. It wasn't so hard with the digimon. It was the parents that had me on edge. Satoe wanted to know about Mimi, and since she couldn't find any of the others, she targeted me, even though I'd been at the Coliseum the entire time and knew no more than she did. Kae wanted to talk about Ken, and it just made me sad to talk about my best friend knowing he _could_ be dead out there, so I was avoiding her. Anytime Okotte got even _close_ to me I turned tail and ran. I could chat up Tuskmon no problem, but my father-in-law was just too scary.

Eventually, I realized they had the right idea, and hid away in my room. The moment I sat on my bed though, the reality of our situation came crashing down on me. Taichi, Jou and Mari were the only digidestined, aside from myself, that were left. Everyone else was gone. Sora, Koushiro and Hikari were in different worlds. We knew that to be true. Iori had the means to get to one, and I liked to think he was smart enough to utilize that method. He was probably okay too.

I wished I knew the same for everyone else. Takeru, Miyako, Ken, Hawkmon and Yamato all left without telling anyone where they were going. They could have been literally _anywhere_ in the Digital World when the virus hit. Mimi, Kiyoko, Palmon and Willis apparently left long before Taichi's group had set out, but they never made it. They too could be anywhere. Hideto and Tatum left to get Michael, though we had no proof they actually knew where he was being held. Gomamon had been captured too, and the only hope I had for either of them was that the DWD might've taken them with them when they left the Digital World before the virus spread. Rei and Lopmon had both left with a mission—different ones, but they were both clear. They chose a horrible time to leave though. Neo had been gone for ages. No one knew anything about his whereabouts. On the plus side, we also didn't know what world he'd been in when the gates were sealed. There was a fifty-fifty chance that he wasn't even in the same world as the virus.

And Kurayami, my beautiful, erratic wife, the mother of my son was gone too. I didn't know where she'd gone. I just remembered her round-about goodbye. I thought she'd be back before the virus spread. We were all caught off guard when it hit. I had thought we'd have longer—more time to prepare for siege. She'd left me here with no explanation whatsoever, leaving our son behind. It made me feel guilty that I was thankful she had. I didn't know _how_ to feel about the idea that he could've been out there with her. I'd lost my wife, but I could've lost my son too. I was so thankful I hadn't, even if I was being a terrible parent, staring at the wall like I was.

My eyes were burning, because I wasn't really blinking. Haruki's cries were stirring a little something within me, but it wasn't enough to get my limbs to actually move. I was well aware that I wasn't alone in my room. My mother had tracked me down. She was holding my squirming and whimpering son. He wanted his mother, not his grandmother. She was doing her best though. I heard her humming a lullaby that I recognized from my own childhood. Mom sang Jun and I to sleep with that song for _years_. Every nightmare was chased away with those soft notes, every hurt feeling, bump or bruise too. It cured everything for me, but it didn't seem to have the same effect on my son.

"Daisuke," Jun called. She'd arrived not long after Mom. I'd heard her talking with Mom, saying that she and Shuu were worried about me and Jou, so they went to track us down. She'd been trying to get my attention ever since she'd come into the room and taken a seat on Takeru's bed—directly across from mine and Kurayami's.

It just reminded me how empty this room would be at night now. Kurayami wouldn't be there next to me. Takeru's calm, steady breathing and light snoring—which totally existed, even though he adamantly denied it—wouldn't fill the air creating the sounds of home. Even Patamon was gone, having chosen to stay in Primary Village instead of the Coliseum. Veemon's loud snores and the soft sort of growl of Labramon wouldn't be enough to fill the silence they'd left behind.

And then my mind was reeling again, trying desperately to hold onto the hope that somehow, some _way_ , everyone was still alive, they were all fine. But the hope was constantly escaping as the numbness continued. It was much more likely that they were dead—no, _gone_. Dead was too final, it was too hard to even _think_ the word. I couldn't associate it with my wife. My Kurayami. But my traitorous mind continued to return to that thought, time and time again. Her and all the others could be gone, just like D'Arcmon was now, and Jackie, Etemon, Divermon, Yanmamon—a digimon I'd never met, and now _could_ never meet—a baby Chicchimon that had Sora and Koushiro had been unable to save, _Noriko_ , and Gennai and Lalamon. They were gone, _permanently_ , and my biggest fear was that Kurayami had joined their numbers, following right after her grandfather. I'd never really gotten a chance to say goodbye to Satoshi. I'd always figured I'd have more time.

I was wrong.

I wanted more time. Not just with Satoshi, but with Kurayami, and Takeru and Ken and all the others. I'd lost my wife, my roommate and my best friend all in one go. I'd lost Miyako, one of my oldest friends who was supposed to be celebrating her pending motherhood—that everyone knew about, even if she hadn't realized it—but never got the chance to do so. Almost all of Alias III was gone, and I'd never bothered to get to know _any_ of them. I felt like a schmuck about it too. Hikari was gone too, in a different way. She was as lost to us as Sora was. The worlds didn't open without the keys, and without the key that _they_ had, we'd never get to see either Hikari or Koushiro again.

It didn't hurt on the same level as the others though, because I _knew_ they were alive, just separated from us. It was easier to grieve for their loss, because they weren't _gone_. It still hurt though, losing the girl I'd once fancied myself in love with, who later accepted me unquestioningly into her family when I'd lost everything for my dream. No, I hadn't lost everything. Maybe at that time I thought I had, but it was nothing to what I'd lost now.

It _hurt_ to know that not only had my son lost his mother, but he lost Takeru at the same time. Takeru spent just as much time with Haruki as Kurayami or I did. He was like a third parent, or a crazy, fun uncle.

A sharp pain spread across the side of my face as Jun's hand collided with it, finally snapping me out of my frozen state. My hand came up to cradle my throbbing cheek. I glared at her and she didn't even care to look sheepish. Labramon—who I actually _didn't_ know was next to me, because he'd been so silent—pushed my hand out of the way and started licking my face, trying to make me feel better, which just made me feel guilty again, because Labramon lost _his_ partner too. We both had close ties to Kurayami, and I should've remembered that, instead of being so closed off. I needed to be strong for what remained of my family.

"Good," Jun said, after analyzing me and deciding I was finally back in the world of the living. I winced. Not a good choice of thoughts, all things considered. "You can't afford to be out of it Daisuke. Haruki _needs_ you. Everyone needs you. You can't zone out like that."

"I need you too," Veemon said, scaring the crap out of me, because he was _right_ beside me, now that Labramon had crawled onto my lap. I was the worst partner ever for not knowing he was there. I mean, I'd been completely zoned out, and only knew Mom, Jun and Haruki were there because they bothered to make noise, but still. Veemon was my _partner_. "You scared me, when you were like that."

"I couldn't help it," I said, and my voice cracked—both from misuse _and_ from the build up of emotions.

"You need to _learn_ to help it," Jun snapped. "I don't want to be the bad guy, Daisuke. I _know_ it's hard, and I know I would buckle under the pressure and stress and pain you're under, but that's why I'm not a digidestined. You need to get control of yourself. Thousands of digimon are in the halls, wandering around, not knowing what to do because no one is telling them anything. You're the leader of the digidestined, aren't you? So do something about it."

"It's just a technicality," I protested. "Everyone knows Taichi's in charge."

"And he's gone and blocked off the arena so he can think of strategies. That's not what the digimon want," Jun said. Labramon jumped off of my lap when Haruki nearly fell out of Mom's arms in his quest to get to me. I took him automatically, bouncing him in my arms without thought. "They need something to do. And it's not just them. They're actually more put together than the other digidestined's families. You need to do something with them. Mom and I are fine, but Willis' mother? I think she's in shock right now. Isao is doing his best to stand in for Jou, but there's actually a lot of hyperventilating going on. Iori's mother actually passed out because she was crying too hard. They need someone to talk to, someone to give them guidance. Tentomon is trying his best. He's gathered all of Team Mom, and is trying to come up with an inventory of everything we have here, so they can figure out whether we need to ration food. But one rookie digimon isn't enough. They want the digidestined to give them guidance."

"Did they ever think that maybe the digidestined are in the same boat as _they_ are, and that we could use a little space?" I asked angrily. "I didn't _ask_ to be a digidestined. I was five when they gave me the job, I didn't know what I was signing up for. I didn't say I knew everything, or that I was the one to go to in times of trouble. I'm not smart, Jun. These people can't depend on _me_."

"Don't sell yourself short," Veemon said, before I could _really_ get going on my rant. "You're not stupid."

"You're just not a genius," Labramon agreed.

"You make up for it in heart though," Mom said softly. "You've got such a big heart, sweetie. I know it's hurting right now. Mine is too, and I can only imagine how much worse it is for you. But you can't give up. I did once, and I lost _you_ because of it. I gave in and let your father dictate how our lives would be run, because I didn't _want_ to handle it. I didn't want the pressure. And because I laid down and let him walk all over me, I lost my son."

"I know you did," I said, rolling my eyes. "But the situation is a bit different, don't you think? You got me back in the end. Am I going to get the same chance?"

"She's just trying to help, Daisuke," Veemon said gently.

"I know," I said. "But no amount of motivation speaking is going to make me feel better. I can't _do_ anything that'll fix anything either. I'm not a miracle worker. We don't even have the crest of miracles anymore, or didn't you hear, Lopmon was out there when the virus hit."

"Don't make me hit you again," Jun snapped. Labramon whimpered, and I felt like a jerk again. "We know just how many of your friends were out there. We have a list."

"Wizardmon never came back from whatever mission he assigned himself," Veemon said. "I heard Tentomon telling Taichi. Leomon and Ogremon aren't here either. Mari thinks they might still be in the Dark Habitat, but no one can know for sure. We're just assuming that Biyomon and Patamon are still in Primary Village, but since we have no way of knowing for sure..."

"Meiyomon's real mad that his brothers and sisters weren't brought here, like he was promised," Labramon added. "I heard him screaming about it. He was so mad he almost blew up the bookshelf. Thankfully Yoshie calmed him down. We don't know how his explosions will react with the shield, and we can't risk breaking it."

"Armadillomon and Goblimon haven't come out of their room since we met in the arena," Veemon said, ticking off the numbers on his fingers. "They're really upset. They didn't really react when I tried to talk to them. They just miss Iori, Natsuni and Hikari too much. I haven't been able to _find_ Wormmon since Jou took Masa out to the arena to hide from everybody. He might be with them, but he might not. I keep seeing Worrmon everywhere, but it's never the right one. I didn't know there were so many of them still around."

"They worked at the library," I said, absentmindedly.

All of these not so gentle reminders that I wasn't the only one hurting weren't helping me. They just made me feel worse, because I hadn't even _thought_ about it. Wormmon lost Ken, Miyako, Hawkmon _and_ the baby. He was the only one left in his entire family. Gabumon was alone, he only had Yamato's mother, but they never really talked; he didn't really know her. Little Masa was pretty much alone too. His mother—and her boyfriend—and all of his aunts (and most of his uncles) weren't here, and he was only five years old.

I had to stop feeling sorry for myself.

But at the same time, Kurayami was my _wife_. The love of my life. I couldn't just suck it up and move on in a moment's notice. My heart may be big, like Mom said, but that just meant I felt everything deeply. Caring so much for other people just made it easier for me to get hurt. And I definitely _was_ hurt.

"What are you going to do, Daisuke?" Jun wanted to know. Mom held her hand up, giving Jun a dirty look. She didn't want Jun bullying me into doing something I wasn't prepared to do, and I appreciated it. But I knew Jun was right too.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, not even embarrassed about how much my voice cracked when I spoke. The emotions just came flooding out in the form of tears, and I was overwhelmed by the strength of it all. "How can I help others when I can't help myself? How can I take care of everyone when I've got a baby to look after? I don't want to be a single father! I can't do it on my own. I _need_ Kurayami! I need Takeru! I've spent so much of Haruki's life at work. He's not even all that comfortable with me. What if he thinks I'm a stranger? He's going to be so scared with just me. I can't—I can't—I—"

"Oh, Daisuke," Mom murmured, wrapping one arm around my shoulders as she gently wiped my tears off the face of my squirming infant. Veemon found a box of facial tissues and rubbed a giant wad of them in my face, trying to get the tears, and not being very gentle.

"You're doing it wrong," Labramon said, laughing. His laugh was a little choked though, like he was crying too. I tried to take a breath, and got a mouthful of tissue instead, sending me into a coughing fit. Once I'd successfully removed the undesired pieces from my mouth, I shifted Haruki, leaving my lap free. I patted it, then felt stupid, because Labramon was smarter than a standard dog, but he wasn't offended, and took me up on my offer. Veemon dropped the horrible wad of tissue and attached himself to my side, hugging Labramon, Haruki and me in one go.

"So, Jun," Mom said, trying to distract me from the obviously touchy subjects that they'd prodded me with without showing any restraint earlier. "Have you and Shuu talked about your wedding?"

"What wedding?" Jun asked dryly. "We're stuck in the Digital World, trapped in a Coliseum, surrounded by a cloud of death on all sides. We're not going to have a chance to get married, there's no point in planning anything. Obviously we weren't meant to be married."

"You're not breaking up with him," Mom gasped.

"No," Jun reassured her. "I love him too much. I just think the universe is against us being married. Whatever though, so long as we have each other I don't _need_ a marriage certificate, even though I _would_ like one."

I stood up suddenly. Thankfully, Labramon hopped off my lap _before_ I could unintentionally drop him on the ground. Veemon looked up at me curiously, but I shook my head. I knew they were just trying to distract me, but they chose the wrong topic, and Jun had said all the wrong things. It just made me feel _worse_. They had each other, they didn't need to be married, because they were together. It was like rubbing salt into my fresh wounds. Kurayami was gone. I didn't have her anymore. We _weren't_ together. I didn't like the thoughts that flitted through my mind. The jealously was overpowering. I furiously beat back the wish that we could change places. I _liked_ Shuu. I _wanted_ him to be my brother-in-law. His life wasn't worth any less than Kurayami's. It was wrong to want to swap them. But the wish came anyway.

"I'm going for a walk," I said sharply. Labramon and Veemon were coming with me, I knew that just by glancing at them. Mom and Jun were both working on protests but I cut them off before they could voice any. "I need some air. I need to think."

They seemed to realize I didn't want them to come and stayed silent. I didn't look back when I left. Veemon was on my left, and Labramon was walking on my right. His tail was mostly stationary as he walked, which was off putting. He was almost always in a good mood, and it was a constant reminder to me _why_ he wasn't happy anymore. I tried to keep my eyes from the reminder, but I slipped up multiple times. It was actually as I was looking at his tail that I ran into Tomotsu— _actually_ ran into him. He was looking down at the ground, not paying attention. Veemon's attempts to steer me out of the way weren't quick enough to save us from the impact.

"Sorry," I said quietly.

"It's probably my fault," he said. His voice was just as pained as mine, and it occurred to me yet again that I wasn't the only one, and that I really ought to start acting like it. He was still grieving for Noriko. He looked miserable, and he clearly hadn't been taking care of himself. I felt guilty for not doing anything, not helping him. I should have checked to see if he was eating, that he wasn't left on his own too often.

"How are you holding up?" I asked feeling awkward about it. I asked him exactly the same question I was avoiding being asked. I felt hypocritical. He raised his eyebrow at me, clearly thinking the same thing. "Dumb question, I know. Is there anything I can do?"

"Not unless you can get me out of this freaking place," he said wryly. "I'm trapped in the building my fiancé died in. If I step outside, I'll die the same way. I'm in a world I don't even understand, and the love of my life is literally disintegrating as we speak. I'm not even going to be able to give her a proper burial at this rate. I can't even tell her parents what's going on. They might not even know. If they didn't happen to catch that message your friend projected in the sky here, they definitely don't. That's not how I would have wanted them to find out."

"I'm going to make sure we honour Noriko's life," I told him, being suddenly struck with inspiration. "Kurayami's too, along with D'Arcmon, Jackie, even Gennai's since I don't think we ever did that. I'll arrange something for the arena later, okay? It'll be a celebration of life."

Not a funeral, because a funeral sounded too somber, too depressing.

"Really?" Tomotsu said. He seemed grateful for just the idea. He was touched and sort of pleased, which was sad really, because I wasn't even offering much. The slight happiness on his face made him look better than he had since Noriko died. It wasn't _really_ happiness, but I knew that this funeral was an important step on his way to moving forward.

It wouldn't help me too much, because I was still clinging to the idea that Kurayami could be alive out there. I could celebrate her life without thinking she was _gone_. We did it every year on her birthday anyway. It wouldn't be _that_ different—except, you know, she wouldn't be there for it.

"You should let people know," I told him. "Anyone you meet. Just spread the word."

He nodded, and walked off with a little more pep to his step, before stopping and turning back to me. "Have you seen Impmon anywhere?"

"No," I said, confused.

"He's probably somewhere," Tomotsu said, shaking his head. "I hope so anyway."

"Me too," I agreed, not wanting to add any more to my list, but fearing the worst anyway. Finished with our conversation, he headed off again, hopefully to get the word out.

Labramon looked up at me, eyes bright and excited. He nudged my leg and I knelt down and scratched his head. "Thank you," he whispered, even though I was doing it for myself just as much as anyone else. I was just glad I was doing something that made him happy.

"Let's go pick out a spot," I suggested. Veemon cheered and he started racing Labramon towards the arena entrance. I would have raced too, if I hadn't been carrying my son. I didn't think Kurayami would have appreciated me doing it.

I was shocked again, when I stepped into the open arena. I kept expecting the sun to be shining down through the dome that was protecting us, like it had before the virus showed up, but it didn't. It couldn't make it through the virus without turning dark and being tinted violet. It gave a creepy sort of atmosphere, like we were in the middle of a storm, but the rain couldn't reach us. It suited our current situation just fine, really. Veemon and Labramon were racing around, picking out different spots, only to rush off, finding one they thought was better suited.

Haruki's head fell onto my shoulder, and I looked down to him. He was sleeping now, out like a light. I sighed. "I'm sorry," I murmured to him. "I should have kept her here. I should have tried harder. I'm sorry your mom isn't here." He didn't react. He _was_ asleep. And three and a half months old, so he also didn't understand anything anyone said to him, because he was so small, but it made me _feel_ better, apologizing to him, getting it out into the air. I looked around the arena, hoping to find the perfect spot, and instead noticed that all of my fellow digidestined were hiding out here.

Jou was up in the stands holding a picture book open so the little crowd that was sitting in front of him could see the pages. Emiko was laughing loudly at whatever silly voice he was making, and Monmon was making his cheery monkey noises too. Masa was leaning on Bearmon's arm, fast asleep, despite the noise the others were making. His Kunemon was curled up on his lap, completely enthralled in the story Jou was telling. Wormmon was there too, though he was seated a little bit away from the group, not really paying attention to the story at all, choosing instead to stare at the sky.

Prying my gaze away from them, I saw that Mari was across the field, leaning against the wall that separated the spectators from the arena itself. Terriermon was on one side, letting her pet his head. She had an arm around Betamon as he curled against her other side. I winced. Betamon was terrified of the Coliseum, and I'd let _that_ slip my mind as well. He was afraid of the shadows here, and with the virus blocking out the sun... Warg and Melga were leaning on one another, sitting away from the wall, facing Mari. Tapirmon was floating on his little bundle of clouds next to them. Monodramon, silent as ever, was with them too, lying on his stomach with his head resting on his crossed arms.

It was Taichi though, that I gravitated towards. He was flat on his back in the very centre of the arena, staring at the virus that kept trying to break in, but was continually foiled by the barrier. It was actually kind of freaky to watch, so I didn't understand why he was doing it. Agumon and Gabumon were seated next to him, chatting with one another. Gabumon, from what I'd heard, hadn't left Agumon's side since Yamato disappeared, and he seemed to be continuing that trend. It was Agumon that noticed me first.

"Daisuke!" he called happily. "You found us. I told Gabumon that you'd be here soon, and I was right."

"Yeah," I said, patting my son on the back. "I found where you were all hiding."

"Sorry for making you deal with all of them," Taichi said, not sounding all that apologetic, and not looking away from the sky. "Did you bring the goggles, or did you leave them at home?"

"We literally packed up our entire house," I pointed out. "We _live_ here now, so yeah, they're here. They don't matter though. A bunch of people and digimon are going to be coming up here soon, because we're going to have a celebration of sorts for those that aren't with us right now."

"No," Taichi said firmly. "So about the goggles—"

"No?" I interrupted. "What do you mean _no_? We're having one, whether you want one or not. You don't have to be here."

"No we're not," he said. "We don't need a funeral."

"It's not a _funeral_ ," I protested.

"If it's celebrating dead people, it's a funeral," he said. "And we're not having one. My decision is final."

"It's good then, that _I'm_ the leader, and not you," I told him. "Because it _is_ happening, and you can't stop it. People are already coming."

"You need to run things like this by _me_ before you give it the go ahead. You're going to have to cancel it," Taichi said simply. "Now, about the goggles."

"Shut up about the stupid goggles!" I shouted at him. Mari was already on her way over, having realized there was a bit of an argument going on, but my shout caught Jou's attention. Veemon and Labramon came racing over too. "I'm not cancelling the celebration, Taichi. I don't care if you've got a stick up your butt, it doesn't matter. People are looking forward to this. They _need_ it. If you care about any of them you'll let this happen."

"It's not going to help bring them back," Taichi argued, pushing himself off the ground and up onto his elbows. "It's not going to change _anything_. Funerals are stupid, and they don't even _mean_ anything anyway. How is a funeral supposed to matter to the guy that's dead?"

"It's not _for_ the dead," I growled. "It's for the living, the ones that are left behind! It's a way to find peace with what happened and start healing."

"It's not happening," he said, trying to order me around. "Now go get the goggles. I need them to help me think."

"They can't help you," I said. "You've clearly lost your mind, and no pair of goggles is going to help you find it."

"Real mature," he said rolling his eyes.

"Pot, meet kettle," I said sarcastically.

"What's going on?" Veemon asked Agumon. He shrugged his shoulders, and shook his head.

"Just shut up and get me the goggles, okay?" Taichi asked. "I need them."

"They're not even important right now," I snapped. "What's important is the emotional stability of the thousands of occupants crammed into the Coliseum, but that doesn't seem to matter to you at all."

"What's this about goggles?" Mari asked Jou when he'd reached us.

"They're a ridiculous symbol of leadership that Taichi decided to give to Daisuke when Daisuke first became a digidestined. There was a fight once about who was the leader and they got passed around to different people. Whoever wore them was the leader and made the final decisions," Jou explained quickly. "I thought they were finally laid to rest when Yggdrasil was defeated, but I guess not."

"Their safety and eventual _freedom_ matters to me a hell of a lot more," Taichi growled. "Besides, funerals don't give people peace of mind; they just make everyone depressed for no good reason. They can be sad without one _just_ as easily."

"You let goggles decide who gave the orders?" Mari asked incredulously.

"You're just an ass, Taichi!" I yelled. "I can name a handful of people off the top of my head that _need_ this. You're the only one that thinks it's stupid."

"It wasn't one of our better ideas," Jou admitted.

"I think _you_ are stupid," Taichi shouted, sounding very much like a child. Haruki whimpered, telling me that he was awake again, and not particularly happy to be so. Labramon stepped forward and growled at Taichi. It was a deep menacing sound, and Taichi took a step back. Agumon got defensive real quick though, and moved so he was between his partner and the angered digimon. Veemon didn't like that very much, and put his dukes up, standing next to Labramon. Gabumon looked between his best friend and the two digimon at my side. He looked rather anxious, but thankfully didn't join their standoff.

"Give it a rest Taichi," I told him in a much softer voice than before, bouncing my son—who'd never made so many crying noises in his entire life as he had during this _one_ day—trying to calm him. "It's happening. My decision is final."

" _Your_ decision," Taichi snorted. "What about mine?"

"Don't you want to do something to honour those we've lost, or _may_ have lost?" I asked. "What about Rei? What if it was for Hikari?"

"NO!" Taichi bellowed. "She's not dead damn it."

"Taichi, be reasonable," Jou said, interrupting what was sure to be a rather cutting response from me. "You can't let your personal opinions get in the way of the popular vote."

"Why is everyone ganging up on me?" Taichi wanted to know. Before I could answer—"Because you're being a complete idiot, stupid"—a timid voice rang through the air.

"I like the idea," Terriermon said. "I want to—I want to celebrate my sister, and Willis."

"I want to do it too," Gabumon admitted. "I miss Yamato a lot."

"We want Hideto," Warg said as Melga nodded.

"And my mom," Emiko offered shyly, tears in her eyes.

"I want to celebrate Ken," Wormmon said. "And Miyako, and the baby, and Hawkmon too. Armadillomon and Goblimon will want to do it too."

"I want to celebrate Hikari, even if you don't, Taichi," Gatomon offered.

"Fine, do whatever you want," Taichi grumbled. The digimon cheered. They all rushed off to go spread the word more, upon Veemon's eager suggestion. I asked Mari if she could hunt down some stationary supplies, and Jou was dragged away by Emiko, who wanted to help spread the word. He cast an anxious look to Masa in the stands, but obviously decided that Bearmon was responsible enough to watch over the kid—especially since he couldn't move without waking him up—and let his daughter drag him away.

"So," I said, still bouncing Haruki—who was almost asleep again—against my chest. "Why don't you tell me what your _real_ problem is?"

Taichi looked up to me, and glared, but it melted away pretty quickly. I didn't think he was actually going to explain himself, so when he started talking I was more than a little surprised. "I have a problem with funerals. It's been that way since I was a kid. They just lost all meaning to me."

"You're going to have to explain that a little better," I told him, feeling completely lost.

"I know," he sighed. "Hikari was always sick growing up. You know that, _everyone_ knows that. What nobody really knows is that there were times when it got worse, and once it got _a lot_ worse. The doctors had all but given up on her. They said she didn't have long left. I'd grown up knowing that this sickness could take her away from me at any moment, and I was traumatized by that. I try my hardest to always protect her, even though it really ticks her off, _because_ of that. So when the doctors said she wasn't going to make it, I was counting every last second, desperate for some miracle to happen and to save her. And I figured my parents were doing the same, you know, because they had to love her just as much as I did."

"They do," I reminded him.

"It didn't seem that way," he said darkly. "They'd known she could lose her battle against whatever it is that she was fighting. I don't know if it was ever identified, all I know is that it gets better with access to the Digital World. Point is, they'd always known it could happen. They seemed to write it off. When the doctors thought she wouldn't make it, they started planning her funeral. She wasn't even gone yet, and they were working on getting her into the ground. They weren't even trying anymore. They were just done. It _killed_ me. It was when I realized funerals don't mean anything."

"Just because your parents jumped the gun doesn't mean they don't mean anything," I said as gently as I could.

"If they did, and they were really about celebrating life, then why don't people celebrate the lives while they're still being lived?" Taichi said frustrated. "I've hated funerals ever since. It doesn't matter to me if you celebrate a life when it's gone. You have to celebrate while the person is still around, or else you've failed them."

"They _might_ still be around," I pointed out. "And you can't tell me you don't want to honour D'Arcmon, or Noriko. They deserve to be honoured for their sacrifices, and their achievements and their _life_. We're not doing it for you anyway, we're doing it for those digimon that were abandoned that D'Arcmon took in. We're doing it for Noriko's fiancé, and all our friends' partners. We're doing this so that they are remembered, so that they don't feel like we're forgetting the people that are so important to them. I'm doing this because my _wife_ was out there, my best friend, my roommate, _our_ sister. I'm doing this because I remember them, and will _always_ remember them and I want others to share in their stories."

"I get it," Taichi said, rolling his eyes. It was just to prove a point. I could see his eyes were getting a little misty, but I politely ignored it, allowing him to keep his heartless persona. "I just don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can be there."

"Stand with your mom," I told him. "Lend her your support. Be there for Gatomon, Kamemon, Dorumon. Be there for Gabumon as he remembers Yamato."

"I'll think about it," he said casually. I knew he'd be there, so I let him play it cool.

Mari came back not too long later, dragging a tote full of paper with a bag of writing utensils resting on the lid. She was panting after heaving the tote all the way here, and I thanked her before spreading all the paper across a section of the wall. I left the tape in a pile at the foot of the wall, and sort of sprinkled the writing utensils across the papers. Mari rolled her eyes at me, clearly not understanding, but I had a plan, and I was really excited about it. I was sure everyone else would be too.

Probably.

I was still spreading papers around—one handed, because of my son—when the first of the guests arrived. Our partner digimon came in with a bunch of other digimon of varying shapes and sizes. My mother and sister came with them, and the other family members trickled in gradually after that. I spotted Tomotsu right near the front of the crowd and nodded at him. I realized rather quickly that _I_ was going to have to be the one that did the speaking, since Taichi wasn't interested, Jou joined the crowd, and Mari disappeared on me. I sighed and headed to the stairs. If I didn't have Haruki, I might've scaled the wall and gotten myself banged up in the process, but I decided to take the safe route. My heart was racing at the thought of being in charge of something so special and important. I knew I was going to mess it up. I would awkward and awful during my speech, but I felt like I _needed_ to do this, so I was going to go through with it anyway.

It didn't help that the sheer number of eyes staring at me was overwhelming. The arena was packed, and I didn't think they'd actually all be able to hear me, but I hoped that they would be able to get the gist of it anyway.

"Hi," I called as loudly as I could, wincing as I realized Haruki was totally going to be woken up again, and wishing I'd come up with an alternative plan concerning him. "Thank you all for coming as we celebrate the lives of those we've lost. Not all are confirmed cases, and some are even locked in alternate worlds, but we can't get to them, and I thought they deserved our thoughts just the same."

It wasn't a bad start, even if I was being all awkward about it. I was a little nervous when looking out at the crowd as a whole, so I tried to find someone that wouldn't mind if I stared at them consistently. I settled my gaze on Michael's dad, of all people, because I knew he was used to being in the spotlight, and was a good enough actor to keep a straight face even if I made a fool of myself.

"This is not a funeral," I announced. "This is a celebration of life. I want everyone to think about the people we've lost and the good times you've all had together. I want to take this time to truly honour them by _remembering_ them. We don't know just how many have been taken from us during the virus's spread. We don't know how many the DWD were able to take down. Their data has been deleted, and we may never know _exact_ numbers. But not one of those digimon or people was without friends. I'm sure of it. By remembering them, we're not letting the DWD win, because they could delete their data, but not our memories. There are a lot of shields put up across the Digital World. Chosen from around the world ensured to that, and I _know_ that hundreds of thousands of digimon are hiding away in them, safe from the virus. We don't actually have any way of knowing who got into which barrier before the virus hit, so there may be a lot of people that are still alive that we just don't know about yet.

"Like I said, this is not a funeral. We're going to celebrate everyone that isn't here today, because we may _never_ know," I yelled, trying to get my voice to spread as far as I could. "There _is_ a lot of hope to be had, but there _are_ some that we _do_ know about, and they deserve the recognition as well. D'Arcmon gave her life trying to hold the virus off before it could spread. I know Divermon was one of the first to go. A young Chicchimon, and Yanmamon as well." A small cheer came from his Roachmon friend that made a few others laugh. I was happy, because we were meant to be celebrating, and I knew _I_ wasn't in the mood to do it myself. "Noriko Kawada, who gave her life to protect her partner and left behind her fiancé. Jackie, who sacrificed himself to save a young digimon. Burpmon, who had a loving partner who I know misses him dearly." I paused for a moment, realizing that I really wasn't very prepared, because I didn't have any other examples off the top of my head. I was also afraid to look at Tomotsu, or Keiko, or any of the Council. Michael's father just nodded at me, and I drew in a deep breath, so that I could continue. "There are so many that have been taken from us here _and_ on Earth. It's heart-wrenching, and unforgiveable. We have to be strong for _them_ , take all those emotions that they create inside us and _use_ them to continue moving forward in our fight. We can't let them get away with what they've done."

A thunderous cheer roared around me, and Haruki squealed in surprise, wiggling in my arms. He was so shocked that he nearly escaped my arms. This wasn't what I _wanted_ them to take out of this. I didn't want them to be letting out a battle cry. I carefully secured my son with one arm and raised my other one. I stayed like that, one hand in the air, until they quieted themselves.

"I _don't_ want you to abuse their memories by using it to fuel cold-hearted revenge. That's not honouring them. I want you to keep their memories, their friendships, the love you shared. I want you to keep yourself strong and motivated. I actually thought we could do something for all of those that aren't here now, whether it's because the worlds have been locked apart, or because they were taken or separated. I want you—any or all—to contribute something to our memorial wall. A message, a memory, a picture—just _something_ to celebrate the lives of those we love," I concluded. Michael's father was confused, and I was sure that meant my idea was stupid. My eyes flitted away from him. I saw Tomotsu looking at the papers on the ground. I saw Gatomon rolling her eyes as Babamon started whispering to Tinkermon.

And then, _finally_ , someone moved.

Veemon raced forward, followed closely by Labramon. He fell onto the ground, grabbing the nearest crayon—a bright pink—and grinned up to Labramon who was peering over his shoulder.

"What'cha making?" Labramon asked.

"I'm gonna draw Kurayami," Veemon beamed. "Wanna help?"

"Yeah," Labramon said, his voice filled with emotions that I was feeling as well. I was so thankful that Veemon had latched onto my idea. He might've thought it was stupid, but he was doing it for me. And the idea that he was going to draw something for Kurayami really meant a lot.

"Find an orange one, Pal!" Pul shouted, as he flew over to the pages, picking out a nice pink piece of construction paper.

"No!" Pal complained. "They'll clash."

"Rei likes pink and orange," Pul said sadly.

"You're right," she said soberly. They flew up with their spoils and landed on the top of the wall next to me, and started scribbling. Pal had a pencil in her tiny hands while Pul drew a smiling face with a mess of orange hair. She started writing in teeny, precise lettering a story about how nice Rei was because she never got them in trouble when they broke the table, and was never mean to them ever.

It was Isao, really, that triggered the reaction in the crowd. He pulled his arm out of Aimi's grip, selecting a piece of crisp, lined paper and a pen before he started composing a letter for his son trapped on the other side of the barrier. Jou's shocked expression mimicked my own. I never would've expected the stoic man to lead the charge—and it _was_ a charge. There was a mad scramble to the papers, and the arena was filled with countless voices all retelling stories to one another. There was a sense of excitement in the air as they all remembered everything—big and small—that they could about our lost ones. It was beautiful.

I hunted Taichi down in the crowd. He met my eyes, and nodded as Agumon and Gabumon pulled him after Yuuko, who was collecting papers and pencils for them. I didn't think he would actually do anything with them, but I was happy that he didn't think this was a good thing anymore. It was impossible to think it was stupid when there was laughter and tears and smiles surrounding him on every side.

They needed this just as much as I did.

I looked away from him, scanning the crowd, feeling like a pretty decent human being—even if it _did_ feel like there was a hole in my chest still—and caught sight of Mari. She was up in the stands, a little ways away from me. She hadn't disappeared after all, merely relocated herself. She hadn't wanted to participate, but she _had_ listened—and that was really all that mattered. Figuring she could use some company, I set off towards her.

Haruki gurgled happily in my arms. The mood in the arena was catching, and I was thankful for it. I knew that it wouldn't be long before he was fussy again. He'd want Kurayami, and I couldn't get her for him. I wanted him to be as happy as he could be until then.

"Daddy!" Emiko squealed. I saw her running to Jou who was crying softly over his own letter. He looked up _just_ in time to catch her as she jumped into his arms. "Look! Look! It's Mom and Gomamon. Isn't it good? It's good, right?"

"It's good," Jou said—or I assumed he did, based on his reassuring nod. His voice had been drowned out by Satoe's sobs as she tried to tell her husband what to write, since she was in no state to write it herself.

"T-t-tell her tha-that we l-lo-ove her," Satoe instructed Keisuke, who nodded and did as he was bid. "She c-can r-read it la-later, when she g-ge-gets back."

I stopped paying attention, because it was a private moment for them and their missing daughter. I was also distracted by the sight of Bearmon standing over Masa protectively, keeping the excited digimon around him from squashing the poor boy. He was still half asleep, but he was colouring in the little hearts he'd drawn around the picture of him holding Chiziru's hand. Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon were fetching him different coloured crayons so that he'd have a really impressive picture for his mom—if he was ever able to give it to her.

Roachmon was drawing a memory of his friend, Yanmamon, and I saw Keiko surrounded by her fellow Dark Spore children as she tried to do something for her Burpmon, even though her hands were shaking too badly. Not everyone was ready to add to the Memorial Wall either. I saw Natsuko staying back, as did Kae and Kazuya. Fumiko couldn't handle it, and had to be escorted away by Andromon because she was so out of it she couldn't walk on her own any more. Goblimon and Armadillomon were hanging back, debating whether they would contribute something. I knew that not everyone needed to do this as a form of therapeutic healing. It wouldn't help everyone. And I knew that not everyone would be ready to try it right away. But the wall was already speckled with papers that were deemed complete. I knew Emiko was drawing a second—or third—picture already. I could see her hunched over it, working furiously.

I turned away from the crowd again, and sat down on one of the stadium benches. Mari was sitting on the row in front of me, and was a little to my right. I didn't want her to think I was pressuring her.

"Wanna hold Haruki?" I offered, getting a little agitated at his squirming by that point. I didn't know how Kurayami did it. She held him almost continually up until we _finally_ got Emiko's old things. I would've ripped my hair out.

I ignored the part of my brain that realized I'd never get to ask her just _how_ she did it.

Instead, I focussed on Mari. She shook her head and gazed out at the people waiting for their turn to contribute to the Memorial Wall.

"Yeah," I said. "It's a big crowd. I'm not going to write anything for Kurayami until later, when the crowd dies down. I kinda want it to be more personal, between her and me. There's so much I want to ask her, you know? So much I need to tell her, and I can't right now. Someday, maybe, I'll get that chance. Maybe... I really wish we'd talked more about how we wanted to raise Haruki. I don't want to do anything she wouldn't like." I realized I was rambling and stopped. Mari's shoulders were sort of hunched, and I could tell without seeing her face that she was very sad. It hurt to know that, and know I couldn't do anything to lift her spirits. No amount of corny jokes could change her mood. "Are you going to take a turn?"

"No," she said with a hollow sort of voice. I just couldn't keep my mouth shut.

"Why not?"

"You won't want to hear it."

"Yeah I do."

"I don't want to dash your hopes."

"Just tell me. I can take it."

"They're all dead," she said in a dead voice. "They're never coming back. There's no use spreading hope like this when it can only hurt people in the long run." She was so convinced of this fact, and it was like getting stabbed in the chest. I tried to channel my inner Takeru though, and latched on to the faint traces of hope before they could escape me. She wouldn't break my spirit. Not when I _needed_ Kurayami so much—and Takeru, Ken and all the others. "That's just the way things go. Willis was out there, and so was Lopmon. I have to take care of Terriermon now, because he's all alone if I don't. It's the same with Betamon, and Dracomon, and Warg, Melga and Tapirmon. All of my friends were out there, and they're all gone now."

"You can't know that," I protested, trying to get her to see that there was hope—not much, but _some_. I couldn't let her get the best of me. No matter _how_ sure she sounded.

"I can," she argued. "The universe hates me. It wants to ruin my life. Any time I get even _close_ to being happy, it tries to destroy me again. Marshall and my parents happened, and then my grandmother was gone and then _Lalamon_... None of that managed to break me though. I was almost there, you know. I was almost happy again. I should have expected this. I'm not allowed to be happy. My near happiness cost me everything— _everyone_. I can't expect them to come back to us; that's not how things go for me. I have no faith whatsoever that they'll be back. I'm sad, yeah, but I'm angry about it all."

"Is that what they might have wanted?" I asked, scared of the answer. She clenched her fists and turned to face me for the first time since I'd sat down.

"Does it matter? They're gone, and I'm still here. That's why I'm giving up on all morals," she said with a fierce glint in her eye. "I'm just going to kill whoever killed them all. _That_ is what is going to make me feel better, not art time in the arena."

"That's a really self-centered view of things, making it all about you," I pointed out. "You think the universe is out to get you, and that's why our friends are gone? It's not all about you."

She shrugged her shoulders and looked away. I could only see the back of her head—and the mess of hair that lived there. "I told you that you didn't want to hear it," she reminded me. "You're the one that wanted to know what I was thinking."

I stood up then. I didn't want to give the anger that was bubbling into existence inside of me a chance to grow any more. We couldn't afford to be angry with one another. We needed to present a united front. If walking away was the way to ensure that happened, then I was willing to do just that. I didn't even say goodbye, I just walked back towards the crowd, catching sight of Wormmon, who was sobbing as he tried to pick up a red marker, even though he had no fingers.

 _That_ was why we needed hope, so that Wormmon could be reunited with Ken—and the rest of his family—again, and Mimi could meet with her parents. So that Haruki, Emiko and Masa weren't missing their mothers for the rest of their lives, and so that Fumiko could go more than five seconds without bursting into tears.

Takeru wasn't here, but that didn't mean I couldn't do my best to substitute for him until he could come back. No matter _what_ Mari said, I would always hold onto that hope.

I had to.

I also had to give Wormmon a hand, so I headed for the stairs, bracing my son in my arms and set out to brave the crowd.

 _ **Michael Washington:**_

"Palmon!" Mimi shrieked again, swinging every part of her body around desperately in her attempts to open the doorway that would lead back to the Digital World. But it couldn't. Because it had closed. She was sobbing, and her hands were around the twisted, ornate knob, and she was pulling with all her might. The top of the door dissolved into floating pixels as it vanished from existence, like it always would do once being shut. Slowly the dissolving made its way down to where Mimi's hands were clinging, and ripped the golden handle from her hand. She gasped as it did so and she kicked the bottom of the door, desperate to break it and make her way back through. But soon enough the entire door had vanished, and her final kick swished through the cloud of dust that had once been our escape route, and then Mimi fell to the ground.

She reached into the dazzlingly green grass and her fingers wrapped around the key that had fallen as we had scrambled through the door. She grabbed it and shoved it forward, trying to reopen the door. When it didn't work she tried again. And again. And again.

"Mimi," I said quietly, moving to sit next to her. I was ashamed to admit but my mind immediately jumped to the grass and just how soft it was. It felt like a cushion off of the most comfortable couch ever. The ground had never been so comfortable. I placed my hands around Mimi's and she relaxed for only a second and then she quickly shoved me out of the way, trying again to open the door. "It only goes one way, you know that."

"Then why didn't we leave it behind?" she asked loudly. Despite her tears her voice was determined and angry, but only sadness was present in her glistening eyes.

"What do you mean?" Tatum asked gently, trying to calm Mimi. Lopmon clung to Tatum as she leaned forward, trying to get to Mimi's eye level. It worked with children. To not seem intimidating, you make yourself seem smaller, maybe if Mimi felt that we weren't all against her, she'd stop yelling.

Mimi held the key out to her side and dropped it into the grass. "Just like that," she said. "Leave it behind."

Hideto slapped his forehead and he groaned. "We're idiots," he muttered. "If we left the key behind after we'd opened the door then someone may have been able to _find_ the key and use it to come get us."

"That doesn't seem likely," Lopmon said. "That someone would be able to find the key. It's big for a key, but still small."

"Well they'd have a much better chance finding it if it wasn't here with us, wouldn't they?" Mimi said, annoyed. She got to her feet and kicked the key further away from herself and it tumbled down the hill we were on. Lopmon leapt from Tatum's arms and chased after it. "Then we could go back! And we'd find Palmon." Mimi's voice broke on the name of her partner. She looked away, crossing her arms. "I want to go back and get her."

"We will," I promised feebly. "Somehow." Mimi didn't even regard what I'd promised as important apparently because she looked away intently toward the dark sky. The exact colour of the sky was somewhere between an Egyptian blue and a Persian blue, dark and completely clear. There were no clouds to be seen, and not a single star in the sky that appeared to be night and yet even without the lights from the sky everything on the ground seemed to be glowing. The grass on the hill we had landed on was bright and shimmering, the trees in the distance were beautiful and tall, and even with how far away they were I could nearly make out each individual leaf like each of them was calling to me, and each had a different life, a different story. Stretching for miles was the same green grass we were sitting on now until it came to golden sand and a clear ocean full of water that reminded me only of the Bahamas, but deeper, clearer, and more inviting. Everything about the place could only be described as... magical.

"He's right," Hideto said, pulling me from my daze. "We're going to get back there. We all have too much to lose staying here."

"How will we get back?" Mimi asked loudly. " _How_?"

"Uhh..." Hideto turned to look to me for an answer and that apparently seemed to be an invitation for Mimi to as well. With both of them practically begging me for an answer that I didn't have, I started to internally panic, desperate for _something_ that could give them both hope.

But it wasn't me who came up with it. It was Lopmon. "The Looking Glass," she said brightly.

"The what?" Mimi and Hideto asked. But I knew. And it was genius. There was a looking glass in each world, and they were ultimately just small ponds that were all linked together to form a connection of the worlds. I didn't exactly know the history, but I knew they existed, and that was enough for me.

Tatum turned toward Lopmon thoughtfully, scooping her back up along with the ornate key, and for the first time I got a look at it. It looked like a fairy wing, and that could only mean one thing. This was the home of the fairies. The world where the Summer, Winter and Spring fairies were from. A grin set in on my face, despite everything we were all going through, and I couldn't help myself. I scratched my eyebrow awkwardly trying to hide my grin and I turned from the others, but then my hand fell.

The others had all been facing toward much different scenery than I had been. Behind me, down the hill was the coolest city I'd ever seen. The buildings were of all different shapes and sizes, made of different materials, some of stones, some of clay perhaps, one looked to be made of a pile of sticks even. There was a massive castle in the center of all the twisting roads, and everything about the place seemed to be held together with some strange mystical force. Maybe it was magic even.

"Okay," Mimi said, cutting off Tatum in her long description of the Looking Glass. "Where is it? We can go back right now, right?"

"In theory," Tatum agreed. I turned back to the others, reluctantly tearing my eyes away from the beautiful city. "We would have to find it though."

Mimi looked upset that we would have to put a lot more effort than any of us would have liked into finding our way back. "Maybe the residents of the world know where it is," I suggested hoping to get a chance to look around the city before we went back to the virus infected world. It was really selfish, but I had gotten very little sleep the past few days, and very little to eat or drink. I had been captive, and right now, I was free thanks to my amazing girlfriend and Hideto, who I didn't talk to very much. "We could ask around that city."

"That's probably a good idea," Hideto agreed. "But let's not be stupid about this. We have no idea what goes on in that city, and I'm not taking any chances with what happened recently. I'm not trusting anyone."

"What do you suggest then?" Mimi asked.

"Tatum and I will go into the city," he said. "You and Michael stay here. If we're in danger, we'll let you know with the digivices, and you come save us."

I was upset that I wouldn't be the one to go the city, but I didn't want to object because they'd just saved me. I'd let them do as they pleased. Hopefully they would know enough to bring me back some food though. I was starving and with the noise my stomach kept making was loud enough for them to hear and to understand. Tatum and Hideto nodded to each other and then they headed off. Tatum smiled to me, but didn't say goodbye. That felt good, knowing that she trusted this enough to not feel like she was in imminent danger.

I fell into the grass and Mimi sat next to me, sighing. "No one notices me," Lopmon said, her arms crossed. I flopped my head over and looked to her as she leaned against Mimi's legs. "I got out of the Coliseum with no trouble, no one ever listens to me because Terriermon is louder, and now Hideto asked you two to save them—and no offense, I think I'll do a better job." As she said it a fly fluttered from the sky and landed on her nose. Lopmon blew at it through her mouth and the fly flew off.

"You can help save them if they're in danger," I said throwing my hands behind my head to prop it up as I stared at the enchanting sky. There was something about the total blankness of it that interested me. "Hopefully that won't be an issue though."

"When was the last time any of us did something that didn't result in danger?" Mimi asked, pulling her pale pink sweater closer to herself, and wrapping it around her bare legs. "And how many ridiculous adventures will it take for me to get it right? In what way did I think these shorts were proper for a war? I should have known there would be constant nights in the forest. There always is!"

"Would you like my jacket?" I offered, sitting up and pulling my arms through the sleeves. Mimi shook her head. "No, it's cool. It's green, and it's clashing with my shirt."

"I love red and green together," Lopmon sighed. "Reminds me of Christmas." She sighed, as Mimi thanked me for my jacket and spread it over her legs before laying back in the grass too so her head was right above mine. Lopmon moved closer and snuggled up to us, and honestly I was so comfortable I could have fallen asleep. And I may have too if Lopmon hadn't continued speaking. "Christmas was the one time of the year Terriermon agreed to not argue with me. Actually, it was on a Christmas day that I met Mari, too. Christmas is my favourite day... but it won't ever be the same if we can't get back to the Digital World to find Willis."

I clenched my eyes in attempts to keep the emotions back. It obviously hurt to think of the unknown, which was why I was trying not to do it. "Willis is fine, I'm sure." I could almost hear Lopmon rolling her eyes with how dramatic her movements were. "Right Mimi?"

"I don't know," she responded quickly, her voice thick. "He and Kiyoko ran off. I-I couldn't go with them. I needed Palmon."

I was silent for a moment, panic fighting with hope in my chest and finally one thought changed the battle, allowing hope to overcome the negativity. "Willis is smart, and Kiyoko may just be even smarter. They definitely found a way to survive. Kiyoko has his computer with him all the time, right? Maybe he made a barrier."

"Yeah," Lopmon said brightly, hugging my arm. "Maybe. And Terriermon is in the Coliseum."

"With Betamon," I agreed. "They'll keep each other company until we get back."

"Do you think we will?" Mimi asked quietly. "I want to get back. I want to find her... and..." Mimi was crying now, and didn't want to say much. She sat up and caught her breath, turning to me as I sat up with her, and she hugged me. "Koushiro..." she cried out. "He was at t-the T-Temple."

"Crap..." My lack of a filter failed me as my voice spoke on its own accord. Mimi gasped at my voice and I shook my head. "No, he's fine. He's smarter than Willis and Kiyoko combined. I'm _sure_ he found a way to keep himself safe, and whoever else was at the Temple."

"But he _didn't,_ " Mimi said flatly. "D'arcmon _died_." The panic and the hope were at war again, but this time for Koushiro's life. There was no way he would have died. It just seemed that geniuses could not do so. There was some sort of protective magic around them that kept them from dying. And that magic was their logic and common sense. Koushiro was a fast thinker, and once I'd seen him rewire a cave into a passage way, changing the entire plane of the Digital Landscape and ultimately teleport into the meadow that started my Digidestined journey. Whatever had happened at the Temple, I had to simply have faith in Koushiro to protect anyone else that might have been there with him. "Koushiro is d-d-dead!"

"No, he isn't," I insisted. Mimi pulled away and looked to me, scared. And I couldn't blame her. She had gone through the very worst couple of months. First her restaurant had been burned down, and then she'd been beat on at a fashion show, and then her life as a pacifist had been threatened when people started actively hating on digimon, resulting in her getting a serious head and side injury. Then I was kidnapped on her, and I was her friend, that was still a thing. Then her very best friend, Palmon's life was put at risk because of the tracking devices and she had had to run for her own life and for Palmon's. And then she had been unknowingly put into a war, something she vowed to never do, and had been constantly forced in to, and now, after she'd been promised peace, it had been broken so soon, and then she had been specifically threatened by the general of the opposite side of the war, and then a virus came directly toward her and she'd been separated from her partner, and had no idea if most of her friends, or her boyfriend was alive anymore. And to top it all off, she was thrust into a different world she knew nothing about with no promise of ever returning home to her family. I had to turn this around for her. I had to. "Do you trust him?" Mimi nodded slowly. "He'd never die on you like this. He wouldn't do that to you. He's not dead Mimi. He's smart. Maybe someone at the Temple had a key."

"They had the time key," Mimi said, her face brightening. "Do you think they'll go back and change it all?"

"Maybe," I offered, though I doubted it.

"Maybe we'll be out of here before we know it!" Mimi said, actually smiling.

"Hopefully," Lopmon sighed, unhelpfully.

Then there was a beeping sound, which was a relief because I was scared that I wouldn't be able to keep Mimi happy much longer. The beeping was coming from Mimi's digivice. I didn't have one myself, it had been taken from me when I'd been captured. I was pretty sure Marshall had it. If only we could communicate between worlds with these things, then I could warn Sora, who was the only one of us known to be on Earth, to _kill_ Marshall to create everlasting peace. The fairies had said it. When all the great evils were killed, peace was sure to follow. Mimi pulled her digivice from the pocket of her short jean shorts, and she held it closer to her face. "Hello?" she asked.

"Mimi," Hideto's voice came through, muffled. "You guys should come check this place out."

I reached forward and grabbed the device from her. "No deal unless you have a sandwich waiting for me." As if on cue my stomach growled loudly and both Mimi and Lopmon smirked. "Please?"

"I don't think that'll be much of a problem really," Hideto said. "Just come." I shrugged, tossing the digivice back to Mimi and reaching to pick Lopmon up. She shouted in annoyance when a fly landed once more on her nose. She was frustrated and she buried her face in my shoulder when I stood up. Mimi offered me my jacket back but I let her keep it for now. I wasn't cold anyway. She put it on over her sweater and we headed down the hill for the first time.

I was excited to be on the move again. Mostly because this world intrigued me more than frightened me. And the idea that I was trapped here didn't make me feel at all claustrophobic, or homesick because this was a place I'd always dreamed of coming to.

"What are you so happy about?" Lopmon asked. "You realize your whole family could be dead, right?"

"First of all," I said shaking my head. "The barriers totally would have held up. I trust them."

"Have you even seen them?" Mimi asked.

"Tatum told me about them," I admitted awkwardly, since I hadn't actually witnessed them. But Tatum took part in making them and I trusted _her_ , and so I trusted the barriers as well. Especially since Koushiro and Kiyoko and Willis and Andromon and Tentomon and Centarumon all helped make them. That was a ridiculous team of intelligence. "Also, I was told Jenna was on Earth, so she's okay. And like I said, Willis is smart enough to not die."

"Still though," Lopmon said. "Why are you happy?"

I shrugged awkwardly. I hadn't actually wanted them to see my happiness because this really wasn't the right time for it. Lopmon wasn't wrong. It was a horrible thing to be smiling at a time like this, but I really couldn't help it. Maybe it was because I was tired, or maybe I was just a horrible person. "This is kind of like home," I said as vaguely as I could.

"This looks nothing like New York," Mimi said, confused. "For one thing the sky is clear, the air is dry, the grass is—well, existent—"

"I don't mean literally," I said quietly. "I just... this is my mother's home world." Mimi nodded in understanding, suddenly remembering what we'd learned about my mother. I'd always been too scared to ask her sisters about her because I didn't know the story, but here I could find out on my own. No one could stop me and it wouldn't be rude if I just happened upon information about her. This was something that could mean a lot to me, and I was trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

"I forgot you were half-fairy," Lopmon said with a chuckle.

"At least I don't look like a dog," I said back with a grin.

"Not cool, Michael," Lopmon said, shocked. "The bunny jokes are funny when directed at Terriermon, but calling me a dog? Low blow."

"Double standards!" I said loudly, blocking out her complaints. And then we were both arguing loudly about whether or not it was okay for me to call her a dog, if it was okay for Terriermon to be a rabbit, and then Mimi started laughing—it was awkward and choked—but still laughter. And then she stopped very suddenly, all together. She froze completely still, and looked ashamed that she'd laughed. Then she shook her head and pushed forward, walking faster than before. Lopmon and I shut up instantly and followed her, keeping up with her quick pace.

Soon enough we were coming up to the welcome sign for the city, held up by two trees that appeared to be made of metal. It was really cool in any case. It was hard to miss Tatum and Hideto standing by the furthest post even if they were both dressed completely in black clothing after their attempts at blending in with the DWD. Hideto stayed where he stood, resting against the post, but Tatum hurried forward. For a moment I thought they'd asked us to come simply because they were too scared to go in, but Tatum seemed amused more than anything.

She took my free hand and dragged me along. Mimi was still walking faster than we were, still upset with herself. She stopped under the big sign and looked toward the city, stopping in her tracks. I was excited to see what had everyone all confused and bewildered and when I stepped up to stand by Mimi, Tatum still holding my hand, I couldn't help but grin.

The first thing I spotted was a woman, a little overweight, but beautiful and happy. She was wearing a long green dress and had two wings shooting from her back. She was floating off the ground, not bothering to walk, and her face was painted with shimmering golden markings. Behind her, holding a large crate of something heavy was a man who was furry and very muscular, and if I wasn't mistaken, he had a tail. There were balls of fire shooting around excitedly, but something about them told me that they weren't dangerous, probably because of the element of fun they gave off with their bouncing, and the trails of light they left behind. And there was an old woman walking toward us, a grin on her face.

"Hello!" she called out before she reached us, but her hobbling did not falter. "Who are all of you? From a different town?"

"Different World," Tatum corrected honestly. "We were wondering if there was a place for us to stay."

"Oh I don't know about that," she said, "I'd offer you a place in my home, but I haven't any room left! I've too many children." She looked disappointed with herself for a moment and then she brightened up again. "Why don't you head to the pub? Newcomers always visit there. It's a highly populated place in town y'see, so you might find what you're lookin' for in there."

"Thank you so much," Tatum said kindly as the woman nodded and waved to us happily, before turning and leaving us like she had somewhere she desperately had to be.

Hideto led the way, looking around at all the buildings, seemingly better put together than I was at least. I was too busy watching everyone we passed. They all looked to be having so much fun, like every action they played out was the most exciting thing they'd ever done. And they all looked so majestic in their own rights. The people with the wings were the most interesting to me as they seemed so out of place. The streets were made up of many stones, and the buildings were more often than not, made of wood, so the town mostly seemed very old fashioned. There were the interesting ones I'd seen earlier, and I was happy we'd passed the house made of sticks. It was hilarious. Literally just a pile of sticks, and there was a hole underneath for someone to crawl into. But the fairies just looked so pretty, like they were all princesses walking amongst common folk.

That was me, I guessed. I was the common folk. I probably looked so normal compared to them. Everyone here was smiling brightly and kindly, and their skin practically glowed in the light that came from exactly nowhere. I was still dressed in that red plaid shirt and black jeans. I looked like a normal human—there was nothing special about that, and I certainly wasn't glowing.

Then Hideto finally stopped in front of the pub. It was fairly obvious what it was because the sign did not have words on it, only a picture of two glasses of beer, and there were people pouring out of it. "Damn," Hideto muttered. "I was hoping to actually get something to drink." He shrugged, but kept going, tapping someone on the shoulder. "Hello," he said quickly, not wasting any time.

The man he had tapped on the shoulder turned and revealed himself to be the first person to not be smiling. "Does this place sell food?" I asked, stepping into the conversation greedily.

"Yeah," the man said with an accent, running his hand over his bald head. "Is a'ight."

"Oh good," I smiled. "I'm starving."

"And," Tatum added, looking to me both amused and annoyed. "We were wondering if anyone knows of the Looking Glass?"

"And, or a place to sleep," Hideto threw in.

"Ye could stay in the inn," The man suggested. "But is darned es-pensive."

"Espensive, is it?" Lopmon asked, and I squeezed her tightly for making fun of the man, but he didn't seem to have heard.

"As fer the lookin' glass," he said. "I ain't heard o' it."

"Wonderful," Mimi muttered.

But her negativity was unnecessary because someone nearby turned around and had the same worried expression on her face that the man we were currently speaking with did. Not sad, or angry or frightened, but not happy either. "Did you say the Looking Glass?"

"Yes," Mimi said, hopeful.

"I've read about that," she said quickly. Lopmon slapped at her face, catching my attention as she chased a fly away again and she quietly threatened to eat it as it flew off. "It's said it possesses magic. The only person who has ever seen it is the Wizard."

"The Wizard?" I asked excited.

"The Wizard?" Hideto repeated in a very disbelieving tone.

"You have to _believe_ , Hideto," I said with a grin. He rolled his eyes.

"The Wizard," the woman said with a smile. "But I haven't seen him since his argument with the Queen. When was that...?" She asked as she tried to think back to just when she'd seen the Wizard last. The fact that she was talking about a Wizard and a Queen was enough get me hooked on whatever the crap was going on in this world. "I haven't any idea where he is at the moment. But he'll help you." She smiled and turned back to the pub.

"Let's get some food first," I practically begged.

Mimi looked to me, frustrated, but said nothing. Hideto spoke instead. "I'm hungry too, but we should really focus on getting back to the Digital World."

"Right," Tatum said awkwardly, but there was something she wasn't saying outright. Not yet anyway. I'd have to ask her later. "So we're not eating?"

"We go find Palmon," Mimi said determined. "And whoever this Wizard is, if he can help me get to her, then I need to find him. Like, right now."

"Then it's settled," Hideto shrugged.

"We're off to see the Wizard!" I couldn't help it. It had to be said.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Hideto and Willis take the baton from the previous narrators of their respected worlds as they make their way Out of the Woods.


	6. Out of the Woods

**Y/N:** I really enjoyed writing the world Hideto is in. It's so out there and crazy and fun. None of the other worlds can really boast the same at this point. It was just so much easier to write _that_ world, since this is our first opportunity to explore it. I always felt like we kind of cheated in 05, when we said this world existed, and then just _didn't_ go there. Now we have the chance. And it's glorious.

 **U/N:** I know that Willis was fun to write, but I know I wasn't happy with it for several attempts at writing it, because the world he's in, which you already know is Witchenly, was kind of hard to like… write in general. It was interesting though, playing with Kiyoko and Rei, who I don't normally get to deal with at all let alone through Willis. So yeaaah, I hope you like it and all.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 6: Out of the Woods**

 _ **Hideto Fujimoto:**_

For a bunch of people that seemed to depend heavily on this Wizard guy, no one seemed to know where to find him. We'd spent an hour wandering around this strange, miss-matched town asking anyone and everyone we came across if they could tell us anything helpful. No one could. They all seemed rather fond of the guy though. They all told us the same thing: he hadn't been seen since he fought with the Queen. It was as if that was enough for them. If I were in their place, and the magic guy _I_ looked up to suddenly disappeared, I'd do something about it. I'd hunt him down and demand answers. Not that I have a good track record of actually finding people.

Tatum took like five minutes to locate Michael, Neo _and_ Gomamon, when I'd been searching for days. It was sort of a sore spot for me.

"This is never going to work," Mimi groaned, throwing her hands into the air. "We're never going to find the Wizard, which means we'll never find the Looking Glass, and we'll never get back to Palmon! This is stupid. What's the point in even trying?"

"Don't say that," Michael protested. "We'll find her. We'll get back to her, and Betamon, and Monodramon and Warg and Melga. We'll be with our friends, and everything will be great. We just need to hang in there. We'll find him eventually. I mean, he fought with the freaking Queen, so that means he's got to be around her someplace, right? We can _see_ the castle from here."

He was right. The Wizard fought with the Queen. Presumably, this fight took place within the castle walls. No one was able to share details of it, which would actually make sense if it happened in the castle, and they were all outside.

"The castle!" Tatum cheered, clearly coming to the same conclusion as I did. "We'll go there. Even if the Wizard isn't there, the Queen would be. She most likely knows where we could find him. This'll be a piece of cake."

"Cake..." Michael said longingly, rubbing his stomach. It hadn't stopped making annoying noises since we got here. I totally understood though. He'd been kidnapped, and there was no way the bad guys would have stopped to think about feeding him. They weren't going to treat him well, that kind of took away from the tying him to a chair thing. Starvation was just a part of torturing prisoners into giving in to their kidnapper's demands.

I was hungry too.

I hadn't exactly packed a lot of stuff when I went out on my failure of a search and rescue.

It didn't matter how much either of our stomachs protested though, Mimi refused to take a break. She wouldn't rest until Palmon was safe in her arms. But Palmon could be anywhere, and I wanted so much to believe that she was fine, but I couldn't. Lopmon assured us that she had a phone that was keeping her invisible, and keeping her protected from the virus—which should've been a comfort to me, but it wasn't. She was lost in the virus—even if she _was_ still alive. How could we just assume she was okay, _just_ because the virus didn't eat her? She needed food and water just like the rest of us. How was she going to find _that_ in the middle of a virus desiccated wasteland?

Thankfully, I was rather good at suppressing unwanted thoughts and feelings from all the years of pretending I didn't have a family. I shoved away all unpleasant thoughts for the time being, and followed after Tatum, who was leading our way to the castle. Lopmon was skipping at her side, waving happily to a child covered in fur. He laughed, running over to our rabbit companion, but his mother scolded him for trying to leave, and scooped him into her arms—also covered in the same golden fur—and started to lecture him about strangers.

We were obviously a rarity among the town too. They clearly weren't prepared to have tourists from other worlds. People kept staring at us. I readjusted my hat nervously. Tatum and I were dressed entirely in black—making us stand out like a sore thumb, and Mimi was wearing red and green, looking very much like Christmas had come early. The fact that we were wearing _modern_ clothes, though, might have been the main differentiation. Everywhere I looked, the females were dressed in dresses or skirts, and the men had knee high boots to tuck their tights into, and were wearing tunics that made them look like they too, were wearing dresses. I hadn't realized we'd fallen into the dark ages.

There was no way in hell I was going to be wearing tights. No way, no how. We had to get to the Wizard. _Fast_. I didn't know how long I could justify wearing the same pair of pants _just_ to get out of wearing the clothing of the natives of this world.

I could do without the staring though.

It didn't take too long to get to the castle walls. Instead of a moat, there was a tall, stone wall surrounding the castle grounds. There was only one entrance, a gleaming gate that shone in the non-sunlight. I really wished I could wrap my head around the lack of sun, or moon, but I couldn't. The sky was just a deep blue with blinking stars sporadically placed, and the light seemed to be growing up from the ground. There weren't even _clouds_ to look at up there. It was really disconcerting.

Mimi waltzed up to the gate, and started heaving on it, trying to get it to open. When it didn't work, she grabbed the steel bars, holding them tightly within her fists, and pulled harder, eventually planting her feet on the bars themselves—which was actually _hindering_ her. I thought only cartoon characters were stupid enough to do that, but Mimi's desperation to find Palmon clearly had no limit. "Open, you stupid thing!"

At the sound of her cry, two guards came rushing towards her, having come from seemingly out of nowhere—but were probably just around the corner—and were holding spears in their hands. Mimi let go of the gate instantly, holding her hands up in surrender. The fastest guard just started laughing, shaking his head.

"The castle is closed to the public, ma'am," he said, finding her attempts more humorous than dangerous. She seemed offended, but honestly, I was just thankful they hadn't stabbed her right through the middle with their long, pointed spears. Almost all of our other friends could potentially be dead. I didn't really want to lose _Mimi_ on top of that. She was my boss—or used to be—and one of my closest, non-Alias III friends. It would've really sucked.

"What!" she demanded. "Why?"

"Because of the ball," the second guard said, looking at her with narrowed eyes, taking in her shorts—a very unladylike thing to wear, obviously. He let his eyes drift over the rest of us, focussing on Tatum's own pants, and my baseball cap. We didn't fit the norm, the entire town had already managed to point that out for me, but he seemed to be personally offended by our clothing choices. He was wearing a leather tunic under some chainmail and shining, silver armour. Both guards were, and they had matching silver helmets with great plumes of black feathers coming out of the top of their heads. _And_ they were wearing tights tucked into their leather boots. I didn't think he really had any ground to make fun of _our_ attire. I rolled my eyes at him.

"There's going to be a ball?" Michael asked excitedly.

"Yes," the second guard said stiffly. "All _eligible_ persons will be permitted to attend."

"It's tomorrow evening. The castle should be open to the public again, as early as the end of next week, after everything gets cleaned up of course, and everything's back to normal," the first—and much more pleasant—guard said. "It's not a playground, of course, but if there are any concerns, they can be brought to the Queen using the proper channels."

"The end of next week?" Mimi squeaked. "I can't wait that long. Palmon could be dead already."

"Thanks for your help," Tatum told the pair of guards, and she and Michael dragged Mimi away—not even trying to be subtle about it—and left Lopmon and I with the guards.

"Yeah," I said. "Thanks."

"But they didn't do anything," Lopmon protested. I rolled my eyes again, and picked her up, walking away at my own leisure. I didn't feel the need to do the polite thing, and excuse myself. The one wasn't too bad; it was the other guy I was trying to snub. It totally worked too, because the nice guard was rather cheery, calling after us, wishing us good tidings, and the other guy was grumbling about how beggars and street-rats had no manners.

Yep.

He called us street-rats.

"What are we going to do?" I asked, as I caught up with the others.

"Get lunch?" Michael suggested.

"We're going to storm the castle. _That's_ what we're going to do," Mimi said firmly, a strangely maniacal glint in her eye.

"No," Tatum corrected. "We're going to see if we can find lodging for the night, and then we're going to come up with some plan to get into that ball tomorrow night, so we can find the Wizard and get out of here. There's no need to wait a week when we've got a perfectly good opportunity open to us tomorrow."

"I think we've got a _better_ opportunity open to us _right now_!" Mimi insisted.

"Do elaborate," I said, rolling my eyes again. They were all being rather dramatic about it all.

"What's the point of waiting until tomorrow night, when we can just go out there and find the Looking Glass on our own," Mimi asked smugly.

"Obviously the point is that we have no idea where the Looking Glass _is_ , and therefore it will take us a lot longer than you think to find it. This world could be humongous. Bigger than Earth even," Tatum pointed out.

"That is logical," Lopmon admitted. "I want to go home. So if we have to wait for the ball to do it, I'll wait. It's easier that way, since we don't know if we _ever_ would have found it if we started looking on our own."

"But," Mimi protested weakly.

"I'm thinking we can start with lunch though," Michael threw out there, just in case we didn't hear him the first time.

Evidently, Michael's desires still held no value to Mimi and Tatum, because we _didn't_ stop to eat. It was starting to irritate me too, because I couldn't admit to being hungry _now_ , not after ignoring Michael the entire time. Not that it would do me any good, because they didn't care about _him_ , and he was Tatum's boyfriend, and one of Mimi's closest friends. I didn't really rank quite as high as Michael did on the importance metre.

So instead of complaining, like I _wanted_ to, I just followed after them, playing little games with Lopmon while they tried to barter with inn keepers, and random civilians, offering them yen and American dollars in exchange for a night of lodging. Not surprisingly no one wanted to take them up on that offer. They obviously had a different currency. The look on their faces when Michael offered to use a credit card was priceless though.

Lopmon and I had developed a pretty competitive game with a complex point system in the meantime. Any time we saw someone with fur, we got a point, wings were worth two. A pet was worth six, and an independent animal that didn't take no orders from anybody was worth eleven (that one was Lopmon's creation). So far, Lopmon had stacked the point system against me, and was winning eighty-six to thirty. It was keeping her happy, so I didn't complain about that either. She deserved to be distracted. She was separated from Willis, but that didn't bother her as much as I thought it might. She'd been separated from him before. It was _Terriermon_ that was bothering her. I could tell, because dogs that looked like rabbits were worth twenty points—not that we'd seen any. Other than Terriermon, I didn't think any actually existed. Still, she kept her eyes peeled, just in case.

I might've talked to her about it, if I wasn't purposefully suppressing everything. If I made her talk about Terriermon and Willis, I knew she'd turn the tables and make me talk about Warg and Melga, and Kiyoko, and Mari, and my evil family—and how I entrusted Gomamon to my brother, who was included in said evil family. And how Neo had chose that evil family over me...

"This isn't working!" Mimi screamed in frustration. Several people stopped what they were doing and turned to her. A little girl dropped a basket full of small wooden sticks, and Lopmon hastened to collect them for her. A kid tripped in surprise and face planted on the street, ripping a hole in his pajamas.

"Quiet," Tatum hissed, but Mimi wasn't having any of it.

"We're never going to find somewhere to stay; we're never going to find the Wizard. We'll never get home!" she cried, falling to her knees and burying her face in her hands. Her shoulders shook with each sob as her fragile emotions burst forth.

I ran a hand over my face. I couldn't keep up my facade. It was like she was the devil on my shoulder that opposed Michael's angel. He was upbeat, and enthusiastic, and hopeful, something I _so_ wanted to be at the moment, but she contested everything he was saying, and she was so distraught about everything and I was afraid that I would easily be swayed by her.

She _was_ the last one to have seen Kiyoko, she had more insight than Michael did...

No.

I forced every last inkling of the thought out of my mind.

"Are you looking for a place to stay?" I peered through my fingers and caught sight of a woman. She was wearing a floor length skirt of a deep, blue, and a button-up, crisp white shirt that covered everything from throat to wrists, to waist. Her hair was pulled back in an old fashion sort of way that seemed very appropriate for this world that seemed both unnecessarily complicated and modest all at once. Her face was void of any make-up, which caused me to notice that that was the same of everyone around us. They all just _naturally_ had flawless skin that glowed in the mysterious light. Their heavy, dark eyelashes just _grew_ that way, and the occasional rosy cheeks or blood-red lips were created organically, instead of artificially. This woman, though she had the flawless skin, her cheekbones were a little too sharp and her lips were thin. She had some modicum of beauty in her, but it wasn't quite as obvious as the others.

"Yes," Tatum answered.

"I have a place," the woman offered. "I couldn't give it to you for _nothing_."

"We don't have any money," Michael said miserably.

"There are other methods," the woman said, giving us all a once over with a sharp and critical eye. She narrowed her eyes on Michael, and nearly sneered, but she seemed abundantly pleased with both Mimi and me. I am not ashamed to admit to feeling _pleased_ at that. Lopmon barely got a glance, and she seemed a touch confused as to what to think of Tatum, but tilted her head, and shrugged her shoulders. "I live alone, in a house outside of the city. It is too much for me to handle on my own. If you could work on the chores, it would lift a heavy burden from my shoulders. I would very much appreciate it."

"Chores?" I questioned, not feeling so proud anymore. She probably thought I'd be good at cleaning a gutter, or painting houses. Both were things I had no desire to do.

"We'll do it," Tatum said quickly. "Hear that Mimi? We won't be sleeping on the streets after all. We've got something to keep us distracted now too, while we wait to see the Wizard."

"I guess that's okay," Mimi said, sniffling all the while. Her sobbing had subsided at least. The woman helped her to her feet, and linked arms with her. She quickly told us to follow her, and led the way, chatting with Mimi the entire time. Lopmon hopped back into my arms, and we continued our game until the buildings—strange as they were—faded into country side. The forest was coming up on us, and I thought for a second that she was leading us out of the city for a nefarious purpose, but she brought us to a wooden house just on the edge of the woods. It wasn't particularly amazing, but it was a nice, solid building, and it would be enough for one night. The windows didn't have any glass, which meant that mosquitoes could come inside during the night—if they even existed in this world. I crossed my fingers, and hoped that they didn't.

The woman let go of Mimi just as we were coming to the front door. She hurried inside, leaving us all standing there, awkwardly twiddling our thumbs. We didn't want to waltz right in as if we owned the place. I took the time to get a better look at our surroundings. The house was made of logs, instead of wooden boards like I'd originally assumed. There were paths worn through the grass from the sheer number of times she'd walked along them. There was a small, second wooden structure that housed a cow. I could hear it's mooing from where I was. A large rectangle of dug up earth housed vegetables of varying shapes and sizes. They weren't pretty though, and the weeds were threatening to choke them out. With a lot of work, maybe there would be enough to keep the woman fed throughout the winter, but as it stood, she wouldn't stand a chance. Leaning against one of the longer walls of the log house, was a pile of chopped wood. It was an uneven collection, and far too small. In an old fashion world, such as this one seemed to be, she would need to use the fire wood to heat her stove, so that she could eat. It seemed to me that there actually _was_ far too much for her to do on her own.

But it also seemed like she was the reason there was too much to do. Did she ever do _anything_? The look of the garden, and the dwindling wood pile suggested otherwise. There was a general look of abandonment about the house, even though she lived in it. The holes where glass windows _should_ be, gave me a glimpse at the unattended interior of her humble abode, and the cow was begging to be milked, and depending on her actual schedule for that, I wouldn't be surprised if the cow dried up soon, or got mastitis from lack of milking.

I was then struck by how much I now knew about cows, thanks to Kiyoko's recent obsession—which led to me remembering the uncertainty of his survival, and put me in a bad mood, yet again.

Thankfully, the woman returned, pulling open the heavy wooden door. I noticed it was attached with leather hinges, like something from pioneer days, and wished once more that mosquitoes weren't indigenous to this world we'd stumbled into. She had a wicker basket, the handle tucked into her elbow. A swatch of cloth—a deep blue—covered its contents, but I thought I could smell cinnamon, and gingerbread. My stomach gurgled eagerly. Michael's face lit up.

"I need one of you to deliver this to my mother," the woman said firmly. "It's terribly important, as she's ill. She lives in the woods, so you'll have to be careful not to stray from the path. Bad things are in there, but the path is generally safe. I thought maybe Mimi could go? Mother would simply adore you dear." She looked to the jacket Mimi had been wearing and thought for a moment, "I've got a lovely cape for you to wear. It's getting chilly, and whatever you're wearing doesn't look too warm."

"Thank you!" Mimi said eagerly taking the bright red material that the woman offered her. There was a hood, which she threw over her hair, and a little black clasp that fastened at the hollow of her throat. There were no sleeves—because it was a cape, obviously—but she tucked the material around her shoulders, looking quite cozy. The woman handed over the basket, and Mimi grinned when the woman smiled brightly at her.

"I can, chop some wood, I guess," I said, spotting an axe in the grass near her dwindling wood supply. She beamed at me, flashing me the same smile she'd gifted Mimi with.

"You are so thoughtful, dear," she said happily. "I knew I liked you. You can accompany Mimi into the woods, make sure she finds the path alright. I am so happy to have found the both of you."

"Yeah," I said, starting to get a little creeped out. There was literally no reason whatsoever to like me _this_ much, _this_ fast—especially when Tatum, Michael and Lopmon were my competition. No one in their right mind would pick me over Michael. He was like the only digidestined to be friends with all of us, not just a selected handful, which meant he was like the most likeable, right?

"I can help cook, if you give me a few instructions," Tatum offered. Mimi and I both gave her the stink eye. If we'd known we could offer to _cook_ , then we probably would've fought over doing that, rather than giving a stranger cookies, or chopping down frigging trees. "I've never cooked without electric appliances before."

"Thank you dear," the woman said with a mostly happy smile, though she still seemed generally confused. I didn't know if she still didn't know what to think of Tatum, or if she was confused about the electrical appliances. It didn't seem like there _were_ any of those around this place.

"And _you_ ," the woman sneered, giving Michael another once over, and still coming up dissatisfied. "There's sweeping, and mending, and washing, and dusting, and weeding to be done. The cow needs milking, or she'll continue this complaining all through the night. The roof needs fixing, and the milk needs churning. The berries need picking too, or the birds will get them all. Of course this lovely lady here will help make them into preserves, the sweetheart that she is. The chimney needs a good cleaning as well. And when you finish up with those, I'm sure there'll be something else."

We all looked to her with wide eyes, and I had to hold back my laughter. There was just no way this sweet woman could be serious. She was a little creepy, but she wasn't a drill sergeant. Michael might not have had a maid back home, but there was no way he knew how to do most of the chores she'd listed.

"You'll simply _have_ to start with the kitchen," she continued. "We won't be able to make tonight's porridge if you don't get us some clean surfaces to work with."

"Ma'am, yes Ma'am," Michael said, sounding entirely horrified. He ran inside, and the woman smirked, seeming self-satisfied.

"I'll give him a hand," Tatum said. "Since _I_ am the one that's going to be cooking, not him." She gave the woman a glare, but the woman didn't seem to care.

"I have some material," she continued. "You'll simply _have_ to make drapes. The windows just look so barren without them, don't you think? And once you prove your sewing skills, we'll see about you throwing together a few dresses. They would _have_ to be beautiful, if we were to wear them to the ball, though I suppose—"

She'd drifted too far inside for me to hear her clearly anymore. "She's serious," I said in shock. Mimi nodded, looking guiltily at the basket she had to deliver. Obviously, _she_ felt she got off too easy.

"Who eats porridge for dinner?" Lopmon wanted to know. "And how come _I_ didn't get any chores?"

"Lucky duck," I grumbled, walking over to pick up the axe, glancing into the nearest window as I did so. Michael was on his hands and knees scrubbing the wooden floor with a brush, a bucket of soapy water at his side. Tatum was carrying another bucket of water in through what appeared to be a back door. I winced, realizing that they had to pump the water themselves—which meant there was no indoor plumbing.

"Do you want help, Hideto?" Lopmon asked, bouncing at my side. She was looking eagerly at the forest, and I knew she wasn't excited about chopping wood.

"Go on, explore," I offered, and she laughed, running off into the woods. I sighed, swinging the axe a few times, trying to get a feel for it. This was _not_ going to be easy.

Mimi wrapped her fingers around my hand, and pulled me towards the path the woman had instructed we follow. The path looked bright and safe, and welcoming. Once glance to either side though, had my skin crawling. It was as if the non-sunlight was afraid to enter the woods surrounding us, leaving them mysterious and dark. Vines fell in tangles around the trees, and I swear I saw eyes blinking at me, like they do in old cartoons.

"Too bad about the cooking, huh," I offered, trying to peel my eyes from the spooky woods, wondering if they looked scarier to _me_ , because of what the woman said. The woods Lopmon had raced into didn't look nearly so frightening. I kind of wished I'd gone with her and left Mimi to her own devices.

"Kinda," Mimi said with a shrug. "I don't know if I would've wanted to cook without Palmon, you know? She's my muse. Without her, I doubt I'd enjoy making anything. Besides, it's just porridge, right?"

"Yeah," I agreed. Porridge was boring. It also wasn't typically _dinner_. "She probably doesn't have anything else to offer us."

"Poor Michael," Mimi sighed. "He was so excited to be here too."

"He's the only one," I pointed out. "Maybe now he'll be as miserable as we are."

"I miss Palmon," she cried softly. I thought she'd start crying again, but she held herself together. Her hands shook, and her voice wobbled, but no tears fell. I was almost positive it was because she'd already used them all up though. "And Koushiro, and Sora, and Jou. Tentomon was out there too, you know, with Koushiro, Mari and Taichi."

"They're fine," I said automatically. I'd been trying to convince myself that Michael was a genius all day. Everything he said was right; I just had to believe in it hard enough. "Michael said they had a computer with them. And one of them could have had a key, right? They could all be in another world right now, and if they aren't, they're in a barrier. They're fine."

"I want to believe that," she said. "It's just so hard."

"I know what you mean," I said quietly. I hadn't meant for her to hear, but she squeezed my hand.

"Kiyoko?" she murmured.

"And Warg and Melga. Tapirmon and Mari. Don't even get me started on _Neo_ ," I said, snarling his name. She gasped at my unconcealed anger. I pulled my hand out of hers, and went to run my fingers through my hair, only to encounter my brother's baseball cap. "I left Gomamon with the enemy, Mimi. There's so much that we can't be sure about, and it's driving me crazy. I can't even go and rescue him. I swore I'd go back for him, but I _can't_ now. I don't even know if I can actually trust the guy that's keeping him safe. If I can't trust Neo, who _can_ I trust?"

"You can trust in Mari's strength and determination," Mimi suggested. "Trust in Koushiro's obsession with computers, in Taichi's stubbornness. Trust that Willis wouldn't let anything happen to Kiyoko, and that Kiyoko wouldn't let anything happen to Willis either. Trust that Kiyoko and Koushiro had the means to create those barriers. Trust in their intelligence, because it's never failed us before. That's what I'm doing. If I can't be there to _know_ that Palmon is okay, then I'm going to have to put all of my faith in our resident geniuses. I have to trust them, even if they don't know my middle name. It's _so_ hard, and I've already second-guessed them a lot in just this short of time, but I'm trying. I'm really trying. Taichi's stubborn enough to hunt us all down, and he'll have to find Palmon for me, and bring her back to Tentomon and Koushiro, and they can be a family still, even though I'm not there with them."

"I suppose Mari's determined enough to keep Kiyoko and the others safe in my absence. She's actually better at it than I am anyway," I said with a half-hearted laugh. It was actually true. Mari _was_ better suited for it, but it didn't make me feel any better. If Mimi and Michael were right, and Kiyoko _had_ put up a barrier to save Willis and himself, then he was trapped in a bubble surrounded by the virus on all sides. Just the thought of him in that situation scared me. He was so prone to panicking, and had so many fears. It _hurt_ to know that I wasn't there to help him through it. That Tapirmon, Mari, Warg and Melga weren't there either. He was doing this with Willis. They were friends now, I supposed, but Willis didn't have enough experience with him to know what to do to keep him calm.

"Hideto," Mimi said gently. "I'm not saying forget about them. I'm not even saying not to worry. It's natural, I think, to worry at a time like this—I know _I_ am. But there's nothing we can do until we talk to the Wizard. We're going to have to trust the others until we can get there and do it ourselves."

"I know," I said, shaking my head. "I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"Me either," Mimi said, her voice shaking like mine had, betraying her true emotions. She wasn't trusting the others quite as much as she implied she was, that was for certain. I didn't blame her though. "So, how long do you think it'll take Michael to figure out how to churn butter?"

"It's not that hard," I said, defending his honour. She laughed.

"You know how to churn butter?" she said, raising an eyebrow at me incredulously.

"Damn right I do," I said proudly. "Kiyoko was really getting into the whole, surviving in the Coliseum for months, thing. He wanted to get a cow, and I had to listen to all of his excited instructions. He was all for us living like pioneers. Well, pioneers with internet access anyway. I guess those lessons will be coming in handy after all."

We walked another few yards in silence, before we spotted a shift in the forest in front of us. There was a small patch of the forest, littered with tiny trees, that was brighter than the rest had been. There was a stump in the middle of it all, and it showed signs that an axe had been there before. I sighed in relief, knowing _this_ was the spot I'd be working, instead of in the creepy part of the woods. Mimi and I exchanged brief parting words, as she continued on the path. I picked out a good, small tree to start with and started whacking away at it, until I figured out what I was doing. After I'd put two and two together, I started chopping out little wedges, and the tree fell much faster. It was only after I'd finished knocking down my _second_ tree that I was interrupted. Mimi's scream tore through the eerie silence of the surrounding forest, chilling me to the bone. I left the two fallen trees—still whole, since I hadn't gotten to figuring the other part out yet—and raced after Mimi, axe in hand.

What I stumbled upon, was worse than I'd imagined. A large, black animal was looking her in the eye. He wasn't growling, so that was a plus. In fact, he seemed sort of perplexed by the whole thing. Mimi was on her knees though, head thrown back as she continued to scream, tears streaming down her face. Not knowing what else to do, I started screaming at the creature to back away, swinging the axe at him in a way that I hoped was threatening. He took one look at me and I saw a long snout and wild eyes that slid from me to the axe in my hand. I hadn't realized wolves _could_ emulate human emotions so flawlessly, but this one's eyes widened and he shot off back into the trees, tail between his legs.

"You okay?" I asked Mimi.

"No!" she cried. "I got attacked by a wolf."

"I saw," I said, rolling my eyes.

"What's even up with that?" Mimi wanted to know. "This world is stupid."

"Let's get that basket to the old lady, and you can help me chop the wood. How does that sound?" I offered.

"Better than going alone," she agreed. So we did that. We walked the rest of the path together, and handed a flummoxed old lady a basket of cookies. She didn't even look all that sick either, just old and lazy. And then Mimi held the trees still after I'd propped them up on the stump, while I hacked away at them. We ended up having to take six different trips into those stupid woods just to carry back all the wood we'd chopped. We only stopped when the non-sunlight started dimming a little more. We figured that meant it was now night time—even though there was still enough light to see, like a night with a full moon—and we could quit.

The aroma of the house was mouth-watering, even in its blandness. Tatum had talked the woman into baking a loaf of bread to go along with the porridge, and made five small blackberry tarts for dessert. Lopmon met us at the door, grumbling about her day. When I asked what she'd done, she looked at me, crossed her arms and muttered "I met a new friend." She seemed to have the best day out of all of us.

"You're home!" the woman cheered, tripping over Michael's foot, and glaring at him as though it was his fault. He was once again on his hands and knees, scrubbing at the stone fireplace and covered from head to toe in soot and grime. "How's mother?" she asked Mimi, dragging her off towards the dinner table. "Jack dear, come along!"

Michael and I looked at one another. Who did she mean? Michael shrugged and shook his head. Yeah, we both knew it wasn't him. She seemed to hate him completely, even though she didn't know him from a hole in the ground.

"It's Hideto," I corrected, awkwardly.

"That's what I said dear," she told me with that winning smile of hers. "Everyone come and eat. That's good. Not you!" she said, pointing to Michael. "You couldn't even finish such a simple list of chores. You keep working until you finish it. You can eat then."

Hearing Michael's gurgling stomach and the sound of his scrub brush against the stone made for a very awkward dinner. I saw Mimi wrapping her tart in her napkin, and the rest of us hid our bread, determined to give Michael something, other than the bowl of cold, plain porridge the woman had left on the corner of the table. The rest of us had molasses or berries to sweeten the bland dish, and it just didn't seem fair to let him go without, especially when he'd been so hungry all day.

We spent the rest of the evening trying to help Michael with his list of chores, and distracting the mean woman so that he could eat our offerings. I churned the butter—and it was definitely not as fun as Kiyoko made it sound—and Mimi did the mending. Tatum washed our dishes out, and Lopmon wiped down the table. The woman finally gave in and let Michael have his boring porridge when she could no longer find fault in the house, but she swore he wouldn't be allowed to step foot inside tomorrow if he didn't finish the garden by nightfall.

At that point, we were just thankful that she'd given up her tyranny. She praised Mimi and I for all of our hard work, saying we didn't need to do any of it, and that we were simply wonderful for wanting to lend a hand when our scullery maid—which I assumed meant Michael—should have been able to handle it all. She wanted to do some reading by the firelight, and since we didn't want to be near her when we didn't _have_ to be, we all slipped outside.

"I'm all gross," Michael complained, throwing himself to the ground, looking up to the sky. It didn't look much different now than it did earlier. I was curious as to what the day time sky would look like as there was still plenty of non-sunlight available to us and it was clearly night.

"She's such a horrible woman," Tatum grumbled. "It was like pulling teeth to get anything more than porridge, even though she's actually got a lot to work with. It was only after I implied that Mimi and Hideto would be disappointed that she decided that bread and tarts were a must. Honestly, whatever you guys did, I want in on your secret. She loves you."

"Yeah," Michael agreed sadly. "And she _hates_ me. I don't want to stay here anymore. Can we do that? Just leave tomorrow, because I worked really hard to get to stay tonight, so I don't want to waste that, but I don't want to be her scullery maid anymore. I'm not even a girl. Couldn't she call me something else, like a servant or something?"

"She treats you more like a slave," Lopmon commented. "You should have escaped with me when you had the chance."

"These stars are strange," Mimi said, heaving a big sigh and proving that she wasn't really paying attention to the others. "I miss _our_ stars."

"I miss feeling like I'm not in a cage," I said, eyeing the sky with distain. It was like we were trapped in a bubble, and I hated it—not that the Coliseum would have been _better_ , but at least there I'd be surrounded by people that didn't think my name was Jack.

"I miss being clean," Michael grumbled.

"I miss freedom," Tatum whimpered.

"I miss Terriermon," Lopmon whispered.

After that, we just revelled in our misery, pointing out all the things we missed, and all the friends we wanted to see. Willis, Kiyoko, Koushiro, Jenna, their parents, our partners, Mari, Mimi's restaurant, Izumi, the Temple souvenir shops, the subway, electricity, indoor plumbing, _clouds_. There was so much to complain about, and we listed everything we could think of until we were interrupted.

"Enough talking," the woman called through the window. "It's time for bed. There's not a lot of space, so the girls will share, and you'll get the second bed, Jack."

"What about me?" Michael asked.

"There's space in front of the fire," she snapped. "If you did your job properly, then it should be clean too."

"But she's had the fire burning all day," Michael hissed to Tatum, who only patted his hand comfortingly. "I'd better not catch on fire during the night."

"What about me?" Lopmon wanted to know. I opened my arms for her to jump into. I figured I might as well share my bed with _someone._ I just hoped she wasn't a kicker, because this night was going to be long enough without that kind of distraction. Tomorrow, hopefully, we'd be able to find the Wizard at the ball.

I hoped so anyway.

 _ **Willis Kennedy:**_

I was woken up by the sound of stifled crying. Something I was unfortunately accustomed to already. It was the very first night of our new lives and already Kiyoko had cried twice. I had resigned myself to the idea that sleep was never going to happen for me, at least not tonight, and I pulled myself to a sitting position, begging my eyes to open, but my lids were heavy and wanted more sleep. They were rebelling, and so was the rest of my body. It was tingly and warm, like it had not woken up with my mind.

I rubbed my eyes and opened them finally, feeling bewildered again. It seemed at this point that I would never get used to Masks Square. Kiyoko had created this world using his computer many years ago, or so I'd been told, and I guess as a child he didn't like logic much because this world had very little of it. We were suspended in midair but, well, not. It was like there was an invisible floor keeping us in the center of a very colourful orb. The colour of the walls changed and shifted like a garden light, but no matter what colour it was, it was irritating to look at. And along the invisible floor there were piles of random things that we would need for survival. Reclining chairs, coffee makers and stiletto boots for example.

Seriously, someone needed to talk some sense into Hideto and Mari because none of this stuff was important! Not only was it pointless to the three of us now, but it would serve very little use in the Coliseum either. Not to mention they stole it all. I'd _been_ shopping with Mari. I knew just how expensive those boots could be, and how good of a deal she got on them this time.

Well, not the best deal ever since they were all Rei's now. Not that she could even walk bare foot let alone in Mari's ridiculous heels.

I pushed my shoulders back and they popped into place and I threw my arms into the air to stretch. I needed to wake up if I wasn't going to sleep. Maybe that coffee maker wasn't such a bad idea. Maybe someone thought to bring ingredients. There was a pile of canned food behind the mattresses, so maybe I'd spoken too soon about the illogical tendencies of the Allias III.

Speaking of Allias number III, he was crying, I was sure of it. I threw the fluffy lime green blanket off of myself and pulled myself out of bed. Groggily, I walked away from my mattress, which lay on the floor by itself, toward Kiyoko's bed which was not far from my own. I tripped halfway there on the pant leg of the plaid pajama bottoms I was wearing because they had been chosen for Hideto. He was a lot taller than I was, but it was either his or Kiyoko's, and the latter was far too short.

When I stopped, hovering over Kiyoko's bed I realized that he was still, and calm. He was sleeping. Finally. He was hugging his pillow close to himself and his blanket was tucked in around himself for some much needed comfort. He had gone through many panic attacks before we'd agreed to sleep, and probably more afterwards. But if he was sleeping now that meant I could return to my own bed and hopefully get at least one hour of sleep before morning.

But then I heard someone sniffling from the other side of the pile of books. Slowly I crept away from Kiyoko, careful not to wake him, and then moved around the books that were not piled very carefully. It was more of a mound than anything. There was a lamp, not plugged in, next to the bed I came to. There was also a small wooden end table. The bed was covered with many warm looking blankets and there was an open book laying on the pillow on the left side of the bed. On the right side of the bed was where Rei was sitting, wiping a tear from one of her eyes.

"Rei?" I asked quietly. She jumped when she heard me and quickly pulled her blanket up to cover her face.

"I'm fine!" She insisted, her voice muffled. "Do you need something?" I didn't say anything as I moved to sit at the end of her bed. I glanced at the book that she'd been reading and sighed. _'5 Stages of Grief and How to Successfully Survive Loss'_. "Is Kiyoko okay?" Rei asked, still under the blanket.

"Sleeping," I said simply.

"Oh good," She said, "Well we'd better follow his lead and get a few hours of sleep or we won't be much help tomorrow in finding a way out of here." I didn't move. "Goodnight Willis."

"Rei," I said quietly, still careful to keep my voice out of Kiyoko's range of hearing. "I'm sorry."

Rei risked a look at me, pulling the blanket down so one eye could be seen. "Why are you sorry?" She asked shyly.

I looked around and motioned to the sky of the strange dome world. "I had to close the door." I told her.

"I know, I saw." She said. I knew she'd seen it. I just needed to make sure she understood what she saw. The shield that was covering the water began lowering along with the water level, and when the water began rushing through the door, the barrier quickly sank, leaving the top of the door out of the barrier, and a small cloud of purple made its way through the door. If we hadn't closed the door, the virus would have followed us through. Kiyoko hadn't seen it. I was sure of it. And I couldn't tell him it had happened or he'd only be more scared that the tiny cloud of poison could grow in size and kill us as well as everyone in this world. "I don't blame you, Willis. You did what you had to. You saved us."

"But I ruined our lives," I said quietly. I knew Rei had the key now. I was too frustrated with it and I'd passed it off to her when we were setting up our beds. That horrible key took away everything. And it was purple too—that was certainly my least favourite colour now, that's for sure. No offense to Koushiro, Kiyoko and to Neo all of whom had purple crests. "I may have saved us from death, but I certainly didn't save our _lives_ , because those don't exist anymore."

Rei fully dropped the blanket now, and revealed that she definitely _had_ been crying and she reached forward to grab my hand. "You were so optimistic before." She noted.

"For Kiyoko," I admitted. "He's terrified. I don't know him well, but I know what he's gone through. I'm not going to make it worse on him by scaring him. I have to keep positive. At least when he's around."

"I will too," Rei promised. "You won't be alone." I smiled at her, and she smiled back, as if her tears had never existed. "Besides, I really do think we can get back. There has to be _some_ way to reverse the key's power. Or another way to get back."

"I don't know much about the different worlds," I said. "I stick to Earth. It's my favourite. I don't even know much about the Digital World. It's never been a place I feel particularly comfortable."

"I heard you even kept Terriermon and Lopmon out of the Digital World when there was a threat of the worlds combining," Rei said with a smirk.

"I did!" I laughed, "And it was worth it. I didn't want to have to say goodbye to them every day!"

And then I was sad again. I sat, not saying a word and Rei squeezed my hand. "You miss them..." She said quietly. "I miss Pal and Pul too. And Neo. And Taichi..." I nodded. This really sucked. Poor Rei hadn't seen Taichi in nearly as long as I'd been apart from Terriermon and Lopmon. I didn't know much about her relationship but that had to suck. And worse than that even, the last any of us had heard, Neo was missing. When I was in trouble, Allias III got their act in gear to save me, but Kiyoko was here and he couldn't help. Hideto was missing too, and Mari—

I didn't want to think about that.

It was hard to ignore where she had been when the virus had attacked. But it was harder to think about the outcome. So I would ignore it the best I could.

"Besides, we don't know anything about this world," Rei said brightly, "This world might be better than Earth _and_ the Digital World. We've seen one part of it. Even if we can't find a way home, we might find total bliss here."

"You can't even walk here." I said bluntly.

"I know," Rei said sadly, "but maybe that's how it's meant to be. I was hit for a reason. You know, if I was never in a wheelchair I never would have met Taichi."

"And you'd never be here." I reminded her.

"You need to work on that optimism we talked about." She decided. "You seem to forget what it means to look at the bright side of a situation." I was about to tell her how hard it was to look at the bright side of a situation when the only thing we'd seen in this world at all so far were a bunch of creepy fires and sacrifices and mean digimon who didn't like us very much. But I was interrupted by one of the books in the nearby pile sliding away from its place. Rei and I stared at the pile, my eyes following one book on its journey straight to the invisible floor where is slid about two feet from the pile. Then there was silence.

And then with a quick lurch, more than just books had fallen out of place. Rei's lamp fell over, and a few of the reclining chairs had toppled from their place in their messy pile.

"What's going on?" Kiyoko's frantic voice reached us from the other side of the books. "Willis? Rei?"

"Over here, Kiyoko!" Rei called out. Kiyoko was quick to fly around the pile, racing toward us. His black housecoat was flying behind him with the speed he was moving. He slid to a stop and leapt into Rei's bed, landing on her book. He reached behind him and threw it aside, panic across his face. "Why is everything falling?"

I didn't know, but Rei clearly hadn't asked me because her eyes were trained in on Kiyoko who looked horror stricken. "I-I think maybe someone... found my c-computer." He said, reaching for Rei's hand to have something to hold.

"What do you mean?" I asked loudly. I hadn't meant to shout and it startled Kiyoko and he shrunk backwards under Rei's blanket. What was he, a rum chocolate soufflé? "Someone is moving your computer?" I asked for clarification. Kiyoko nodded, "With us inside of it?" He nodded again.

"So this is nothing like the Digital World," Rei noted. Kiyoko nodded once more. "What do we do? Should we go ask them to put it back?"

"We don't even know who it is!" I said, shaking my head fervently, "Though I will admit it would be funny to just pop up and accuse whoever it is of thievery." I smirked, and turned back toward the others who were both looking to me with stone faced expressions. Right. They weren't Michael and Jenna, they weren't going to find humour in a stressful situation. It was going to take a lot to get used to the idea that my siblings were now gone... even if Jenna was safe for sure.

Michael though.

With another heavy shift of balance, a refrigerator fell over, smashing into a nearby dishwasher, and Rei's bed began to shift, sliding toward the pile of clothes. At least we'd be comfortable when we inevitably crashed into it. But the sliding stopped and everything levelled out again.

"Why didn't everything fall over when you were running from the virus?" Rei asked, more panicked than I was, which I suppose made sense since she couldn't even help herself were she to fall.

"Masks Square wasn't activated." Kiyoko explained, his voice shaky, "The program sort of suspends itself when it's not on. Like a video game."

"Uhm." I said loudly as Rei nodded in understanding. I don't know where her mind went in that situation, but mine certainly did not go to a very happy place. Kiyoko was smart though, there was no way he would ignore this jarring issue. "Like a video game?" I asked, "What happens if the computer dies?"

"The, uh, 'game' would suspend itself until the computer found a charge." Kiyoko explained.

"That's not a good thing!" I said loudly, "We can't sleep in here! What if it dies overnight?"

"Well I _can_ bring the computer—" He squawked in panic as the room shifted once again, "inside with me." He finished, "It's just confusing. I've never figured it out. Only Sigma knew how." He was silent for a bit, "Oh, it can charge in here." He said, "There's an outlet somewhere."

It seemed odd to me, but I was going to trust it. He had been dealing with the strange vortex of a world for longer than I had, and he was not unintelligent. He would figure it out. And I would trust him. And hopefully Rei would too, and using our own personal skills we could possibly find a way out of both this world of Kiyoko's collections, and the world of Witchenly outside.

Rei gasped, and for a second I thought it had begun echoing loudly, but it quickly became clear that the sound was no longer coming from Rei's mouth, but instead it was coming from all sides of us. From outside the computer. Someone was running now, and panting along with it, adding to the sounds of the falling furniture that surrounded us.

"Well we can't let him take the computer home, or wherever he's bringing it." Rei said, "We have to go out and stop him."

Rei had a very good point, and unfortunately I knew what it meant. Kiyoko was far too terrified to go out, and Rei couldn't even walk. "I'll do it." Kiyoko looked horrified, and grabbed onto me, not letting me go. "Would you like to?" I offered.

"No, but you can't either." He said flatly. "If you sneak up on one of the residents of this world—especially one that must visits creepy caves in the middle of the night—they'll kill you. We should just wait it out. Listen," he pointed to the sky, "We can hear them, and obviously they can't hear us. We'll wait until they're gone, and then we'll pop out, grab the computer and go."

I smiled at him. Either plan worked for me, but the fact that he was thinking entirely logically again was good to know. I didn't want to be rude, but the panicky Kiyoko wasn't someone I necessarily wanted have unlimited faith in, but we'd need to. All three of us had to entirely trust each other or we'd never work as a team. And now with Kiyoko proving to be back to his normal self—if maybe a little more worried—then that would be a lot easier to accomplish.

So we followed through with Kiyoko's idea since it was the safer of our two options anyway. Not that staying in Masks Square was _particularly_ safe at the moment, with all the heavy furniture flying around, and with the longer we waited the more force seemed to be put behind the falling objects. It was as if whoever was carrying us was becoming more and more tired in their attempts at bringing the computer wherever it was they were going.

And then they finally slowed down, their panting very obvious now, "Hello!" the voice called out. It was high, but distinctly masculine. "Miss Terra! Have I got a treat for you today!" Then there was a small lurch and whoever was carrying us stopped. "Ta-Tactimon! What are you doing here?"

A very low and calm voice replied, "I could ask you the same thing Phelesmon." Tactimon laughed lightly, but with no humour, "If I didn't know better I would say you were trying to bypass me and head straight to Lady Terra."

"I would never." Phelesmon said boldly.

"I should hope not." Tactimon said. "Lady Terra is picking fruit. The two of us are having a quick midnight meal. Would you care to join us with whatever it is you have obtained?"

Phelesmon did not respond right away, he was thinking. "Of course." He decided, clearly annoyed.

Finally we had been set down with a much sharper lurch and a clicking sound. I looked to Rei and Kiyoko, both had varying degrees of panic written across their faces, and I had to admit that I was feeling it too. If they were having a meal, there was no telling just how long we'd be stuck here. But at least we knew who we would be dealing with now. Tactimon and Phelesmon who were both fallen angel digimon, and also nightmare soldiers. Both virus types, and both _really_ mean by nature.

"This sucks." I said, annoyed.

"What are we going to do now?" Rei asked.

"I don't see why the plan should change," Kiyoko said, his hands were twitching in his lap as he nervously played with his fingers. "We were going to sleep, and we were going to wait. We may as well do both. There is no way they will figure out how to access Masks Square. Not only is it hidden on my computer, but a password is important."

"Yeah," Rei said gently, "But... what if they break the computer?"

All the colour drained from Kiyoko's face. "You don't think they'd do that, do you?"

"No, of course not." I replied, mostly lying, as Rei reached over and took Kiyoko's hand to comfort him. Rei looked to me, however momentarily, and we both nodded quickly. It was clear that this threat was a very real possibility. We were living inside a computer program that existed solely in one hard drive. And that meant we were easily disposed of. I balled my fists up and thought of Terriermon and Lopmon. _Sure_ , they had the crests with them at the moment, but I shared those crests.

Destiny and miracles. Maybe my destiny of being a hero was over, and there was nothing else I was necessarily meant to do in this world—super depressing to think about—but miracles could happen to anyone at any time. And I had the true bearer of that crest looking over me at all times. Well maybe not _all_ times. I was sure she had a life up there—that was a horrible way to word that.

"My Lady!" Tactimon called out, "we have found something for you."

There was silence and then a soft but energetic female voice was thrown into the mix. "Is it cheesy and delicious?" Lady Terra asked. "Oh I hope it is." She was clearly smiling judging by the tone in her voice and it _immediately_ extinguished my fears, maybe not entirely, but enough to give me strength to take whatever was about to happen. Surely if they gave us any sign they wanted to break the computer we would have to leave.

"Alas," Tactimon said, "it is not."

"Darn," Lady Terra sighed, her voice louder now as she came closer. "Where did you find that?" She asked quickly.

" _I_ found it out in the woods." Phelesmon said loudly and quickly, "In a small cave not far from the sacrificial bonfires of the Fallen Angels."

"And _what_ were you doing over there?" Tactimon asked, "When you were specifically meant to be... _somewhere_ else?"

"I was on a break." Phelesmon assured Tactimon quickly. "And I found this—"

"Go," Terra said very firmly. "I want both of you to leave and come back tomorrow. Look more closely to where you found this machine."

"B-but—" Phelesmon spluttered.

"What will you do?" Tactimon asked.

"I have my own business to attend to." Terra said quickly. "I will walk you out. I do apologize for such a hasty end to what was sure to be a lovely meal. We must do it again sometime."

"Of course," Tactimon said.

Their voices were getting quieter now, and it was clear to all of us what had to happen next. Kiyoko was the first to stand, surprisingly. And unsurprisingly, Rei was the last. Kiyoko was already moving and I was quickly assuring Rei that I'd be right back, Kiyoko just had to show me the way out of the computer. I hurried after him, with Rei wishing me luck and found him pushing aside a broken washing machine, with much difficulty. I helped him push and he pointed to the ground where there was a hole.

"We're going through there." He told me.

"You're coming with me?" I asked, hopeful. He nodded, but clearly wished he wasn't coming at all. "You don't have to." I told him. "Just wait here." I didn't wait for his response, because we didn't have time. I jumped through the hole quickly and my stomach flipped instantly. It felt like I was going on some insane roller coaster ride created with a mass of swirling colours, only there was no safety belt holding me in place, and instead I was left to fall and flip, zooming through a strange tunnel until finally I could see the exit, surprisingly dark for being the end of a tunnel.

I was flung forward, out of the computer, popping it open as I did so, and I landed with a thud in the grass on my hands and knees. I didn't bother to look around, but it was hard to ignore what I was seeing. It was a large garden, and for a second I actually believed that we'd been taken into a different world, that's how out of place it really was.

Instead of the dead trees we'd been walking through earlier, there were many small, but lively trees surrounding the garden, many with fruit ready to pick, but some were simply covered with massive, beautiful flowers. There were vegetables and flowers growing in all sorts of strange places and there was a stone path through the entire garden, ending near a large and elegant gazebo made primarily of vines and actual trees, live and well. The area I was in of the garden was clear of anything aside from a table that matched the gazebo, made of wood, and four chairs.

I stood up quickly and turned only to have something fly directly toward me and knock me back to the ground, much more painfully this time.

"Sorry!" Kiyoko hissed, rolling off of me, and pulling himself to his feet. He hurried forward and grabbed his laptop as I got to my own feet and looked around for any sign of those who had previously resided in the garden. I caught sight of many balls of light, travelling by themselves amongst the trees and plants, like tiny suns lighting up the area to ensure it was never as dark as the black sky wished it would be. "Let's go!" Kiyoko insisted, grabbing my hand.

"Right," I agreed, turning with him, and then both of us let out a loud scream.

Standing in front of us was a woman, tall and thin. So thin it looked dangerous, but she possessed so much strength in just the way she stood, and it was clear she was no pushover. Her hair was dark and earthy, straight and wispy. At the top of her head there was a golden ring placed over her head like a crown, keeping her hair back. She was wearing light, whimsical green robes, and her skin was dark and clear.

Kiyoko quickly turned and slammed into me, pushing me the other direction.

"It would do you no good to run," The woman said, and her voice matched the one we'd heard earlier. This was Lady Terra. "I will not hurt you. But they might."

Kiyoko froze and contemplated his decision. He turned his head and whispered very quietly, "What do we do?"

"You could stay for a glass of fresh juice," Terra offered, with a warm smile. She turned and strode toward a tree that possessed strange orange coloured fruit. Kiyoko grabbed my wrist, thinking now was a good time to go, but I pulled from his grip. She wasn't bad. There was no doubt about it. She was far too kind to be evil. I trusted her, and I did not think for a second that we were in danger.

"Come on!" Kiyoko insisted.

"You go," I told him calmly. "I want to try this juice." The food in the computer was great and all, but I was already sick of it after only one snack. The fruit that grew on the trees here, and the vegetables surrounding the gazebo all looked so delicious, and I did not want to leave for a second. It was all very beautiful.

Kiyoko let out a strangled pleading noise, but I ignored him and pulled out a chair to sit on. Kiyoko stubbornly stood next to me, unwilling to sit down, not trusting this woman enough to actually relax for a moment. But I couldn't see why, just the way she was humming to herself, with that basket hanging off her arm as she picked the fruits. I was sure she was good.

She looked up and smiled at me, noticing that I had been watching her. "So what brings you boys to this land in a tiny ship?" She asked.

I laughed, "It isn't a ship." I explained, "But it's a long story."

"Aren't they all?" She asked with a defeated sigh, "Long, I mean. Everyone who comes here has a story to tell." She seemed to have collected enough fruit in her basket and she made her way over to the table, setting the basket down and pulling her own chair out. She reached toward the center of the table where the vines grew upwards toward her short fingers and created a cup of the same material.

"Cool." I grinned. Terra smiled at me and cracked the fruit like an egg on the edge of the cup and opened it with a perfect split down the center, allowing juice to fall in and fill the cup to the top. "May I?" I asked, reaching forward for the liquid.

Terra smiled, "Of course,"

"Willis don't." Kiyoko blurted.

"It isn't poisonous my dear." Terra said politely, "but if you would prefer, I will drink the first glass to prove it?" Kiyoko muttered something about it not being the point, but Terra pulled the glass to her bare, pink lips and took a sip. "It really is delicious." She set the cup down and summoned another from the table. Kiyoko seemed to relax a little at this, and pulled a chair out to sit down next to me, holding his computer to his chest to keep Rei safe. "So what is this long story?"

"Well," I said, my mouth watering as I watched her pour me a cup of juice finally. She slid it toward me and I decided I'd tell the story first, no matter how inviting it seemed. "Long story short, we were chased here because horrible men sent a virus out to delete the Digital World."

"You are digimon?" Terra asked, leaning forward and dropping Kiyoko's fruit. "You don't look much like digimon."

"Humans," I explained. Terra nodded in understanding and reached down to scoop up the fallen fruit, and she wiped it off before pouring another cup of juice. She slid it across the table to Kiyoko who simply looked at it with disgust. "We barely made it through alive."

"Well, you're lucky." Terra said kindly, "Many don't make it hear alive. The journey is often very dangerous. Did you take the short cut? Many miss the opportunity." I wasn't sure what she meant exactly, but she stood up and didn't let us answer. "I've been here a while, myself." With her back turned, it seemed like the most opportune moment to try the drink. I pulled it to my lips and was excited to find that it tasted like honey, and peach juice at the same time—but not in a gross way. And it wasn't thick either, it was thin and smooth, and clean? It felt like the juice was already cleaning out any toxins that my body had accumulated, like it was the healthiest thing I could imagine consuming, ever. "This is the land of lost things, after all. Everyone who is lost ends up here, it's where all the misfits find a home."

"That sounds both depressing and heartwarming." I said, trying to make polite conversation.

"Mostly the latter," Terra said, turning, her long hair whipping around. "Everyone finds their place here. Even you will in time."

"Actually we were hoping to find a way back," I admitted. "Not that it's not wonderful here, but—"

"You can't leave though," Terra said, sounding disappointed, "There is only one way out, and we've never possessed the power. There are keys, crafted by the fairies long ago, and legend has it, they can open doors to different worlds. If we could possess one—only _one_ , we might just be able to leave this place and get back to where we belong." I was about to tell her about the one Rei had with her, but Kiyoko grabbed my leg from under the table and dug his thumb into my thigh painfully. I swatted his hand away, but decided not to tell her. It wasn't like it would help anyway. It was the key for _this_ world. We knew how they worked, and if Kiyoko really didn't trust her, I wouldn't make him feel uncomfortable. "But as it stands," Terra said, "that will never happen, and so we've all made peace with this land. We all found a place to feel like we belong, after lifetimes of being lost."

"You were lost too?" I asked.

"Of course," She said, "Long ago I was banished for loving the wrong person." She didn't seem to want to elaborate, and so I said nothing more on the subject. It wasn't any of my business anyway. "Now," She said clapping her hands together, "I'm sorry to say but no one is perfect, and even the inhabitants of this world are judgemental. If ever you hope to fit in you really should change out of those clothes."

I looked down and laughed again. I was wearing a teenage wolves t-shirt and plaid pajamas, and of course Kiyoko was still bundled up in the housecoat. "We were sleeping."

"Did my friends wake you?" Terra asked, upset, "I do apologize." She said swooping forward. "But, if I may..." She waved her hand and the vines began to grow again, this time they changed shape and colour, morphing into different outfits, one for each of us. Kiyoko's consisted of a small, pointed hat, and a cape to go over a colourful shirt and dark pants. Mine was much darker, the hat was very futuristic, but black, along with the jacket and pants, but the long sleeved shirt was dark red and had rips all through it. "I'm sorry they're so depressing," she said, "the residents of this world are quite... dark."

"We've noticed." I smiled, "Thank you for your hospitality, really."

"But we should go." Kiyoko said bluntly. I looked away from Terra, embarrassed and got to my feet, moving toward the clothes she had granted us with. They fell into my arms when I came nearer, and I noticed a pair of shoes for each of us. Mine were large clunky boots, and Kiyoko's were brown and much more comfortable looking.

Terra smiled when I turned back. "You should find a safer place to keep your ship," She told us, "And if you come back tomorrow with your female friend I could dress her as well." Kiyoko looked shocked. How did she know about Rei? But I didn't think it was too odd. She seemed fairly all knowing. "And then we could maybe find you a more spacious place to sleep?"

"That would be lovely." I said to her. "Thanks again." Kiyoko moved forward and grabbed my arm, dragging me away from Terra, and out of the garden, following the stone path. "Goodbye!" I called to Terra.

"I did not catch your names," Terra insisted, following us.

"I'm Willis," I told her, pulling from Kiyoko's grip. "The anxious one here is Kiyoko, and our friend in the computer is Rei."

"Willis, Kiyoko, Rei." She repeated. "I'll remember that. I am Terra, though I do believe you already know that."

"We do," I told her, "Sorry about eavesdropping."

"Worry not." She said, and then Kiyoko was pulling me again. "I'll see you later!" Terra called after us.

It didn't take long to find the end of the garden, where a fence made of ivy seemed to be holding all the magical qualities of the place inside. Just past the fence everything died, making the garden seem like it was in some protective bubble. I wondered momentarily if that's what the Digital World would look like now, after the virus. Would the mass of destruction have killed everything, except for that which the barriers protected?

I tried to take the idea from my mind as Kiyoko hurried through the trees, nervously looking over his shoulder all the way. Where was he leading me? Were we going back to the cave? That obviously didn't work the first time, what made him think it would work well again? He turned suddenly and I ran into him, dropping one of my new boots. I bent down to pick it up and looked to Kiyoko's upset face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I don't like her." He said quietly.

"Yeah," I said, "I noticed. Why?"

"I'm not going to trust anyone in this world." Kiyoko said flatly. "I will only trust you and Rei until we get back home. And we will... won't we?"

"I'll never stop trying." I promised.

"Never?" He begged.

"Never." I agreed.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Ken is feel particularly trapped in his new environment while Mari finds herself fed up with feeling the way she does and she takes a risk with a new friend.


	7. The Outside

**Y/N:** This is me writing as Ken, who I like a lot better now, but still don't love, in a world that I don't particularly enjoy. It wasn't the most fun I've ever had writing, but I think it turned out alright. It was a struggle, but it was worth it in the end, I think.

 **U/N:** So this was weird and fun. Weird because it shouldn't have been fun given the circumstances. But I'm always a fan of new friendships, and Mari seemed to work really well in this chapter with some of the other characters. Anyway, I hope you like it, even if the situations that are going on aren't desirable from a "let's make the characters be happy" point of view.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 7: The Outside**

 _ **Ken Ichijouji:**_

The flickering flames didn't warm me the way that Summer had hoped they would. It wasn't the water that had me chilled to the bone. It was the virus, the idea that my sweet, panicky wife was out there, _alone,_ while the virus made its way towards us and the Coliseum and all of those that we held dear. The more I thought about it, the clearer it was to me. She was chasing after Kurayami. She'd wanted to get to her, to save her from the virus. I knew it, because that's just the sort of sweet, selfless thing my Miyako would do. And I hated the idea that I was upset about it.

Takeru assured me she had a key. He told me he'd seen it. I'd asked enough times, and he'd repeated the same information each time. I was now convinced he wasn't just telling me that to save my life. He really meant it. My wife was in another world, not being destroyed by the virus, the same way that it had eaten away at Morestuna's corpse.

Morestuna.

He was an evil man, a horrid excuse for a police chief, but Miyako was right. He shouldn't have had to die. He should have faced justice the right way. I could understand her view, and the part of me that was a dedicated police officer agreed whole-heartedly. It was the few remaining pieces of the Digimon Kaiser that had me _pleased_ that he was dead. That it was him, and not my wife, that died on that battle field. He was trying to rip my wife away from me, and for that reason alone, I let the Kaiser in me take full reign. I _was_ happy that it wasn't Miyako.

But the view of Morestuna's rapidly deteriorating body haunted me all the same.

I brought the burgundy, ceramic mug to my lips, allowing the steam to brush against my face, and the scent of the sweet, fragrant gyokuro tea filled my nostrils. It was nice, but it wasn't the smell of home. Miyako and I only used cheap tea bags, a habit ingrained in us from when I was nothing but a poor student, and Miyako's income from the library was all we had to get by. We'd grown accustomed to it though, and this fragrant, jade green tea was only a reminder of how far I was from home. It was, of course, high-grade tea that Summer had grown in her garden, not far from the very spot I was seated in. The tomatoes too, that she had simmering in a milky mixture were homegrown. She was stirring the bright red-orange, thick liquid, adding basil leaves to it as she moved the wooden spoon around in circles.

"Almost done now," she told us with a gentle, sympathetic smile.

She was making us soup, and giving us tea, and had us bundled up in fluffy blankets, each seated in one of the chairs that circled around the open flame. It should have been comforting, and the pale blue fleece _did_ feel wonderful against my still damp skin, but it all felt wrong. I shouldn't be sitting around a fire, in a world that was absolutely _perfect_ —not without Miyako by my side.

I cursed myself for going to Takeru instead of staying with Miyako. If I had just listened from where I was, if I has seen the virus myself, she might not have gone off alone. We could have gone together, and would still _be_ together, if I hadn't lost track of her. I'd been so proud of my fitness progress, but I couldn't even catch up to my pregnant wife. She wasn't a fast runner. She'd _never_ been all that fast. She wasn't interested in running. I supposed she was running on adrenaline, with the Morestuna fiasco, and the virus, and our friend's life being in danger.

I winced as I remembered her accusations, and knew I should have handled it better. She wanted to be comforted, she didn't want me to say that Morestuna got what was coming to him. She turned my words against me, saying that by my logic Kurayami was bad, and deserved to die, that _I_ was too. And I supposed, however grudgingly, she was correct. I was wrong. But it didn't make the fact that she'd thrown my Kaiser days in my face, something she'd _never_ done before, because she knew how hard it was on me. How much I regretted my actions, and how I was _still_ trying to repent for them. I was doing all that I could, but I'd never done anything quite as bad as Morestuna had. The digimon I'd been responsible for killing had all come back to life. Morestuna couldn't boast the same. I supposed he couldn't boast anything now, since he was dead—body disintegrated in just the same way the digimon he'd killed. It was almost poetic justice, if it didn't suck so much and caused my wife and Kurayami to race off into an uncertain future.

And how sure was I that Miyako was in the frame of mind to even _use_ the key that Takeru had convinced me she had? She was panicking. When she panicked, she couldn't even remember to breathe, let alone pull out a key and use it to save herself and the baby she was carrying. She had a one track mind, and if she was focussed on saving Kurayami, she might not have remembered the baby, or _herself_.

But Takeru was right. She _had_ to have used the key. She and Kurayami were probably hanging out with fairies right now, or something. She'd been to the Fairyland before. She would have fun there. Yeah.

I'd almost convinced myself of it, before I remembered the other worlds, the other options. There was Witchenly, and two keys to the Dark Ocean. And there was here. I didn't know for sure which she had. She might not be having any fun at all.

I sighed and looked into my mug again, shifting my blanket so that it was higher on my shoulders. There were a few tiny tea leaves floating within the jade liquid, and I watched them dance around, swirling the cup so that they wouldn't stop.

This world wasn't helping me retain my miserable mood. The fire was pleasant, the soup and tea smelled amazing. The sun beat down on me, struggling to brighten my countenance. The butterflies fluttered from one bright, beautiful flower to another, and the rabbits hopped around the wooden benches and chairs, looking for attention. They were adorable, and I hated them for it. I wanted to be miserable. I wanted to dwell on the fact that Miyako had _finally_ told me about the baby, only to be ripped away from me. We couldn't talk about it, we couldn't brainstorm names, or feel it kicking, or discuss the changes we would have to make in our lives. Where would my son or daughter sleep?

Probably on the ground of whatever world Miyako was in.

That thought was miserable enough to shatter the good mood that the Land of Dreams was trying to impose upon me. I might never get to see my son or daughter. Even if Takeru and I found a way back—which we might have access to, thanks to the Looking Glass—who was to say that Miyako could do the same? The Land of Dreams had barely been explored, and we'd known about it, and had access to it, for a long time. We knew next to nothing about the Fairyland, or the Dark Ocean. And Witchenly... Jou claimed to have gone there once, and I'd felt inclined to believe him, but that was the _only_ visit _anyone_ had taken there.

There was no guarantee that there was a Looking Glass in every one of those realms. There probably wasn't one in the Dark Ocean at the very least.

I had been so willing to die at Morestuna's hands if it meant that Miyako and the baby could live long, happy lives. But this was much worse than that dying. This was being separated from them, knowing that I was still alive, but unable to help her. I was going to be a deadbeat dad without _wanting_ to. I was worse than a deadbeat actually because a deadbeat was at least on the same plane of existence.

"Relax, Kind one," Summer said, gently taking the burgundy mug from my fingers and exchanging it for a large, speckled, navy bowl. She dipped a spoon into the creamy, tomato soup and gave me a look that told me everything would be fine. I was hesitant to believe her, but she was a fairy, and she seemed to _know_ things. I took a few deep breaths before taking a spoonful of soup to my lips. I ate, and watched as she gave Takeru his own soup. She got some for herself, and settled in on a third seat, looking meaningfully between the two of us. Takeru sighed and explained.

"The DWD sent a virus to wipe out all of the digimon," Takeru started. "But we don't know if it's just the digimon that it's destroying or not. I know they don't care if they get humans anymore, but I don't know if they're against the world itself or not. That purple stuff is the virus." He pointed towards the Looking Glass with his spoon. The delicate green barrier was holding strong against the violent, violet virus, though it was straining against its confines, trying to break through and spread throughout this world as well.

"Oh no," she gasped, though I figured she had at least _some_ idea before Takeru told her. "My Forgiving Knight, he is there. Is he safe? What of his brother, Meiyomon?"

"They're totally fine," Takeru said, sounding entirely unsure of himself. "Everyone's safe, because we put up all sorts of barriers. We just weren't inside one when the virus came. We had to go to the Looking Glass, because it was too fast for us. But Iori was probably inside. I _know_ Meiyomon was. Iori's fine."

I tried not to wince at how fake his confidence was. It was evident that Summer heard it as well, but she didn't say anything. She just sighed sadly, and ate her soup. She closed her eyes. Her eyelids flickered, and then a soft smile was on her face, and she nodded to herself. I didn't know what she'd seen, or remembered, but I was counting on that smile to mean something good. Like maybe my wife actually _was_ fine, and I would see her again before the baby was born.

But she didn't offer any information, so I couldn't be sure.

"Is there any way that we'll be able to get back?" I asked her, glancing again at the virus struggling to break free of its prison.

"This world is fully closed to all others," she said, shaking her head. Her smile faded and she too looked to the virus. "The only exit is the Looking Glass, but I've sealed it. If I were to take that seal away, the virus would come into my world, and destroy it. A virus has no place in a land made of wishes. It could cause insurmountable damage. The keys are really the only alternative, but you didn't bring one that could take you _out_ of here."

What little hope I had crashed down around me. I wouldn't be able to get back to see all of my loved ones again. Miyako was in another world—I was clinging to that hope, and never planned to let it go—with our baby, and Wormmon was at the Coliseum with my parents. Hawkmon was too, I thought, maybe. Daisuke was, and he was my best friend. I could count on him to take care of Wormmon, and I supposed I would have to depend on him to help Wormmon take care of little Masa too, since I never made it back to take care of him.

My poor mother. My heart clenched as I knew what she must think. Miyako and I both taken from her in one purple flurry. She couldn't know that we were in worlds apart from the one she was in. She would assume the worst, since there was no proof to say otherwise. She would think we were dead, and she would have lost both sons _and_ her daughter-in-law—and her grandchild, though she didn't know it. And if we couldn't get back, she would never know that we were still alive.

I didn't need to look at Takeru to know he was experiencing the same dreadful feelings that I was. But I looked anyway. His face was crumpled as he tried to stave off the emotions, tried to push them away. He needed to keep hope, but I could see how hard it was for him to be away from Patamon, from Hikari, from his brother and his mother. He'd already been trapped worlds apart from his father, but he'd lost everyone else just now too. All he got was me, a broken, miserable man, who couldn't handle the idea of never seeing his child.

We'd tried for so long to _get_ that child, and I'd never get to see it. I'd live a long life knowing that my baby existed, and never getting to _see_ , to _know_.

But I was focussing on Takeru now, and I would not allow myself to cry. I wouldn't do it. I wasn't going to give in to that weakness, no matter how desperately I wanted to. Crying wouldn't solve anything. Crying wouldn't make Miyako appear next to me. Crying wouldn't magically take me to the Coliseum so I could assure my mother that I was alive and well. Crying wouldn't take away Wormmon's pain, or my own. It would do nothing except make me wet, and that was just an inconvenience I didn't need right then.

I had Takeru, and that didn't seem like much, in comparison to what I had lost, but it would be enough—because it _had_ to be. I couldn't change that fact. He was all I had. Him and Summer anyway.

"There is one place," Summer continued, hesitantly, entirely aware of our distraught thoughts. "I'm unsure of it, and I don't recognize it, but I think I can send you there, if you wish to go. It could very well be dangerous there. I don't know. I've never known this world to exist before."

"I want to go," I said, desperate for _any_ chance of getting out of this perfect paradise that set me on edge.

"Me too," Takeru said firmly, nodding his head as though he needed to convince himself.

"Alright," Summer said, reluctantly. "But before you go, I want you to wait until you've met up with the others in this world first. They may appreciate to know you are alive."

"There are others?" Takeru asked, perking up. He'd found something new to draw hope from, and he was going to explore that option, regardless of my desperation to leave. I knew Summer would not send me on my own, and I resigned myself to the idea that I was trapped here until we met with these mysterious others. When I thought of it, I realized it _had_ to be the digidestined that had the key to the Land of Dreams.

Miyako had a key.

I stood up, and my blanket fell from my shoulders. I grabbed it, and draped it over the back of my chair, placing my now empty soup bowl on the seat, the spoon clanging roughly to the side of the ceramic. I winced at the loud sound that shattered the silence of our surroundings.

"Thanks for the soup," Takeru said. "We're just going to go find them now, if that's okay?"

"Go," she said with a light, chiming laugh.

Takeru grabbed my arm, pulling out his digivice as he tugged me along behind him. I pulled out my own, sending my gratitude towards Summer as I pressed the buttons. She just laughed again at our determined nature, and we set off through the fields of flowers. Our pace only slowed once Summer was out of view, and we realized that no matter how far we made the range on our digivices, we weren't going to find anybody. My digivice didn't even register that Takeru was standing beside me. I growled, frustrated, and stuffed it into my soggy pocket, where I'd found it.

"Now what?" I asked, still plowing through the fields of flowers, watching the horizon with an anxious eye for the moment the flowers ceased, and the uncharted territory would begin.

"We just start searching," Takeru said firmly. "She probably knew the digivices wouldn't work. My guess is that she needs time before she can actually send us to this new world or whatever it is. She just didn't want to be rude and tell us to go away."

"So she's sending us on a wild goose chase?" I demanded, more than a little put out by the idea.

"No," Takeru said. "I fully believe that there are others out there. She's got no reason to lie to us. So we're just going to have to do this the old fashion way. Think of it as one giant game of hide and seek. We're the seekers, and we've got to figure out who's hiding from us. It might be a little fun."

"I was hoping for quick and easy," I said, looking up to the endless, cloudless sky again. Why couldn't this be easier? I wanted to know if Miyako was here. I _needed_ to know. I really wanted her to be, but there were so many options, and I was holding onto this shred of hope, clinging to the tiny possibility. It would drive me mad if I didn't get my answers. If she wasn't here, I needed to know it—even if it wasn't something I wanted to hear.

We wandered further, until the flowers had ceased blooming, and we were in a vast, grassy field. The grass was tall, reaching passed my knees, but it didn't offer much by way of distraction. The sun didn't warm me as much as it should have either. I ought to have been sweating by that point, trekking such a long distance under the beating rays of the slowly, setting sun. But the temperature always remained pleasant, and it was starting to irritate me. Everything seemed still around us. The slight rustle of the blades against our legs, and the sounds of our feet crushing the grass were all that there was. It was the most irritating thing ever. I needed something.

Even if it was just a slight breeze, I needed _something_ different, something that wasn't so perfectly still.

A gentle breeze was suddenly dancing its way around us, playing with my hair, and causing goose bumps to appear on my skin. It was eerie, how the world had accommodated me so quickly. I searched around me, hoping to see that something else had changed, but the wind was all there was.

"I wonder what else could happen," I murmured to myself, raising my head up to really _feel_ the wind.

"Like the wind, you mean?" Takeru clarified, knowing instinctually what I was talking about. Clearly the still, quietness of this world was bothering him as well. "Well...how about this?" he asked, closing his eyes tightly. Before he'd opened them again, dragonflies flew through the air, buzzing softly around us. They'd appeared midflight, and acted as though they'd always been present.

Afterwards, it became a game to us. It was a welcome distraction from the fate of our friends and the fate of the Digital World. I was quick to wish up wildflowers, to give the empty green canvas some colour. White and yellow were the most popular, but pale purples, blues and pinks could be spotted every now and again. Takeru laughed at my simply decision, and suddenly the trills of songbirds were filling the air as small black birds and pretty brown birds fluttered through the sky, pushing the buzz of the dragonflies to the background. I thought up some toads, letting their croaking add to nature's orchestra. It wasn't the prettiest composition, but it was much more comforting than the silence had been.

Our feet stopped crunching the grass, as a cobblestone path stretched out under them, leading off into the distance. And we grew more daring, as Takeru called up some horses and I—not to be outdone—wanted goats. The neighs and bleating joined the symphony, and for a moment, I was happy.

But a horse raced alongside the cobblestones, with her foal behind her, not yet fully comfortable on his unsteady legs. And then a young kid nearly knocked us over in his haste to get away from his mother. My heart clenched, and the fun had drained out of our little game. I wanted to find Miyako, and _our_ baby. It really wasn't any wonder why the foals and kids were present. I wanted my wife and child so badly—the world most likely drew on that desperate need, and tried to accommodate as best it could.

It wasn't the same though.

Takeru sighed, and we continued on our way. Every once in awhile, a stone would appear of the path, and he would kick it, until it got lost in the long grass, and he needed to wish up another one. The sun was sinking lower in the sky, and we still hadn't found anyone. I hadn't _truly_ been so optimistic as to think we would find the others so quickly, but that didn't stop me from being disappointed. It wasn't until the sun had sunk lower, and Takeru had wished up some fireflies that we saw anything other than the endless field.

"Is that a pile of rocks?" Takeru pointed, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I didn't ask for one," I said defensively.

"Then it's a clue!" he cheered, racing down the path towards it. I couldn't let him go alone. We didn't know if there were any foes in the Land of Dreams. It couldn't be a completely isolated world, with Summer as it's only occupant. She would have to be horribly lonely if that were the case, and she hadn't _seemed_ it. Yet she sent us on our way without any warnings, so there couldn't be anything _too_ bad, could there?

It hadn't taken me long to catch up to Takeru's head start, and as we drew closer to the pile of rocks, we realized it was something _more_ than that. There were ancient rocks that had crumbled from the elaborate—but modestly sized—temple walls. There were torches lit on either side of the door, and just glancing down the dark tunnel that lead inside, I could see a faint flickering of more torchlight coming from within.

"We've got to check it out," Takeru said, reaching out and grabbing one of the torches. I took a moment to look over the temple. It was rather small, for what it was, and was made of a light brown stone. It looked as though it had been beautiful in its hay day, but had seen its fair share of erosion. Grape vines grew sporadically up one side, and were stretching their way across the roof. And the outer walls themselves had intricate carvings chiselled into them. They seemed familiar. The shapes looked to me, to be digimon—something that struck me as strange in a world that didn't possess any.

I didn't get a chance to look any closer, because Takeru had gone inside. I needed to keep up with him. I was sure he could take care of himself—he'd literally slain a dragon before—but I wanted to be there, just in case.

Faint groans of frustration echoed down the hallway, and Takeru grinned, laughing loudly. He knew what—or _who_ —was waiting within the temple walls. After just a second, I was able to piece it together too.

Koushiro.

Who else would come to the Land of Dreams and create a crumbling, ancient temple? The walls in the hall we were wandering down were covered in digicode. It should have been the first thing that came to mind at the sight of it. I was more embarrassed, than relieved, at the thought of it being Koushiro instead of a monster.

I'd let Takeru get ahead of me, and I raced down the hallway, no longer bothering to be quiet. Why should I? It was just Koushiro. He wasn't going to kill me for making some noise. He probably wouldn't even hear it. He tended to be oblivious to such things.

Upon entering the main chamber, I was met with an interesting sight. Koushiro was—predictably—bent over his computer, typing like mad, pausing every once in a while to furrow his brows at the screen and double check the symbols on the wall in front of him. He let out a frustrated sigh, before deleting everything and starting again. Takeru, however, was sitting cross-legged next to him, finger extended as he poked him continuously.

"Hey! Hey, what are you doing?" he asked. "Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey! HEY! HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Hey Ken, I think he's deaf."

"I'm not deaf," Koushiro said quietly. "I'm just uninterested in the prospect of conversing with a rather annoying ball of immature unintelligence."

"Harsh," I said, before I could stop myself.

"Not harsh," Takeru argued. "Funny. That's the first thing he ever said to me. It was the day we left to the Digital World for the first time. I can't believe you remembered that verbatim."

"I remember everything," Koushiro said, rolling his eyes. "I simply have to have _heard_ it in the first place, in order to add it to my bank of knowledge."

"Cool," Takeru said. "Me too. Mostly."

"Tell that to Mimi," Koushiro said grumpily. He winced, and shook his head. Obviously Mimi wasn't at the Coliseum when the virus came. I sympathized with him. At least I knew that Miyako had a key. I couldn't even offer him that same comfort. I didn't know _who_ had a key at all.

"We just came from Summer's place," Takeru said. "From the Looking Glass, really. She said there were others. I guess she meant you. But...she said _others_ , which is plurralized, so I guess...what I want to know is..."

"Did anybody come with me?" Koushiro suggested. Takeru nodded anxiously, glancing at me. He felt guilty for wanting Hikari to be safe. I frown at the thought. I could understand the sentiment though. I felt guilty for wanting it to be Miyako—and no one else. "I used the key to save Hikari and myself, so that we wouldn't slow Taichi, Mari and the others down anymore."

"Hikari," Takeru said, smiling and laughing in relief.

I bit back my jealousy. It was irrational. I knew that Miyako had been nowhere near Koushiro when she had started running. It was illogical to have thought it could be her in the first place. But it didn't stop my heart from twisting, and the majority of my hope from fading. I was happy Hikari was safe. I was.

 _I was._

I felt so heartless, for not being able to convince myself of that fact. I just wanted it to be Miyako so badly, and anyone else was going to be a disappointment. It wasn't just Hikari. I would have been disappointed if it was Taichi, or Mimi, or any of the others. Miyako was the only one I _wanted_ right now. I was such a selfish person.

"I wouldn't get too excited," Koushiro warned Takeru. Takeru raised an eyebrow at him, urging him to explain. "She hates me. She shouted it at me. She's very angry to be here, instead of with the others. She stormed off, because I'm obviously a horrible person, and she doesn't want to be near me right now. She might respond better to _you_ , Takeru, but I sincerely doubt it. She wants to brood."

"Hikari doesn't hate anything," Takeru protested. "The word's not even in her vocabulary."

"I assure you, you're wrong," Koushiro said. "If you don't mind, I'd like to try and figure this out now. I'm trying to access the power of the key to Earth, so we can escape this world, and meet up with Sora. As of this moment, I now have solid evidence that five digidestined have survived. I would very much like it if we could all be in one world—preferably one that makes more logical sense than this one."

Five.

Sora, Hikari, Takeru, Koushiro and me.

He didn't have any hope for Taichi or Mimi. For my _wife_. I didn't know what to think about it. Koushiro was rarely ever wrong. What if it was too late, and Miyako hadn't been able to use her key? What if my wife and child were dead along with my partner and parents, and I would never know, because we were stuck in this lonely world?

"Don't say that," Takeru said. "Everyone's fine. I know they are. Because I have faith in them. I trust that Kiyoko built a shield that could stand up to anything the DWD decided to throw at it. I believe that our friends are all safe within one of those barriers. And those that aren't, escaped, just like we did."

"How can you believe that?" Koushiro asked wistfully. He wanted to believe too. He just couldn't bring himself to do it.

"I have hope," Takeru said with a short laugh. "It's all I have anymore. Enough of this wallowing. Summer's working on getting us out of here. If she can't do it, then you can get back to this research of yours, even though it's obviously not helping. In the mean time, we're going to have to find Hikari. She needs to know that Ken and I are alive, and that we've got a way out. We can't just leave her out there alone in a new and strange world. That's rude. So get to your feet. We're going."

Takeru was right. Hikari couldn't stay out there alone. We needed her here with us. We needed to stick together. He was right about one other thing too. We needed to keep our hope alive. I couldn't give up on my wife. She was smart, she was capable, and she was _safe_.

And I would believe that, with everything I had—until someone proved me wrong.

 _ **Mari Goutokuji:**_

"I just don't understand why we have to work _today_ of all days!" Babamon roared, using the end of her broom to dig into the ground at her feet.

"Because we need to get as quick a start as possible!" Tapirmon answered optimistically as he glided past her, dragging along with him two cultivating tools to work up the ground. "If we don't start now, we may run out of food before these plants can do anything for us at all!"

Babamon rolled her eyes, "But starting tomorrow wouldn't stall us any. Or not much in any case." She wound her broom back over her head and slammed it toward the ground, but instead she wailed it against her bare foot. She began screaming loudly in pain as Warg and Dracomon stifled laughter. It was good to see them laughing so soon, even if it was interrupted by solemn expressions. They'd both lost their partners today. I knew what that was like. I knew what all of these digimon felt like. I glanced over my shoulder briefly to see Monodramon helping Betamon dig a hole in the ground to plant an apple tree that would take literal years to grow anything. They really wanted to plant it, so I let them, but it reminded me how long we could really be stuck here.

There was a flash of lightning from above and Tapirmon jumped in fright, dropping his tools. "Oh don't mind that," Babamon said comfortingly, "These shields will hold up well."

"I know," Tapirmon said, nodding politely. "Kiyoko built them. He wouldn't let me be hurt." No one responded to him, and he floated in silence for a moment before picking up his gardening tools again and set off, dragging them through the dirt. It was _so_ sad to see him that way. Especially since I was supposed to be the one he could lean on in the situation. He really didn't have anyone else left for him. But I wanted to be just as sad as he was, and I wanted to let out my fears and frustrations by doing whatever it took. Kiyoko was gone... That poor, sweet little boy who once hosted a genuinely evil spirit—I could remember the first time I'd met him. Though, really, I supposed it was Sigma then.

He'd walked right into the apartment and Hideto awkwardly admitted I wasn't the only one moving in that day. We stared at Kiyoko for a moment, trying to understand how to communicate with someone who smelled so bad. He made it clear that he was not going to be given the short end of any stick and he pushed his way straight up to the only bedroom, marking his territory by throwing everything Hideto owned down the stairs.

Hideto. That day he and Neo walked into the library was one of the best of my life. Without Lalamon around I had no one to confide in, and nothing to do. My grandmother was my family, of course, but there were secrets I could never tell her. Lalamon, for one. Having someone who knew was better than anything that had happened since she'd been dragged into my computer that horrible day in August.

"Eh, girl?" Babamon asked me, prodding me with the dirty end of her broom. "Did you say something?"

I shook my head, "No."

"Ah, well." Babamon said slowly. "If you need to talk, I can listen, despite what anyone may have told you. I wasn't always old and cranky, you know."

I tried to smile at her, but it came out as more of a glare, and Babamon looked away, continuing on her gardening spree. She had to be bitter with me for suggesting it in the first place. After the funeral yesterday, everyone seemed to be standing around, waiting for something just as 'fulfilling' to happen, and when it didn't I suggested we get to work on whatever we'd be needing for our stay, which could potentially last forever. Or at least as long as our supplies could last.

Or the barrier.

I looked to the archway that led to the outside world and stared into the thick violet fog as it rolled in great clouds of death, swimming its way around the barrier that was effectively keeping it out. But for how long? How long would we be able to survive in this place? How long would we _have_ to? I wasn't one for hope, but it was possible the virus would eventually fade. It was possible Sora could find a way back to the Digital World and it was possible that way would allow us all a safe journey home. That meant revenge was also possible.

"What do you think it destroyed?" Terriermon asked quietly, following my gaze to the doorway. "Digimon, sure," he nodded, "but what about the trees? Or the ground?" I didn't answer right away. "Lopmon?"

I quickly threw my arm around him and pulled him closer, rubbing his head gently. "You're going to be okay," I told him softly, and he looked up with watery eyes. "You will." It felt fake. I was lying to him, which was something I wasn't too comfortable with, but I knew Willis would want him to be happy as long as possible. Even if he, himself wasn't around to see it happen. He was with his sister now though. At least that was something. "And I have no idea." I answered his original question. "We won't know until we get out there to look."

"We're not going out there, are we?" Tapirmon asked, shocked.

"I want to," Terriermon said. "I want to find Lopmon."

I looked to him with sad eyes, but he didn't pay any mind to me. He just moved off to grab some pumpkin seeds. "Poor dear," Babamon sighed quietly, "I've never known a digimon with a brother or sister before. Even with all my years of experience." She looked down to the ground, and I did the same, grabbing the trowel I was using and continued digging up the dirt. "I was there though, when he was created. Long ago. Gennai said it was important, and we told him it might not be safe," she smiled through her words, "But he knew better. He always did." She looked up to me, "did you ever meet him?"

"Once," I said quietly, "and never."

"How is that possible?" She asked.

"It's complicated." I shrugged my shoulders, and pulled the loose strands of hair away from my sweaty face. The air around us was so thick it felt like the hottest of summer days, even if the temperature was low. "Time travel."

"Ah," Babamon said as though she were disappointed in me for meddling with time, almost as if she had a personal vendetta against the very principal. I tried to get back to work, ignoring her disappointment and found it difficult. There were so many negative thoughts rolling around through the air, it was hard to concentrate on something so trivial as planting a flower garden, especially since it went against the basic idea of planting gardens. All the flowers would do is be pretty. But I wanted them planted anyway. "That wall is silly." Babamon said.

I looked to her and saw she was looking to the memorial wall where a few stragglers were still putting up their memories, hours later. "I agree," I said coldly. "I don't much like the idea of spreading false hope around to people who really just need to hear the truth."

"False hope?" Melga asked from behind me.

I turned quickly and flashed him a smile, "I just mean, we have no idea who is okay, and who isn't."

"But that shouldn't matter," Melga said shyly, "I wanted to share my memories of my favourite person with anyone who wants to read them. That's why they're up there on that wall. Not to trick myself into thinking he's alive. I know he isn't. I'm not a child, Mari." Melga turned and walked off without another word, effectively making me feel like a total jerk.

"Don't worry," Babamon said, "He'll be okay." I nodded, agreeing. "I lost two friends already, myself. Probably more. Divermon and D'arcmon. They probably thought I didn't like them, because I'm always yelling at people, but I still cared for them."

"I'm sure they knew," I said instinctively in that tone of voice I hated so much. That condescending, 'it'll be okay' voice that everyone thought was best to use when someone was grieving. It was like telling someone that you knew they were fragile and made of glass and that you were going to walk around them carefully until they tell you to stop, only, when you tell them to stop, they take offense and then when they calm down, they do it again. Forever sometimes. It was one of the reasons I never talked about Lalamon. I just wanted someone to _talk_ to me, and not treat me like a baby.

"Maybe," Babamon said quietly, setting down her broom. "Jijimon, though," she was quiet for a moment, "I don't know if he's okay."

"He should be," I told her with a forced smile, "Palmon took us to his house, and we set up a barrier for him and the other plant digimon at a place called 'Toy Town'." I wasn't sure why I was speaking to her like she wouldn't know the lay of the land, but there was something about a sad person that just made you be careful, no matter how much I didn't want to be. Babamon seemed pleased though, she even smiled at me, relieved. Even if it didn't promise much, it was still something.

She was quiet again, for a long while actually, and everyone was getting to work. Betamon and Monodramon set to work on planting some peas and carrots, while Terriermon kept with the squashes and cucumbers. Warg and Melga were planting whatever they could get their hands on, and Tapirmon was setting up fences and stakes so we could label the rows. Babamon and I kept working on the flowers in silence. At least until Keiko emerged from the chambers below. She blinked in the weird coloured light and diverted her eyes to the ground when she saw the clouds of the virus.

Keiko shook her head harshly, tossing her hair aside, keeping her arms tight around her torso. She looked pale and tired, and I winced as I raised my arm into the air to catch her attention. I waved her over and she politely set off in my direction.

"Hey," her voice was coarse and dry, but she was putting on a brave face, "Mari, right?"

"That's me," I nodded, "Want to help?" She smiled down at me and nodded, falling to her knees and picking up a trowel of her own. "So we're planting any red flowers we can right here in this section. We're making a rainbow of sorts."

"Sounds pretty," Keiko smiled again.

"How are you holding up?" Babamon asked her. I sighed deeply and rain my hand across my brow, trying to ignore Babamon. I knew she was talking to Keiko, but it sent that same irritated vibe through me as if she was asking me, as if it were me who had just lost my partner.

When I looked up to Keiko I was surprised to see the same feeling creating a scowl on her face. "I'm fine," Keiko said, almost annoyed.

Babamon nodded, "You know, I've never had a partner myself," she sighed dreamily, "Jijimon is the closest I've ever come."

"But I was told you've been around since the start of time," Keiko said bluntly.

"No, no." Babamon said, shaking her head with a smile, "Not quite that long. Just the start of the Digital World." She sighed again, "I was so pretty back then, though. Young, and beautiful."

"You're still pretty," Keiko said kindly.

"Oh thank you dear, but not nearly as gorgeous as I was." Babamon said brightly, "You know, I was the only Rosemon of my day. Queen of the Jungle." Keiko's face lit up as if her grandmother was telling her a wild story of the old days, and I had to admit that even I found myself interested in what she had to say. "No one dared mess with me. I ruled over the plant digimon on Earth, back when we lived there. I don't remember much of those days, but I remember feeling excited at the chance to leave the humans behind. Thought I'd made a bad decision when the world proved to be nothing but darkness and chaos. But Gennai saved us, like he always did."

"So how are you a Babamon?" Keiko asked, "Rosemon is a mega, isn't she? How can you go higher than that?"

"Oh, I didn't." Babamon admitted. "I simply aged. Way back before we turned Digital. Rather unfortunate I missed my chance to stay beautiful for an eternity. But I'm one of very few Rosemon's who ever existed, you know, so I'm not ashamed of my form. I'm proud."

"How many Rosemon's were there?" Keiko asked.

"Only ever _three_ ," Babamon admitted. "Through death and rebirth, only three ever lived. One died many years ago, during the Digital World's first years, one belongs to the loud Digidestined girl, and one is yours truly."

"Uh," I spoke up, "And my friend."

"Yes, the loud one." Babamon nodded.

"No," I said flatly, "My partner was a Rosemon too."

"Not possible, my dear." Babamon said thoughtfully. "All digimon are registered, and no other Rosemon ever existed."

"Okay," I said, dropping the tools into the dirt, "Ask any of the Digidestined, they'd be happy to prove you wrong." Babamon seemed furious at me for speaking up against her, as if she couldn't stand anyone fighting against her, even when it came to things that she knew nothing about.

"I love proving Babamon wrong,"

We all turned to see Taichi standing over us, watching the gardening process. His hands were crammed in his pockets and he was actually grinning at Babamon. "So, what are we saying?"

"Doesn't matter," I said, standing up quickly and wiping the dirt from my knees. "I'm going for a walk."

Babamon's loud voice was impossible to ignore, "Your friend is just upset over nothing. Tragedy struck, and now she's dealing with her emotions, the same as everyone else." I stopped immediately and looked back to them, angry, ready to bite her head off, but the look on Taichi's face shut me down quickly. One end of his mouth was raised in an almost disgust as he looked down to Babamon, annoyed. He then shook the expression away with a sigh and turned to me.

"Mind if I come along?"

I didn't answer right away, instead I turned to Keiko, "You okay to keep everyone in line?" She nodded with a smile, and I smiled back. She'd be happy to have something to take her mind off of her partner. I pulled my arm through the strap of the backpack I'd taken from Kiyoko's things and reached inside, pulling out my phone and pressing a few buttons.

"Mari, where are you going?" Taichi asked, rushing after me, I suppose he noticed that the only exit from the arena in the direction I was heading was that big archway where the virus was awaiting menacingly.

"For a walk." I said flatly.

"Outside the barrier?" He asked, putting his hand on my shoulder to stop me, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"You don't have to come with me." I told him, continuing on my way.

"If you're going, I'm going too," Taichi said nervously, "But are you sure it's a good idea?"

"Are you scared?" I asked, smirking.

"Never," Taichi insisted, shaking his head with a smirk, "It's just—"

I held up a finger to silence him as I focused on erecting a barrier around me using the phone. It was the same program as the barrier surrounding the Coliseum so by any logical point of view, I should be able to walk around unharmed. When I looked back up to Taichi he had broken eye contact. I was invisible. I messed around with the phone in my hand until I became visible again, but still protected. "Are you coming?" I asked, staring to the large archway where, just beyond, a wall of violet fog lay.

Taichi seemed unsure, staring at the dividing line, and then he breathed a kind of laugh, "Of course I am." He said, pulling out his phone and creating his own barrier. "I want to see what's out there."

"Me too," I told him nervously. What if Terriermon was right, and there was nothing but darkness and emptiness out there? What if the virus was designed to take away everything Gennai had done to create a world that the digimon could call home after the humans banished them from their own? Either way, we'd need to know sooner or later, because we were going to have to find the other barriers to be sure the digimon inside had enough to eat and drink. The barriers wouldn't be much use if they were going to die anyway. "Do you have to pee?" I asked him, trying to keep a straight face, "We might be gone a while."

Taichi grinned stupidly and suppressed a laugh, "You're just stalling. You're scared."

"Am not!" I insisted, smiling too, turning to look at the wall of fog again. "Okay, sure. I'm a bit nervous maybe. What if the barriers on our phone stop working for any reason."

"Maybe we shouldn't go?" Taichi suggested.

I shook my head and tried to take the step outside, but I couldn't gather enough courage. It could be a suicide mission with no purpose, and that was a scary thought. I reached out and grabbed Taichi's hand for support and listened to him count down from three, and when he muttered the simple word "go" we stepped together into the thick violent fog.

It was one of the strangest experiences of my life, that's for sure. I felt as though I were in a tiny snow globe, and all around me the virus was brushing up against the sides of the barrier. After our initial step into the void of nothingness we had lost sight of the Coliseum. Just like that. The fog was too thick to really navigate through. One thing I did notice though was the solid, if not soft, ground beneath my feet.

"Mari," Taichi said, his voice sounded soft and unlike himself. "We should expand the range of the shield as best we can next time."

I looked to the ground and immediately agreed. It hadn't crossed my mind until he'd said it, but the barrier's walls were only four feet on either side of me, and that could get dangerous. "Next time," I agreed. Then Taichi came into view again by stepping closer and overlapping our barriers.

"This is so weird." He said before laughing. "I've never done anything like this."

"I do it all the time." I said, returning his smile before setting off into the abyss.

"Wait!" He shouted, "We can't get lost." He appeared behind me again and sighed. "What if we use a gps system on our phone?" He began to click away at his phone and ultimately decided it should work. "I only know the coordinates of a couple places, which do you want to go to? My house, or the Temple?"

"Why not both?" I suggested with a shrug.

"Sounds good." He agreed, setting off with me toward the river. "If this test run works out, and, you know, we don't die, maybe we could send some others out, and we could head to the other barriers? Find Meiyomon's siblings, check on Patamon and Biyomon?" I nodded to show I was listening. It was a good idea, but I had nothing to add, "Meiyomon was just screaming at me earlier, that's why I came to the arena again. He was mad at me for not finding his siblings before the virus hit. I'm going to do whatever I can to find them all." It was a good mission. It may not have been the most planned thought I'd ever heard, but at least it was something. Then the two of us walked in silence for a while, through the river and across long stretches of empty fields. There was no guarantee we were going the right way, and it even seemed like we'd never moved at all. The scenery all looked the same to me. Every now and then there would be a bolt of lightning though, trying to strike us, but being scared off by the barriers around us. No matter how many times it happened, I jumped in surprise every time.

"So, how did you enjoy the funeral?" Taichi asked quietly, staring at his phone to be sure we were going the right way.

"Oh," I said, looking off into the clouds of fog, "You know... it was—"

"You hated it?" Taichi asked, looking up to me and making eye contact for the first time since we'd set out. It was scary though, how well the fog could be reflected in his glassy brown eyes.

"I did."

He laughed, thankfully, "Me too." He almost groaned as his laugh faded, thinking to himself, "It wasn't my first funeral though. Had a few grandparents die. A few digimon friends that Mimi and Yamato just _had_ to honour."

"Sounds like a riveting experience," I said sarcastically. "Anyone else?"

"Agumon died once," he shrugged, "Came back though, so it's not like you." I nodded, but said nothing. "I want to go like Gennai, you know? Make a big impact, but to not have any big deal made over it. Everyone in this world knew Gennai's name. He was the creator after all, practically a god. You'd expect a big ceremony—the _biggest_. But there was nothing."

"Well," I said, "I don't have as big an issue with funerals as you obviously seem to, I generally respect them. It's a way to say goodbye. Lalamon's funeral was good for me, it showed me that people _can_ care. My first funeral was my grandmother's though. It was the singular hardest day of my life, until, not even a month later, Lalamon died." Taichi was quiet, probably trying to be respectful, but I didn't really know what else to say, "I think letting go is the most important step when it comes to death. There are worse things that could happen, and I have to be thankful that she's resting in peace, I guess."

"So have you?" Taichi asked, "Let go?"

"Sure," I nodded, "I guess so. As much as I can."

"What does it feel like?" Taichi asked bluntly. "Sorry, if I'm stepping over any lines."

I looked to him, shocked that someone could walk with such heavy steps around this topic. I could feel the smile creeping onto my face. "It feels like a piece of my soul snapped off and is lost for an eternity. Which I know is highly melodramatic, but that's the best way to describe it. It's like losing an emotional limb that just can't grow back."

"Weird..." Taichi muttered.

"To say the least," I shrugged. And then we were quiet again as we walked through the misty air. Eventually we started talking again. Taichi told me about how his mother and father were arguing before she'd left to the Digital World and how he really wished they hadn't been because now she was going to be all worked up about it until they saw each other again. If ever. He told me about trusting Koushiro to take care of Hikari, and how, if they were trapped in that world together forever, at least they'd have each other. "Koushiro isn't the worst person to end up with Hikari," He had said, "Think of her and Yamato. No way." I laughed at him, and he grinned right back, continuing his stories. He told me a bit more about Gennai, how he was kind of aloof, and quirky, but also strict and kind of mean. He'd died to save Iori. I knew that, but the whole time travel thing was a complicated story, I didn't want to bring it up again. "Are you ever going to say anything?" Taichi asked.

"You're so good at talking," I told him, "You're on a roll, it would be rude to break that."

"Aw, come on," He said, "Just tell me a surface level story. I'm not asking for much."

"Fine," I groaned. He clapped his hands together in triumph and I thought about what I could tell him. Any story could be made surface level by taking emotions out of it, but it would be hard to take them from a lot of stories. Like, why had I moved to Japan? Because my parents had disowned me. What was meeting Lalamon like? Well it sucked because I'd been chased by a crazy man with a knife who attempted to rape me in the streets after Willis dumped me on Christmas day. Why did my parents disown me? Well, because I refused to become someone they wanted and who I would never be proud of. "Okay," I said slowly, "I met Miyako in pre-school."

"That's just a fact, not a story—really?" he asked, "That long ago?" I nodded. "You need a full story though, come on. Go big or go home."

All the stories in my life seemed to be heavily linked to something I couldn't talk about. I couldn't talk about Allias III because, well, we'd been evil, and because one of the members had been possessed by a man who, well, I wasn't unfamiliar with. Talking about my only real family member meant I'd have to talk about why that was the case, and talking about any of my friends meant that I'd have to explain how I felt that they were now dead. "You're going to have to help me out," I said, accepting defeat.

"Tell me about your first boyfriend," he suggested.

"Okay," I said nodding, "He was lovely," I said with a scowl. "Fifteen years ago, on a cool February morning I bumped into this charming young lad at my locker. He said to me, 'You're a babe,' and I thought, 'Wow, how romantic!'" Taichi choked on laughter, "He told me I'd be prettier without my glasses, and if I straightened my hair, and well, I wanted to be pretty back then. I was ten, you know. And we just kind of started dating. And oh boy, did _he_ ever change my life for the better."

"What was his name?" Taichi asked.

"Marshall Taft."

"Ew," Taichi shuddered, "You've been dealing with him for that long? Fifteen years, really?"

"Why of course," I said, "Couldn't you tell? We're inseparable."

"That really sucks," Taichi said thoughtfully. "We're almost to my house," he said, glancing back to his phone. "That went fast." He then looked up to me and said, "So what then?"

"Then I tried to make him a better person," I shrugged, "Told him to apologize to Willis for everything he'd done. Stopped his bullying, and he really seemed like he good be a good guy. I was wrong, of course, for so many reasons."

"He didn't do anything... to you... did he?" Taichi asked awkwardly.

"You name it," I said flatly. "Look, this is getting way deeper than we agreed I'd have to go." He threw his hands up in the air and apologized. "Who was your first girlfriend?"

"A girl called Misa," Taichi said with a laugh, "We ate ice cream once. Sora was jealous, and said I never spent time with her anymore, so I broke up with her."

"Ah," I said, nodding. "Young love."

"You know how it is." Taichi joked, "Or, well, I guess you don't."

"No, not really."

We didn't talk anymore until we'd found a nice stone pathway. Taichi seemed familiar with it, so I let him lead the way until it stopped at a wooden step. It was his house. He moved quicker and with more familiarity, which of course made a lot of sense as it was his home. He pushed through the doorway and stepped over the threshold. I followed him inside, but lost track of him quickly. I figured he'd want some time alone anyway, so I thought I'd take a look around. As best I could anyway.

I walked along the wall, finding all kinds of things hanging, like a painting of a bird, a large photograph of Rei, Pal and Pul, and a strange mounted sculpture of sorts.

It was then that panic shot through me. I was not prepared when a strange bubbly feeling shot through me, and everything began shifting around me. There was something pushing away at the virus, trapping it against the wall, and pushing even further, forcing the substance to find an alternative escape route, until the entire room was virus free. I glanced out the window and saw that the barrier didn't stop there, it encompassed Taichi's entire property.

I looked back and saw Taichi entering the room, checking his phone nervously. "Good idea," I told him.

"Kind of," he agreed, "It's too bad we don't have a powerful enough source to create a larger barrier. Sure, it wouldn't be perfect, but if we could make a barrier around the world, the virus would be trapped in the sky and we'd all be able to roam free."

"That's something to work on, for sure." I nodded, continuing to look around.

"We lost all our genius's though," he said flatly, which actually kind of stung. Two of those he referenced had been close to me. Kiyoko. Willis. I sighed as I looked back to the picture of Rei. "She's gone too," Taichi said quietly. I wanted to tell him that he couldn't know that, and that there was no sense focusing on the negatives, but I was there with him. Rei was my friend. And she was gone now. Her and her brother were both ripped from this world and from their partners. Just like Kiyoko, and Hideto and Willis. Everyone who got close to me was violently ripped from me no matter how hard I fought to keep them. Taichi stepped up and put his hand on my shoulder, which I shrugged off quickly, walking away.

I found a bureau of sorts, covered with trinkets and photographs. I reached for the one in the back, a grin on my face. I turned to Taichi, "Is this you?" I pointed to the infant in the picture and he laughed, nodding. "Cute dimples," I told him with a laugh. "And I love that bald spot there."

"Hey now," he warned playfully, "I was trying to grow a very serious head of hair, it was harder than you'd think to keep my hair that way for so long." I raised my eyebrows and set the picture back down, nudging something with my hand, knocking it over, off the bureau and to the floor. I awkwardly bent down to pick it up and saw that it was another photograph. This one was of Rei and Taichi, but they both looked younger. She was in her chair and he was standing behind her. Next to them was a strange man painted silver, pretending to be a statue. "That was the first time we'd hung out as friends." I looked back to him and he was smiling fondly. "Kind of, anyway. Neo didn't want her spending time with boys alone, so she always brought along one of her many, _many_ friends. None of them seemed to like me much, so she disobeyed Neo and the two of us went for a stroll downtown together. It was nice."

"That's cute," I said, smiling to him. He looked really quite sad though, so I thought I'd better set the picture down. "Maybe she found a barrier somewhere."

"You don't believe that." Taichi said.

"No, I don't," I said, "but that doesn't mean you can't. Between the Coliseum and your house there are three barriers that I know of. Maybe she even set up her phone as a barrier but can't find her way to the Coliseum. Maybe she stopped by here, and headed for Primary village. It's not far from here."

"Do you think she did?" Taichi asked honestly.

I shook my head, "I don't know." I admitted, "But it's possible. I don't like to get my hopes up, but I don't think it could hurt if you looked at the positives. Just this once."

Taichi smiled now, and nodded, looking down to his feet. He looked back up to me, clearly awkward, his eyes squinted, "Thanks, Mari." I nodded back and his phone beeped. He looked down to it with an unpleasant look on his face and then looked back up. "To the Temple?" He suggested.

"Sure," I agreed. We moved quickly, escaping his house. It was nerve wracking again this time, stepping into the virus. We had no real way of knowing if the barriers were still up. Thankfully, they were, and we set off toward the Temple. The walk was short, but we had to cut through the trees, and that was harder than I'd have liked it to be. I walked into quite a few of them, and Taichi laughed every time. Until of course he ran into one himself, and decided it was no longer very funny.

Walking across the bridge was almost as hard as finding it. The sound of the rushing water was comforting in its familiarity as we strode across the golden stretch of road to the Temple doors. We found they'd been blown wide open by the force of the Virus when it had initially escaped. While there was nothing specific I had wanted to do, Taichi made a direct beeline toward something that he clearly couldn't even see. I followed him as best I could, but his pace was quicker than mine and he easily flew out of sight.

I waited a moment, to see if I could find him, but when I couldn't, I called out to him, "Taichi? Where did you go?"

"In here." I heard his voice call back to me and followed it the best I could. "If we ever get out of here, remind me to seek revenge to a major level of ferocity." That was when I found him, holding a strange wooden staff in his hands. It looked vaguely familiar. Where had I seen that orange, Patamon-like topper before? "D'arcmon died to protect us. I wish she hadn't."

"Taichi," I said, reaching for his arm. "You're alive. What she did was a noble thing."

"She was so sad for so long," Taichi said quietly. "She was _alone_." He brought the staff closer to himself and held it tight. "Do Digimon go to Heaven?" I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't even know if I fully believed in the exact Heaven he wanted me to. There was obviously a world of light where spirits could go to rest, but that didn't mean it was Heaven necessarily. "They're supposed to be reborn. She won't be though. Is she gone forever, or is she with her son?"

"I really don't know." I admitted quietly. "I'm sorry."

"At least you're honest." He looked down to the staff and considered dropping it. Instead he moved to the center of the square where a large, mangled wooden horse stood tall and proud of its destruction. He wound the staff back like a baseball bat and swung hard, smashing it into the leg of the horse. The leg snapped in two causing the horse to topple toward him.

"Taichi!" I gasped as he leapt out of the way. He safely escaped the crashing of the horse. It smashed into the ground sending hundreds of pieces of wood flying in every direction. One chunk of wood nearly decapitated me, but missed by only a few inches. The force of the impact had caused a disturbance in the virus and sent much of it away with the air currents allowing me clearer vision. When the beast had fallen for good, Taichi moved forward and cleared a way to the ground. He held the staff in both hands now, above his head, and then with one quick movement he wedged it between the large stones that made up the ground of the Square. "Isn't this a funeral?"

"It's me paying my respects," Taichi admitted, "so I guess so, yeah." He made his way back toward me, hopping off of the broken horse, and landing smoothly on the ground next to me, and was off immediately, "There's just one more thing I want to check here." He waited for me this time, which was nice at least, and together we walked up to the council room. We moved slowly, keeping together and making sure we didn't trip on anything that could be in the way. The fog was thick again, and falling could result in immediate termination. We walked up the stairs, but the higher we went the more violent the lightning seemed to be. One bolt actually struck Taichi's barrier directly, but bounced off and slammed into the outer wall.

Eventually we'd made it into the council hallway and Taichi was walking straight to the end of it. He stopped and as his barrier met with the wall, pushing the virus away it became clear what he was checking. He traced his hand over the intricate wooden doorway, and stopped at the silver handle. He closed his eyes, turning the knob and pulling the door open. There was a wall where Earth should have been, solid brick's made up our blockade.

Then Taichi set off back down the hallway, this time he ran his hands along the left wall, thinking to himself. I followed him as closely as I could until he set off again, running his hand down the opposite wall. He seemed to be counting something. Finally he stopped next to Earth's useless doorway again. "They're gone," he said contentedly.

"What is?" I asked.

"The other doorways." He said, thinking. "Two for the Dark Ocean, one for the Land of Dreams, one for Witchenly and one for that weird Fairy land."

"That's good?" I asked.

"Yeah," He grinned, "That means—well, we know one of them was used by Hikari and Koushiro, but still..." he was counting again, "At least four other friends are alive. So that makes eleven of us that lived."

"Probably," I warned, making sure his hopes did not get too high. But that was still good news. As long as they remembered to close the doors after their escape from the virus, then more than half of our numbers were okay. Human-wise, of course. We had kept fairly good track of the partner digimon, with only Palmon, Gomamon, Hawkmon and Lopmon being unaccounted for. "Who had the keys?" I asked, wincing at my own words. I didn't want to know the answer to that.

"Well," Taichi said quietly, "Willis and Hikari delegated them. So I guess whoever they thought to give them to had them. I know Takeru, Ken and Kurayami didn't have one. Neo and Michael probably didn't since we have no idea what happened to them. I'm sure Hikari would have given one to Miyako, Iori took the one from the Coliseum, and Willis surely had one for himself."

"He was with Mimi and Kiyoko."

"Yeah," Taichi nodded, "Maybe they're okay too." He stopped to think for a moment, and slowly added, "Yamato?"

"Or Hideto." I said, nodding. "They're all that's left."

"Well, probably one of them has to be okay." Taichi said, trying to keep positive. It was annoying how easy it was for me to wish for it to have been Hideto. He was my best friend. Then again, Yamato was Taichi's best friend, and I could see in his eyes that he wanted it to have been him instead. It made me feel less selfish somehow. Taichi glanced down to his phone again, looking even more nervous this time. "It probably wasn't Yamato, no one knows where he went."

"Well, Hideto was off looking for Michael." I said, keeping my eyes trained on Taichi's phone. "Unless Willis went out of his way to specifically give him one..." Taichi looked to his phone one more time, and I'd pretty much had it. "What's going on?" I asked.

"Huh?" Taichi asked, noticing I was staring at his phone. "The battery is dying."

"What?" I gasped, "are you kidding me?" I grabbed his arm and pulled him into my barrier for safety. "That's the most reckless thing I've ever seen anyone do. We could have gone back, you know?" I said, glancing to my phone, realizing that my batter could die too. It seemed well charged, but with these things, you never really knew. What if the barrier was overheating it and it needed to restart at any moment? My heart was suddenly beating very quickly and Taichi seemed to realize this.

"Just breathe," he said softly, holding my wrists and looking straight into my eyes. "Breathe, Mari, it'll be fine. We'll just walk back to the Coliseum now if you want." I nodded. "And then maybe we'll find Spring."

"Who?" I asked.

"I just remembered her, thinking about the different worlds," Taichi admitted, "She's the fairy that lives around here. She should be able to help us out if we could figure out where she might be hiding."

"Sounds good." I said, glancing back to my phone to check the battery. It was fine for now, but who knew how long we'd have to walk back. "Can we go now?" I asked. He nodded and smiled.

"Scared?" he asked.

"Never!" I joked, taking him by the hand and leading our way through the hallway.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Hideto and Hikari both learn what it means to come undone when you're Tied Together with nothing but A Smile.


	8. Tied Together With A Smile

**Y/N:** Hideto's and Kari's are a rather jarring juxtaposition to one another. Kari's is definitely far more serious than Hideto's. Hideto's was really fun, because Sidhendor is definitely my favourite world hands down. I hope you get as much of a kick out of it as I do.

 **U/N:** Oh, so this is Kari, and that's crazy. Crazy because it gets a little intense because Kari has always had this sort of depth that I've never gotten to get into and now I do but it's unfortunate because I'm not sure I like how it fits in, but it has to, because we're gearing up for the ending that Kari will actually get to develop toward or something. So yeah.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 8: Tied Together With A Smile**

 _ **Hideto Fujimoto:**_

Day two in this new world was just as much fun as the first—which is to say, it was not fun at all. We were woken at dawn by the screams of the house owner. She wasn't pleased to see Michael was still dead asleep at such a _late_ time of day. Didn't he know he had a huge list of chores to get done before the ball tonight? She sent him outside right then and there—without breakfast—to start weeding the garden. The cow was practically _screaming_ to be milked, but the woman ignored her, choosing instead to stand watch over Tatum's shoulder as Tatum made breakfast. She hissed any time Tatum tried to slip a little something extra in so that Michael would have something to eat. And once it was ready, she stared us all down as we ate. We tried to act all casual about it, saying we were full when we clearly weren't, just so Michael would get the leftovers, but the woman just grabbed a spoon and ate it all quickly, smirking to herself as she looked through the window to see Michael, on his hands and knees trying to differentiate the weeds from the plants.

She clearly took satisfaction in making Michael miserable.

She didn't seem to have the same intentions for Mimi or myself. First thing upon completing breakfast, she insisted Mimi stand on a stool while she was measured for a ball gown. If we were going to attend the ball, we needed to be dressed respectably—or so she said. She didn't want us misrepresenting her.

I didn't understand how going to the ball in our own clothing was going to affect _her_ negatively. It wasn't as if she was our mother. She actually didn't hold any responsibility for us at all. We just stayed in her house for _one_ night. There was no way in hell we were going to be here for a second. I was so done with the place. We were going to find the Wizard, he was going to bring us to the Looking Glass, and we were going to escape this crazy ass world.

The Digital World was just _waiting_ for us to get back to it. Palmon was roaming around who knew where, and any number of our friends could need us. I didn't like dwelling on exact numbers. It made my chest ache and my head spin. I couldn't even begin to speculate how many were gone. And I was selfish enough to know who I _wanted_ to still be there. I didn't like that part of myself, so I pretended it didn't exist. I was _not_ hoping Mari and Kiyoko were okay more than anyone else. I wasn't hoping that if someone was actually gone it wasn't one of them—anyone _but_ them.

Okay, I was thinking exactly that, but I wasn't going to admit it out loud, so I kept the thoughts as far away as possible.

The woman—who's name I didn't care to learn, ever, so I never bothered asking—declared that Tatum was her helper, demanding that she stood at her side holding a pin cushion, so that the woman wouldn't have to bend over to get one. Tatum was busy sending cold glares at her, but the woman didn't seem to notice at all. I wasn't even the _target_ of Tatum's hostile looks, and my skin was crawling. One simply didn't mess with Michael while Tatum was around. It just ticked her off. She _stabbed_ the guy that was holding Michael hostage—in the _leg_ , but still—so I knew this woman had to wizen up, or she'd meet with a similar circumstance.

Personally, I was hoping for that idea, but I didn't really think it would help our situation any.

"I thought this was one of Michael's chores," Mimi commented, as the woman wrapped a long piece of material around her waist, sticking pins in it in a way I thought looked half-hazard at best.

"That loon isn't fit to do such a delicate task," the woman sneered. "He would riddle the dress with so many mistakes that I'd need to do it again anyway. This way we'll save on material. Now be quiet girl and stop fussing. It's impossible to work when you're moving so much."

"Yes Ma'am," Mimi said sarcastically, though the woman didn't seem to notice. Despite her intense dislike for the woman, and her incredible sadness over not being able to be with Palmon at that very moment, Mimi seemed to have excitement simmering in her eyes. She was enjoying the idea that we'd be going to a fancy ball. She wanted to go the whole nine yards, with the elaborate dress, and unnecessarily high heels. She wanted her hair to shimmer in the non-moonlight, and her cheeks to be rosy and her lips to be as red as blood. She was a princess at heart, and it had never shined through so clearly as it did then.

"Good, good," the woman muttered, pinning another piece of material to the dress. This one was in red. She didn't like the contrast though, and took it off immediately, exchanging it for a pale blue. The pink, unsown skirt looked better with it, so she pinned the blue on with a satisfactory smile.

"You two," the woman said over her shoulder. "You will be getting water for us."

"Who?" I asked, looking to Lopmon and Tatum. There were definitely _three_ of us.

"Not the rabbit," the woman hissed. "You aren't a good helper girl, your hands shake and your energy is negatively affecting my creative genius. Leave it on the table; it's more dependable than you are."

"Whatever you say," Tatum said mockingly. She tossed the pincushion on the table without care and grabbed the wooden buckets by the sink, heading towards the back door.

"No," the woman said coldly. "Not there."

Tatum stopped and dropped the buckets on the floor, not caring that she was making a mess. She was really angry with the woman. She wasn't _trying_ to please her.

"There are larger buckets outdoors," the woman said. "You will take them down the path along the forest edge. You will come across a well. You will take the water from there, and bring it back."

"Why?" Tatum asked, rolling her eyes. "You've got a pump right back there. It's easier."

"The water is cleaner, fresher, _better_ ," the woman said, glaring at Tatum. Her glare was so non-threatening that it was hilarious. She didn't seem to appreciate the effort I was putting into _not_ laughing at the sight. "I want only the very best to be used while bathing for the ball."

This time _both_ of us rolled our eyes. No water from a well was going to be any cleaner than the stuff from the pump—unless it was a magical well and not actually just a deep hole in the ground. But we headed out the door anyway, _anything_ for a chance to be away from that horrible woman.

"Be back soon," the woman called after us. "You're next darling."

There was no way in hell she was talking about Tatum or Lopmon. I sighed. I didn't _want_ to wear anything that would pass as dress clothes. I had my black cargo pants, a black shirt with long sleeves and a pair of black hiking boots. I didn't _have_ to wear my baseball cap. If I put a jacket on over my shirt I could pass as semi-formal, right?

Evidently, this was not the case.

"Damn," I muttered. When the woman called for me to repeat myself, I allowed sarcasm to literally _drip_ from my words. "I can't _wait_." Tatum snickered and I sent her a dirty look, which only caused her to laugh harder.

She found two tall, wooden buckets leaning against the barn and shoved one in my hands. We spent a few minutes simply mocking the woman who was always giving us orders. I privately also complained about the size of the bucket. We'd have to lug these buckets—which weren't exactly _light_ empty—back to the house full of water. It wasn't something I wanted to do.

"Hey Michael," Tatum called, heading directly to the garden. I didn't mind postponing our trip, so I wandered over with her. I was distracted when Lopmon snuck out of the house, and came over to join us. "How's the gardening going?"

"Good," Michael said. "Maybe. Do you think this is a weed? I think it's a weed. I'm going to pull it."

"I think that was a beet," Tatum commented as he ripped it out of the ground and threw it onto the pile of "weeds" he'd created. I could see several carrots and beets within the pile. There were even potatoes and entire lettuce plants in it. On the flip side, he had neat little rows of lamb's quarters—which, while technically edible, was definitely considered a weed most of the time.

"I'm not cut out for this," Michael grumbled. He tossed an armful of dandelions into the pile. Lopmon let out a little cheer, to encourage him. I kept the edibleness of dandelions to myself. I didn't want to discourage him.

"Do we think the Wizard is really going to help us?" I asked, glancing back at the house. If he couldn't, I really didn't want to get dressed up. I also didn't really want to get my hopes up.

"Even if he can't, we'll just find the Looking Glass on our own," Michael said firmly. "We'll be back in the Digital World in no time."

"That's not exactly true," Tatum said quietly. We all turned to look at her, silently demanding an explanation. "Even if we _find_ the Looking Glass, we can't go to the Digital World with it. The virus was _everywhere_. We might last a minute in the virus. With such a concentrated dose we'll decompose quickly, and Lopmon would be deleted upon arrival. We can't afford that."

"Then what's the point?" I asked angrily.

"We can still go to Earth," Tatum said. "But even _there_ we wouldn't be able to get to the Digital World. The Temple was the first to fall. Mimi confirmed that, didn't she? Even if the barriers between the worlds _let_ us go through them, we'd enter through the Temple, and we'd _still_ be dead. We can go to Earth, and live our lives there, or we can live our lives here. I don't see any other options."

"But those options suck," I snapped.

"It's not _my_ fault," she said defensively.

"It's the DWD," Michael said firmly. "We can't turn on each other."

"But I wanted to see Terriermon and Willis," Lopmon cried. "I don't want to stay here forever. I want to go home, and _they_ are my home."

"It's out of my hands," Tatum said, apologetically. "I can't change anything."

"Yet you let us think there was a chance," I pointed out. "Do you know how much I was _depending_ on getting back to the Digital World? I _can't_ stay here. I _need_ to be there."

"I'm open to other suggestions," Tatum told me. "If you've got any alternatives, I'd be happy to hear them. _Don't_ yell at me. At this point, I'm just happy to be alive. I _want_ to be with Monodramon too, you know. My _parents_ are there too. I want to get to them, but I can't figure out _how_."

"This sucks," I said thickly.

"Yeah," Lopmon agreed. "But, we might be able to open the gates if we're on Earth, right? Maybe we could find an _anti-virus_ while we're there too?"

"Sounds difficult," Michael commented.

"Incredibly so," Tatum agreed. "But it's a chance. We don't have a chance to do that here. It's _something_. It's a way to eventually reunite with our loved ones. It's something to work towards. So we'll find the Wizard, and he'll get us home."

"And we get to go to a ball in the meantime," Michael said with unconcealed enthusiasm. "My _mom_ would have gone to these things. She was a princess you know. I get to do something that she's done. It'll be closer to her than I've been since she died. I'm so excited. She wore this to them too, I bet." He fingered his necklace. The thin golden chain of leaves glimmered in the non-sunlight.

"And the Wizard will be there too," Lopmon added.

"And we'll go home," Tatum concluded.

I couldn't seem to grasp the same confidence that they all had. Not now that I knew that the Looking Glass wouldn't bring me to Warg and Melga. I wouldn't get to see Kiyoko, Mari, Tapirmon or Dracomon. We wouldn't be able to save Palmon. We'd just be on Earth.

"What about Mimi?" I asked, halfway through a fantasy where I smashed my fist into several DWD members.

"She'll come too," Lopmon said.

"Obviously," Michael said, rolling his eyes.

"No," I snapped. "She thinks we're going to Palmon. It's the only thing that's keeping her going. You know that! This is going to _kill_ her."

"She'll be fine," Tatum said, though she didn't sound sure. "We'll just tell her there's a bit of a detour. We'll just have to deal with it when we get there. We can't tell her _now_. We should let her be happy while she can."

"She's _not_ happy," I contradicted. "She's miserable. She's throwing herself into this enthusiasm so that we won't worry about her. Trust me. I've seen her like this before."

"I don't know what you want me to do!" Tatum said, throwing her hands up in the air, only to knock herself in the side of her head with the large buck she was still holding. She was rubbing her sore head when the woman leaned out of the window and started yelling at us.

"You've got a mission!" she shouted. "Get to it! We _need_ that water. Stop distracting them you wretch. They've got work to do."

"Did she just call me a wretch?" Michael asked quietly, sounding very confused.

"I don't understand how she could hate you," Tatum said softly. "I thought it was _impossible_."

"You're so sweet," Michael cooed. Tatum beamed. The woman started shrieking. She was screaming so loud I didn't actually know if she was using words. Tatum and I just started backing away from Michael. He threw himself back into his gardening.

"I'm going to find my new friend," Lopmon said, before racing off, leaving us alone.

We were grumpy for a multitude of reasons. I wasn't going to the Digital World. I was going to have to wear some ridiculous outfit. I wasn't able to have a shower. I was pretty sure I was going to be bathing in metal basin behind a screen or something. I wanted to eat something other than porridge, and I wanted to be with my friends. Yes, I liked Mimi, and the others weren't _bad_. They just weren't the people I spent all my time with.

Not that I was a very good judge of character. Neo was a good example of such failures.

We wandered along the forest's edge for what felt like ages. In reality, it was probably half an hour at the most and just seemed longer because of the lack of sun. I hadn't realized how much I depended on the sun's path to know how much time was passing. Honestly, the sky always looked the same. It was a midnight blue above us. The ground somehow managed to be lit up though as if the sun was shining brightly. It was a strange sort of glow that encompassed the surface of the world. It might've been pretty, had it not been so annoying. If it looked the same _all_ the time, how were we supposed to know what time it was?

The most exciting thing I saw on our walk was a little cabin in the woods. It wasn't all that pretty, and I was pretty sure _animals_ lived in it, what with the shredded curtains, and the giant door frame. I thought I saw someone—a _small_ someone—in the window, but when I looked closer, whoever it was disappeared.

Other than that, it was just trees and grass and air. It wasn't particularly thrilling. It didn't help that I wasn't exactly pleased with Tatum at the time, so I wasn't about to start up a conversation. I was ticked off that she'd let me hope for so long for something that turned out to be damn near impossible. I thought I could have it, and I wanted it so badly. She took that away from me. It didn't matter that it wasn't _really_ her fault. She was the one that kept it from us, so I was blaming her.

Finally, we could see the hill in the distance. It grew larger as we got closer, taller too. I was actually nervous, looking at it, because it just didn't seem to want to stop growing. It wasn't in possession of a gentle incline either. Nope. It was ridiculously steep. And we had to climb it with heavy buckets.

"Damn," I muttered miserably.

"Maybe we can roll the buckets up the hill," Tatum suggested half-heartedly.

With a deep sigh, we started the trek up the hill. My legs were burning with the effort I was putting forth. I had to lean forward to keep myself moving up the hill. I took Tatum's suggestion and actually rolled the bucket in front of me for awhile. Eventually though, the hill was just too much for either Tatum or I, and we started crawling up the thing, because we were too worried about falling backwards. I kept the bucket's handle tucked into my elbow. Tatum had sweat pouring off her face, which was bright red. Her hair was a mess, and standing up every which way. I was sweating too, just not quite so badly. I decided this hill was enough of a punishment, and mentally forgave Tatum for her oversight—even if she didn't exactly know that I was angry with her.

"Almost there," Tatum grunted. I was pretty sure it was meant to be cheerful, but she was using all her energy to climb, and it came out as a sort of a growl.

When my fingers finally reached the base of the well, I actually gave out a victory cry. I used the well to pull myself up the rest of the way, wrapping one arm around it securely when I'd pulled myself onto my knees.

"You've got to be kidding me," I groaned. Tatum reached out a hand to me and I pulled her up to the well. I'd caught sight of the bucket that we were going to lower into the well to get the water out. It was about the size of a two-cup measure. "This is going to take forever."

"Might as well get started," Tatum sighed. We were quiet for awhile, trying to catch our breath, while taking turns putting two cups of water into our large buckets. When I was sure my heart had found its regular rhythm, I looked over at her again. Her face wasn't so red anymore, just faintly pink. I took my hat off and used my sleeve to wipe my forehead off, before placing my cap back in place.

"So this place is strange," I said awkwardly trying to start up a conversation.

"Weirder than the Digital World, that's for sure," she agreed. "I'm sorry, you know. That I didn't tell you. It wasn't to be mean. I needed time to come to terms with it myself. My family, my life, my friends, my partner, they were all left behind. I'm not a digidestined, you know. My life doesn't _completely_ revolve around this sort of stuff. I mean, I'm dating one, and we'll probably get married if he ever decides to _ask_ me, so I'm more involved than say _Steve_ , but I'm not supposed to be the one this sort of stuff happens to."

"I don't get that," I said bluntly. "You're involved more than just about anyone. You work with Koushiro, _in the Digital World_. You're with Michael, you say you wanna marry him. That would make Willis your brother-in-law—and if I have _my_ way, Mari your sister-in-law. That's _four_ digidestined that you're close with. You _chose_ to be involved with all of them. I didn't even really _get_ that choice."

"I'd make the same choices even if I had a second chance," Tatum assured me, dumping another scoop of water in her bucket. "I just didn't expect to be fighting the head of the DWD, or being trapped in another world. I never thought I would be so deeply involved. I sort of figured destiny or fate or _whatever_ it is that decides what you digidestined have to do would just ignore me because I don't have a crest. That's all. It's stupid. Forget I mentioned it."

"No," I said, shaking my head and pulling up some more water. "You can think selfish things, you can think things no one else might want you to. I do it all the time, so I'd be a hypocrite if I said _you_ couldn't."

"Yeah?" Tatum asked, daring me to give her an example.

"Well, if that horrid woman tries to put me in red, or pink, or blue I've been entertaining this fantasy where I get creative with that axe," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"That's horrible," she laughed. "I don't know though. If she manages to find a way to treat Michael worse, I might go get it for you."

"Deal," I joked. I didn't think I could _actually_ hurt the retched woman though. It was a fun thought, nonetheless.

No matter how morbid it seemed, we entertained ourselves by coming up with other methods we could use to dispose of our terrible host. It was a lot of fun. It almost felt like the afternoon Kiyoko, Mari and I spent trying to come up with a way to get revenge against our landlord for evicting us. It wasn't _quite_ the same, but it was close. It was bittersweet. It was familiar enough that I was enjoying myself, but it just made me miss Alias III so much more than I already was.

With our buckets full, all we needed to do was figure out how to get them down the hill. It was pretty much impossible to come up with a solution. We barely made it _up_ the hill with empty buckets. We'd had to _crawl_. I stood up, using the well for balance and lifted the bucket up. It was heavy. Really heavy. I wasn't happy about it. But I _could_ lift it. I took my hand off the well, and took one test step with the bucket.

"Hideto!" Tatum screamed as the weight of the bucket tipped me forward. I fell over the top of the bucket, dousing myself completely with the water I'd spent so long collecting. It wasn't enough though, that I'd tripped and was soaking wet. No. The hill wanted to humiliate me _more_. It was too steep for me to catch myself, and I continued to twist and turn and roll down the hill. Tatum screamed, but I couldn't see _why_. Screaming wouldn't help me stop falling.

I was so dizzy by the time I reached the bottom, because I'd been an idiot and didn't close my eyes. It was a rock that eventually stopped my momentum. Yep. I hit it with my head. It hurt like crazy. It didn't help that my bucket slammed into me right afterwards.

My head was spinning, and the ground wouldn't stay in one place, but I managed to place my hands on what I _thought_ was the ground. I was pushing myself up when Tatum crashed into me, making me fall to the ground again, whacking my forehead on the ground. I groaned. _She_ groaned. We both groaned.

"How's your head?" I asked.

"Fine, actually," she said. "I'm just dizzy. What about you?"

"I think I'll have matching goose eggs," I said lightly, doing my best to make the worlds stop moving for just a second, so I could catch my bearings. Tatum wasn't helping with that. She grabbed my face with both of her hands, and turned my face towards hers. My eyes were closed tightly.

"Look at me," she ordered. I would've shook my head, if it wasn't so painful to move it. "Look. At. Me," she said more firmly. I sighed and peeked through my lashes. She was holding her fingers in front of my face. "How many do you see?" I counted the best I could.

"I dunno," I said. "There's at least twelve."

"I only have five fingers on one hand, idiot," she said, though her tone revealed her fear and panic. She was trying to keep me in good spirits. "I think you'll be fine," she said, sounding anything but confident. "You probably just need to wait it out a bit. Don't go to sleep though. I'm not a doctor. Research is more my field, but I think you might have a concussion. _Maybe_. We'll just be careful, just in case."

"I'm not trying that again," I told her, mentally rolling my eyes—it hurt when I tried to actually do it. "I don't care what the witch woman says. She can't make me do it."

Tatum snorted. "I don't have a death wish either," she said. "We'll just find a stream or something. Now, get to your feet. I can't carry both buckets, so you're not getting out of this."

"Yeah, yeah," I said. I was more than a little resentful, and I chose to kick the bucket along in front of me, instead of carrying it. I used my hands for better purposes, like holding my aching head. I wasn't _that_ jealous of the fact that Tatum got out of it unscathed. Okay, so I was. It just wasn't fair. I knew I should be thankful that my friend wasn't hurt, but really, I'd only just started thinking of her as a friend—when we were brainstorming the pain of another person—and I was a pretty selfish person. If I got hurt, I figured she should've too.

"There's probably a stream in the woods. There has to be. There're animals that live in there, and they can't exactly climb that hill and get water from the well," Tatum commented. She led us into the woods, not bothering to find the path. I could've told her that was a stupid idea, that the woman had warned Mimi and me about straying from that path. But, I didn't tell her anything of the sort. I was in pain, and thinking was irritating. Honestly, I was pretty sure the woman didn't know what she was talking about. The wolf found Mimi _on_ the path, so what did it matter?

I tripped over several branches and rocks. Tatum managed to only trip once—and that was over me, when I'd fallen flat on my face. I'd managed to become the most uncoordinated person this world had ever seen. I mean, I had an excuse. I was pretty sure head injuries were dangerous or something. Other than the dizziness—and actual pain—I didn't think anything was _wrong_.

I didn't plan on sleeping that night though—just in case.

"What's that?" Tatum asked. I really hoped she didn't think I was paying attention. I looked to her and followed her gaze. There was something lying on a large, flat rock, sleeping and being warmed in the non-sunlight.

"I think it's Lopmon," I commented, spotting her long brown and pink ears folded over her stomach, acting as a blanket. "What's she doing here? I thought she was meeting her friend."

Tatum nudged me forward, and we headed Lopmon's direction. She was breathing slowly. She looked really cozy. I felt a little bad when I clapped my hands—as loud as I could—over her head. Tatum glared at me, but Lopmon hopped to her feet in an instant. Her hands were curled into fists, and her eyes were on me. She didn't look happy.

"What was that for?" she demanded.

"You were sleeping in a forest," I pointed out. "There's at least one wolf that lives here. He's not shy. He wanted to eat Mimi yesterday."

Lopmon growled. "How could I fall asleep? I can't believe it! I did it again. Oh, I'm so mad!" She screamed in frustration and started running. "I'm late!" She disappeared into the forest. I turned to Tatum. She was still looking where Lopmon went.

"Curiouser and couriouser," she murmured softly. I hummed, inquiringly. She shook her head, and met my eyes. "Let's keep looking."

We found a stream not too far from the woman's house, which was a bonus, since we didn't need to carry the full buckets so far. When we lugged them through the door the woman smiled brightly at me. She didn't suspect even for a second that we didn't get the water from the well. I wished I'd known that _before_ setting out. I wouldn't have even _tried_ , if that had been the case. She didn't even notice that I'd been injured in any way—even though I was pretty sure I had a large lump growing out of my forehead. Mimi's eyes widened at the sight of it.

I was pleased she cared to look up from her chair at all.

She was hunched over what I assumed was to be her dress. The basic dress was in two pieces, but the woman had clearly sewn them. It had to be her work, because Mimi couldn't sew that well to save her life. She was sewing what I thought was a crumpled piece of material to the bright pink skirt. I raised an eyebrow, motioning to her work. Her face flushed.

"They're supposed to be flowers," she said. The woman beamed at the idea, and I knew she was the mastermind behind them. Mimi was clearly embarrassed to have them. Her skirt had them scattered all over. The top was pale blue. It looked like there were only sashes for sleeves that would fall off the shoulder. It also looked suspiciously like a corset. There was another flower sitting next to her, and I was _sure_ it was going on the shirt, _just_ to tie the whole look together.

I would have laughed, but I was next.

The woman grabbed my arm and forced me onto the stool. She looked me up and down before smiling. She disappeared for a couple of minutes, and I heard her digging around in a trunk of some kind. She came back with two pairs of boots. One was nicer than the other. She handed that one to me first. They were a deep blue, which wasn't my favourite, but I could deal with them. I kicked off my hiking boot and slipped my foot into the blue boot. It was a little tight, but I could get used to it.

"No, no, no," she said, repeating it under her breath. "Those won't do. No. _No_."

I took the hint and took it off. She dropped the other pair—a good, sturdy _white_ pair—and disappeared again. She came back with a pair of pants that were so bright I could barely stand to look at them. Tatum whistled, and I sent her a glare. The woman handed them to me, and I stood there with them in my hand. I wasn't shy in the least. I just didn't want to be caught dead in yellow pants. She started tapping her foot though, looking out the window, _and somehow_ managing to tell the time by doing so. I sighed and dropped my pants and stepped into the horrid offering. They fit, and I was angry about it.

"Oh," she said, looking to me with starry eyes. "They're perfect. A perfect fit. I didn't dare hope. They were my husband's you know."

"Really?" Mimi asked, getting all misty eyed at the idea of it all.

"Huh?" Tatum asked. She was having a similar reaction to _me_. My thoughts were quite simple. Someone married this woman? Was he out of his mind? Where was he now? And was I going to be her next victim?

"Yes," she sighed. "I was so worried I'd have to make an entirely different outfit. This is much easier. Do you want to try the rest on, or would you like to wait?"

"I'll wait," I said, rolling my eyes. I could only imagine what the rest of it would look like. I wondered, momentarily, if I'd be able to find the Wizard on my own _without_ going to the ball at all. Sadly, I doubted I could. I sighed, and stripped out of the yellow pants. I slipped my own—much comfier—pants on and stuck my foot in my hiking boot. "I'm gonna cut wood or something."

"Oh, you are just so sweet," the woman cooed. I rolled my eyes. I didn't actually care if I got any wood cut at all. I just wanted to get away from her before she could assign me to a different job. I'd got knocked around quite a bit during the last one.

"I'm almost done here," Mimi said. "I'll come out and meet you after. Maybe we could visit that old lady again."

"You're so kind," the woman cried. "To think, you're visiting my dear, sweet mother while she's so ill. I just couldn't imagine better children than you."

Woah.

Did she just—?

One look to Tatum confirmed it. She'd deluded herself into thinking Mimi and I were her children. I didn't know whether this was the worst news I'd ever heard, or not. I couldn't help but wonder who was worse, her or my mother. I actually kind of thought the woman was the better option. I gagged at the thought, and slipped out of the house without another word. I heard her telling Tatum to get up on the stool as I grabbed the axe that was leaning against the side of the house.

I cast one glance at Michael, who was still working on the Garden and debated whether I should go and help him. I realized it was impossible. The woman seemed to have a sixth sense about Michael. She also really hated him, and I didn't want to cause him to get any more of her attention. So I headed into the woods instead. I wandered aimlessly down the path. I passed the place I'd cut wood yesterday.

My head needed clearing. I continued down the path, passing "my grandma's" house. I sneered at it as I passed. It actually made me feel better. I planned to sneer at it again on my way back.

I couldn't help my mind from wandering, just as my feet were. My thoughts immediately turned to Warg and Melga. I tried to guess what they were doing without me. I knew they were fine. They were a team, and they took care of each other. They didn't really _need_ me. That didn't mean they didn't want me around though. I wished I was with them. I wished I could watch them playing tricks on the other digimon. I wanted to hear them twittering over gossip. I wanted their snores to fill the room and make it easier to sleep. Yes, they sounded like chainsaws, but I was used to them. It was too quiet without them. And Lopmon snuggled. Warg and Melga—on the off-times they chose to share my bed—were movers. They were always rolling around, whacking me in the face with their claws, or kicking me until I woke up. It wasn't a _fun_ experience, and I didn't actually _sleep_ when they were there, but it was home.

I worried about Mari, wondering for probably the hundredth time whether she managed to get to safety. She was at the Temple, and the virus struck there first. I wondered what Kiyoko would do without her and without me too. Then the traitorous part of my mind reminded me that there was a chance that he wasn't doing anything at all anymore, because he was in the virus too.

I forcefully diverted my train of thought. Gomamon was with Puraido. I wished I could trust my brother. I wished I knew that I'd made the right choice. I couldn't change how things were, but it would have been nice to know anyway. I hoped he was okay. And I hoped he was continuing his magic, talking Puraido out of his hateful ways.

Thinking about Gomamon made me think about Neo, and _that_ was just such a touchy subject that I couldn't help but getting really angry. I swung my axe a few times through the air, trying to get some of the anger out. He'd chosen my family over me. I couldn't believe it. He'd been through my side through thick and thin. He helped me deal with my family, and I helped him take over the Digital World. I'd shown such serious loyalty when I'd done that, and he couldn't be bothered to do the same.

No.

That was another thing to add to the list of forbidden topics.

I turned my mind towards my employment—or lack of it. I'd actually gotten a job at the train station. I wondered if I'd get a severance package if I never actually showed up. Probably not—not that it would actually help me any now that I was here. I kind of felt bad for the old conductor that hired me. He'd been so supportive of digimon, and really taken a risk hiring a digidestined. How did I repay that? I hid away in the Coliseum and then got trapped in the Digital World—and now the Fairy Land.

I was a crappy employee.

Sighing, I stopped walking. I turned to look where I'd come from. I couldn't see the old lady's cabin anywhere anymore. I probably should've gone back. But I didn't. What did I have if I went back? I wouldn't be any closer to home. So what if this Wizard was out there. That didn't mean he would actually do anything to help us. What if he was an evil overlord or something? It seemed very unlikely that we'd be anywhere except that woman's house again tonight. I really didn't want that.

The bed _was_ much more comfortable than the ground though. I'd know. I'd been sleeping on the ground for days before we ended up in this blasted world.

The only thing I liked about this world was the idea that it _saved_ me from the virus. That was it. Okay, it was a lot, but that didn't mean I was planning on enjoying myself. And if I had to live on porridge, breakfast and dinner—she didn't seem to believe in lunch—I was going to scream.

I decided to continue forward for a few minutes, but stopped in my tracks at the sight of a woman. I couldn't see her face, as it was covered with a deep blue hood that draped down over her eyes. Her long silvery locks flowed out of the hood. The material looked rich and beautiful. Her shimmering blue gown looked like sapphires with the way the light was bouncing off of it.

I'd never been more confused in my life.

What was such a rich, elegant woman doing in the middle of the forest? This wasn't really the place you'd expect to find someone like her. The woman we were staying with—and her mother—weren't exactly well off, and they—and potentially the animals that lived in the cabin I'd seen—were the only ones that lived around here.

"Who are you?" she demanded. Her voice was cold and suspicious.

"Hideto Fujimoto," I answered. It didn't really matter if I used my real name, but I really didn't want this lady to assume my name was Jack like the woman had.

"That's not a local name," she commented.

"Nope," I said. She looked at me expectantly. I assumed she wanted me to elaborate, but I really didn't think I needed to. So I didn't. That caused her to sneer at me.

"Show some respect," she commanded. "Don't you know who I am?"

"Nope," I said again. She huffed, and refused to elaborate in retaliation—but mostly, I assumed it was because she was incredulous. I didn't ask, like I figured she was waiting for me to do. I didn't really _care_ who she was.

"You are trespassing," she said firmly.

"You live here?" I asked with a snort.

"Turn around at once," she ordered. "Or, be beheaded for your insolence."

I was having a very weird day. This world was pretty strange though, so I didn't doubt I'd _actually_ lose my head. I turned around and started walking back the way I'd come.

"Don't leave so abruptly!" the lady screamed after me. She clearly didn't know _what_ she wanted from me. "Don't you know you're supposed to let a lady go first?"

"If I see one, I'll be sure to remember that," I assured her, snorting again.

"You should be kissing my feet, bowing down at the very sight of me," she ranted angrily. I tuned her out after that. She was rather arrogant and pompous for a woman that lived so far in the woods. Mostly crazy people lived in this forest though—my supposed "mother", her "sick" mother, and those animals—so I figured she _had_ to be crazy too, to fit in with her neighbours.

"AHHHHH!"

"Mimi," I realized. I didn't even bother looking back at the lady. She was still ranting though, so I didn't know if she'd realized I'd left. I raced as fast as I could, being careful so that I didn't accidentally hit myself with the axe on my way. I zoomed by the old one's cabin, and continued forcing myself forward.

My efforts were met with the sight of the same wolf from yesterday. He was up on his hind legs, scratching away at a tree's trunk. He was trying to climb it. I looked up and saw Mimi was clinging to the branches. I let out a loud battle cry, swinging my axe wildly. The wolf yelped and raced off again. Mimi was crying, but managed to climb back down okay. I hugged her close.

"Dinner's going to be early," she sobbed, determined to deliver the message she'd been sent with. "The woman wants us to have lots of time to get ready for the ball. I don't know why that wolf was following me. I don't even have a basket today. I didn't have any food for him."

"Let's get you back to the house," I said, fixing one arm tightly around her shoulders while my free hand held the axe at the ready.

Yep, this was just a really weird day. I couldn't wait for it to be over.

 _ **Hikari Yagami:**_

Hate.

It was a word I did my very best to ignore, even in my head. No other word came attached with so many negative powers. Nothing I'd ever said had been so dark and, horrible. I did not like that word, and I'd never used it before. I had not thought it towards Yggdrasil or Dragomon, or Myotismon.

And there was no way I had honestly meant it when I had said it to Koushiro, was there? He was a particularly difficult person to get along with sometimes, but I personally had never had that issue, despite his desire to always and permanently have his eyes glued to the computer. He was not an emotional person, and that was what my crest was about. I should relate to him in some way. I'd always been confused about emotions, and kept them to myself. Maybe that was why we usually got along so well.

But right now, we weren't getting along, and right now, I was very mad at him.

How could he have done that? Everyone that knew me was well informed that I cared about others before myself. That wasn't a bad thing! I wanted to save Demidevimon, and to save my _mother_. I wanted to save Taichi and Mari and all those digimon who were defenceless against the virus that could tear them to pieces. The virus that probably _did_ tear them to pieces. I wasn't sure what I could have done for them, but it wasn't a secret that the crest of light gave me powers that I'd used only to help people in the past. Maybe I could have made the same sacrifice D'arcmon made, and gave at least a little more time to my family and friends. Maybe they could have made it back to safety, and I'd have died knowing I did my best to save those who I cared about.

Was it vain to think that maybe I could have helped?

That's all I wanted. A way to help them. Something. Anything. The only important thing in the world to me—the only important thing in _all_ the worlds now—was that I didn't get that chance. A chance to try at the very least. And instead I'd been granted with Koushiro saving _me_ as if I was more important than any of the others.

The _least_ he could have done was allow me to get Demidevimon and save _him_ too. To carry out D'arcmon's final request now that she could never grace the Digital World again. The world had been created for her. She'd gone down with her son's pride and joy, and it was horrible to think about. Hiraga once thought he could play God, and was punished by being separated from his mother, and he selflessly created a clone of himself to try to mend his mother's broken heart, deciding to live his own life knowing his never would be whole again.

And now someone else played God in the worst way possible. Instead of creation, they looked only to destruction, and decided it was time for others to die before their time. Whoever it was had made the decision that no mortal being should ever have the power to make, and because of it, countless digimon and maybe people too—had died. And I desperately wanted to have hope, and believe that the barriers held up, but what if they hadn't? Koushiro obviously didn't think they would work. What if that was true? What if—and this wasn't much of a stretch—Koushiro was _right_ and the barriers broke, allowing the virus in to attack all of those who I'd ever known or loved?

Kiyoko had put on his blog—to tell the whole _world_ of Chosen Children to use those barriers to protect those they loved in their districts in the Digital World. All digimon who were inside one probably thought they were safe now—but the virus must have spread across the entire world by now. They would all be dead.

My fists balled up again and the swampy waters around me turned hot very fast. The trees melted away, sinking into the ground and charring up as they seeped hot, thick liquid. Gusts of steam shot out to the sky, high and fast, and soon I was standing in a place that looked much less like a swamp and more like a volcano.

I had to force the thoughts out of my mind, allowing the liquid to cool down. It worked momentarily, but a flash of Gatomon filled my mind and I screamed out in horror.

I stared down at the liquid and watched as it slowly turned more orange in colour, becoming warmer and warmer until it actually hurt me to stay still. I began panicking, unable to stop the waters from turning into magma. I spotted, not far from me, a large vertical rock, so I kicked off the ground and leapt through the air toward it, grabbing on to whatever I could, using a small ledge for my feet.

I gasped as my bare hands touched the hot rock, but it was much less painful than the liquid that had left my ankles burned and scarred. I stared at my hands, which were slowly turning red. The rock was too hot. I was going to have to let go.

But I couldn't, or I'd fall into magma. I wasn't going to survive this.

But I didn't care.

At least I'd be able to meet up with Taichi again, and slap him for being a complete jerk. Did he and Koushiro think I hadn't spotted that eye contact? I knew it was an agreement between the two of them however silent it really was. I knew that once again, Taichi thought I needed protection.

 _Look around Hikari. You_ do _need protection._

It was true. I was helpless right now. Why wasn't I strong enough to fight even my own mind? That's all this was. As the air got hotter and hotter, and the sweat began pouring from my skin, it became more and more obvious that this was all a result of my own mind. There was nothing I could do here to get away from the heat, because it would follow me everywhere and anywhere I went, just like the swamp had.

I had to relax.

And think positively.

" _Thinking positively just comes naturally to me,"_ Takeru had said to me once, _"Because the outcome is always going to be negative if that's how you're thinking. At least with a positive outlook, there's a chance of it going your way, however small it may be."_

His words played again and again in my head, pounding against my skull, filling each corner of my thoughts, and it became so overwhelming I had to close my eyes to focus only on that. What was the outcome I was hoping for? For the heat to go away. For a way home. To find the Looking Glass. To get back to Taichi, and to Gatomon, and Takeru. To get to my friends, and my family. And the positives to all of this—however little they were—was that not everyone was in danger.

Even if the barriers did break and the virus killed everyone I loved...

My hands, covered in sweat, slipped from the rock momentarily and I nearly fell backwards. I panicked, reaching forward and grabbed on once more.

Not everyone I loved was in the Digital World. Sora was at home, on Earth. She had made it back. Sora had been so kind to me for so long, and now she was going to be okay. She had died once—but not this time. This time she was one of the few that made it out alive. And Natsuni. She had gone back at the same time Sora had. I had seen her. Natsuni was safe too, all because she wanted to go home to find her father. And my own father as well. He was on Earth too. He'd never come through the gates to the Digital World. He was still on Earth somewhere, safe and sound, unaware that his wife and son and partner may or may not have entirely perished.

If I lived, and went home, even if I could never forgive myself or Koushiro for what happened, I would not be alone. I would have my Dad with me. I would have my roommate. And I'd have Sora.

My hands slipped once more, but this time I couldn't catch myself and I fell back, screaming, realizing that I was about to be boiled alive. I wanted to not be. I wanted to live, and yet somehow it didn't seem likely, but even so, it wasn't up to me anymore. It was up the world.

I landed with a thud on an ice cold ground.

I sat still, afraid to open my eyes, unsure what I would find. This world had ultimately proven to be torture already to me, but I had to be brave. I risked a glance, peeking through squinted eye lids and I clamped them shut quickly, scared of what I'd seen. For a moment I'd thought the volcano was still present, even without the heat. But it couldn't be true, and I'd just been seeing things. But I had definitely seen the dark rocks I'd seen earlier.

Either way, I could not sit here forever, and so I slowly opened my eyes. I wanted to sigh with relief, seeing the volcano setting was gone, but there was something about the new scenery that seemed worse, even with how calm it was. The ground was still cold, like it had just escaped a tough winter, but it was clean of any ice. It was bare actually, just a large slab of dark rock, stretching out in front of me. I looked backwards towards the swamp, knowing Koushiro was still behind me and wondered momentarily if I should have gone to find him.

Instead, I pulled myself to my feet and kept walking forward, along the dark stone path in front of me. A shiver ran through my body as a light breeze passed by, coming from someplace colder than anything I'd ever known. Something about the sights set my mind reeling back through memory lane, but I couldn't quite place where it was. All I could see was the stone in front of me and a cloudy sky. The clouds were dark and blanketed the whole sky like the sun was never supposed to get through.

And then I stopped moving, panic setting through my body and I was running forward. My feet slammed with each step as I forced myself to run faster than I knew I should be after the chase from the virus, and then I saw the edge of the rocks. I wanted to turn back and pretend nothing had happened, but I couldn't, I had to _know_. And so I kept going, straight to the edge of what was apparently a cliff, and I stopped, staring down at the horrible sight. I did not gasp, or groan because it was not a surprise. I had only been proven correct. I was looking down to the grey sands and the deep waters of the Dark Ocean.

But the question was, had I really left the Dream World, and been summoned to the Dark Ocean by my dark thoughts, and or a malicious spirit craving the light once more, or was this an elaborate scene created by my upset mind taking shape due to the very nature of this world?

Only the Dark Ocean waters could truly cause nightmares. If this was not them it could only be an illusion, regular water made to look dark for my own personal torture. But the way the cold wind was rushing past me now sure made it seem real. The wind was picking up, getting colder and stronger with each second. I wanted to turn and leave, to go back and force myself back into the Land of Dreams, but I could not stop staring at the Dark Ocean. If I was really here, then someone else would be too. In theory. Willis and I had divided the keys... if only I could think of who got which...

My heart slammed as I realized who I'd given one too. How had I been so stupid as to give _Miyako_ a key to the Dark Ocean? Any of my other friends would fare better in a world where all of your nightmares came true—Miyako was the most panicky and irrational person I'd ever met, she knew how much this world scared me, she'd been here with me before. Not to mention the time Daemon captured her to lure Ken, but had no intention of letting her live, and thus was using her as a sacrifice for the King of the Shadows. If this was the Dark Ocean, I _had_ to find her.

But it didn't seem that was going to happen. The wind changed direction, sucking back in toward the ocean, and I was too close to the edge, and I had started toppling over, falling over the lip of the cliff. I let out a scream, but it didn't last long.

Shock ran through my body as a hand wrapped tight around my elbow. With a quick jerk I was pulled backward and I fell to the ground again, my hands keeping myself from falling further as the intense cold from the ground seeped into my fingers. I looked back quickly, hoping to find my saviour but there was no one there.

"Hello?" I asked, my voice dry and sore. How long had it been since I had spoken? How long since I hadn't seen Koushiro? I looked to my digivice and was shocked to see I'd walked all night without realizing it. "K-Koushiro?" I asked, looking back, unsure who else would have been able to save me from falling. I pulled myself to my feet and looked around, but there was nowhere for anyone to hide, I could see all the way back to the swamp still, the ground was bare and flat. Slowly I turned back to the ocean and screamed bloody murder.

The scream faded into a laugh though as I clutched my chest, realizing it had only been my reflection. I was staring into an old, rusted mirror that had not been there before. The frame looked scratched and very used, while the actual glass looked brand new, crystal clear. The mirror had not been there before, of that I was certain. And that meant I was not in the Dark Ocean, and that Miyako was alone if she had ever used the key. I hoped she hadn't and that she'd found somewhere safe in the Digital World. I didn't want her to be stuck in a land full of darkness. Especially since it may have been forever... unless whoever Willis gave the other key had bothered to open the door to find her.

I found that I could not take my eyes away from my reflection, even when my mind wandered, they did not. It was as if my reflection was trying to tell me something very serious. It did help me realize my hair was a horrible mess, and that my leg still had a bit of swamp goo stuck to it, but other than that I simply wanted to leave. But my reflection wanted something from me. Payment almost.

"I don't know what you want from me." I told the reflection, feeling very awkward about it. "I don't have time for this staring contest. I have to go." I turned finally, taking my eyes away from the mirror and started walking back to the swamp. My eyes were aching, like they missed staring at the seemingly enchanted glass, but I wanted to keep going backward. I had to find a way out of here. I had to find the Looking Glass.

But then I blinked.

When my eyes opened again I was standing on the Cliffside, still staring into my reflections eyes. "W-what?" I gasped, looking back, away from myself again. I risked a look at the mirror and found that my reflection was as scared as I was. Unsurprisingly. I turned and ran, forcing myself to keep away from the mirror. I headed for the swamp, and clamped my eyes shut. If I couldn't see, then the mirror wouldn't be there. It couldn't be. I ran for what seemed like forever, but was probably only a few minutes, and then I opened my eyes, surely I'd be back to the swamp now.

An annoyed yell escaped my lips as I found I was back in front of the mirror, running toward it. "Leave me alone!" I shouted, turning back and trying to escape once more. But again, the moment I'd blinked I was in front of the mirror. "Go away!" I panicked, pushing the mirror, hoping to break it by pushing it off of a cliff. But when my fingertips came in contact with the glass ice ran through my blood. A shiver shot down my spine as I pulled my fingers back. "What do you want?" I asked loudly, realizing I was only talking to my reflection. "You're me." I said, understanding. "I know exactly what you want. You want to go back to the Digital World. You want to find your mother and your brother and your boyfriend. And Gatomon. And Agumon and Wizardmon. And Kurayami and her little baby Haruki. You want to go back and find DemiDevimon. You want to be sure everyone you've ever loved is safe..." The mirror reflected to me the expression I had etched on my face. If it had been someone else I was talking to, I'd ask them what they really were thinking, but I couldn't because I didn't want to admit it out loud. But maybe I had to. It was only me around anyway.

I tried to look away from the mirror, and couldn't again. So I took a breath and spoke quietly, "The humans have so much darkness inside of them. They always had darkness of course, but never like _this_. I have darkness in myself too. And I know I have light too, but sometimes I feel like any light I keep for myself gets bottled up inside. But doesn't that leave room for more darkness? And what if darkness does overcome me? What does that mean? What if I just turn off the light, and am too weak to go on?" My reflection didn't answer. It couldn't answer. "I don't want to be weak. I want to be _strong_. But I'm not." My voice broke, "And Taichi was r-right. I need protection. I-I'm just a b-baby." It was embarrassing admitting these things, even to my own reflection, and I wanted to stop, but I knew the mirror wasn't going to leave me alone. "I'm always in everyone's way. I'm always sick, or captured, or in danger... And now I'm on this world, because I'd fallen. Why did _I_ have to trip? What now? What if Taichi _had_ made it back to the Coliseum. He was going to spend forever getting back to me and it was because I was too weak to just keep running."

I was done with this. I was done opening up to some ridiculous mirror that was trying to worm its way into my soul. I turned away but this time the mirror had moved, propped up on its metal legs right in front of me again. It wanted more from me. What more did I have? "And..." I said quietly, "Sometimes I just want to fade away, because it would be easier than being happy. I don't know how to be happy in a place where I don't de—" I paused, staring at my reflection as if I were gauging its reaction to see if it would judge me. But it couldn't. It was just me. "I don't deserve to be happy." My reflection looked really sad now, but there was something in the eyes. Fear. "And sometimes, when I wake up... when I look at my reflection in the mirror, I get scared, because I think I won't see myself. I sometimes think that I'll see what is being kept inside my heart. The monster that I keep inside me."

And then I was silent, staring into my own eyes. With a quick flash, the eyes in the reflection turned red, and I froze. The skin in the mirror turned paler and the arms grew longer. I looked down to my own arms and slowly lifted them up. When the reflection did not copy I panicked, and stepped around the mirror, running. I had to keep my eyes _open_ this time. I had to escape this. I couldn't let this world continuously walk all over me.

But I had to blink eventually. I couldn't keep them open forever. But I could try. I ran as far as my legs would take me, my eyes burning, and needing to close, just for a second, but I knew if I did I would only find myself back by the mirror. And I was right, because eventually my eyes shut on their own, and when I opened them I was standing back on the Cliffside, facing the Dark Ocean waters and the mirror with the stretched, monstrous version of me staring back at me with a malicious sort of grin. "You are weak, and you are pathetic." The reflection spoke using a voice I knew to be my own. "You don't have to fade away, because that will happen naturally. No one cares about you." That wasn't true. If nothing else, I knew Taichi cared for me. "You know it's true. I've seen your heart. When you were younger your parents did not know how to take care of you. You were sick and you were dying, but they left you. You were not welcomed into the family the way you should have been because they did not want you. You thought to yourself every day—" The reflection changed to a seven year old version of myself and my heart sank. She was so sad looking. She was broken, and sick. "Every day you wondered why. You said 'why don't they care about me, like I care about them?'" The small version of myself disappeared and I was looking at the horrible reflection again.

"Everyone cares in different ways." I said flatly, "I know that now." I was trying very hard to not let what this horrible creature was saying to get to me, but it was hard. She was saying everything I had just told her, and more. She had ripped out the thoughts I'd kept in my heart and was spitting them back at me. And it hurt.

"Taichi stopped talking to you," the reflection added, "And then you were really alone. No one to talk to, and no one would believe a thing you said either. Everyone thought you were entirely crazy, and you felt even more distant, and more removed. You do remember the pain of losing Wizardmon, but do you remember what went through your mind? You realized that as you cried, you simply cared. And if you could care about another, if you cared that he was dead, and that Gatomon was sad, then you had been proven wrong. It was possible to care for another, despite what you'd learned in your life."

"Stop," I blurted angry, and sad.

"But if it were possible for _you_ to care, then others could care too, right?" the reflection asked. "But if that were true, then why did no one care about _you_?"

"Stop!" I yelled as loud as I could. I wasn't going to put up with this.

"No one _can_ care now though." The reflection told me, a knowing smile etched across her face. "They're dead."

A cold, chilling panic shot through my body as the reflection faded again and a cloud of purple was shown as if it were a television and not a mirror at all. My eyes widened as I watched the virus chase after Taichi, and Mari and Mom, and all those digimon. But they couldn't outrun it. They screamed in pain and horror as their lives were taken from them.

"I don't believe you," I said, my voice choked.

"You don't have to."

I spun around. The voice was behind me.

But no one was there. Slowly I turned back to the mirror and found the reflection was back, standing tall in her place surrounded by the rusted frame. "Looking for me?"

Anger coursed through my body and I reached forward, slamming my hands into the glass. Again, the chilling sensation shot through my arms and straight down the rest of my body, but I didn't stop, I just pushed, and a smile grew on my face as the mirror began toppling off of the Cliffside. But the smile didn't last long. As the frame fell, so did the glass. But the reflection did not. It was as if she had stepped through a falling doorway, and was now standing, as real as ever, on the cliff with me.

She stared at me silently for a moment, and I considered running, but would she be able to catch me?

Then, very quickly, she smiled, but it was not one of happiness.

And I knew I had no choice. I had to run. I spun on the spot and shot toward the swamp again, but as I ran, the ground opened up in many different places, and creatures began emerging, growing like plants on steroids. I caught sight of one of them and my heart dropped. It had Taichi's face.

Another leapt in front of me and it was Hideto, his arms dragging along the ground, and then something had grabbed my ankle and I'd fallen, the ground was flying toward my face. I looked back and saw a twisted version of Iori holding onto my foot as Miyako and Takeru advanced on me.

"Go _away_!" I screamed, kicking the demon in the face, and pulling myself to my feet when he was forced to let go.

Just before I spun to run from them I caught sight of Koushiro's hallowed face and eyes full of desolation and it was horribly clear how bad I felt for yelling at him earlier. This may only be a demonic version of the boy who had saved my life, but when I found the real one— _if_ I found the real one—I'd have to apologize.

I took _one_ look back and saw something shoot from the sky and smash into the Sora demon. It was a human figure, and I knew what it was. It was another of the demons. All eyes turned to the reflection of myself, but she merely stared toward me, through the crowd. And then she grinned, and everything was moving quickly in my direction.

I turned and I ran, tears running down my cheeks. I wasn't strong enough. I was too weak to fight. I was pathetic.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Daisuke and Yamato know ALL TOO WELL what's gonna happen next, but you won't unless you read it.


	9. All Too Well

**Y/N:** …. I don't know… I think it was fun to write maybe, because it's Daisuke, and he's always fun. But I don't know what it's about. I _could_ read it, but that would take time from my writing schedule which is rather intimidating right now as we try to finish this, so I guess it's a surprise for all of us.

 **U/N:** While I don't necessarily remember everything that goes on in either Davis' or Matt's chapter parts here, I remember it was hard to do Matt specifically in terms of moving forward from the virus. It was a massive event that affected everyone, which rarely happens in our story due to the massive cast of characters and so they each had to respond in character and effectively. Matt is really emotional though he won't always admit it and it was just pretty tough to write.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 9: All Too Well**

 _ **Daisuke Motomiya:**_

It felt like I had the weight of the entire world on my shoulders. I knew it wasn't true, but everyone in the Coliseum seemed to expect so much from me. It wasn't fair. I was grieving too. I was just as lost and confused as they were. Having a crest didn't actually prepare me for this siege we were undergoing. I was so close to ripping my hair out in frustration. Where were the others? Why was I left alone to deal with everyone? _Again_. I had hoped that the funeral would sort of bring us together as a team again, and then we could all work together to ensure that the Coliseum continued to function as smoothly as possible.

But, _no_ , that's not what the others decided. Jou disappeared again early this morning, leaving Emiko with her uncle. She was driving Shuu and Jun up the wall the last time I'd spotted her, but I couldn't be fussed to give them a hand. If they needed help, they could track down Jou. She wasn't _my_ kid.

My kid was with his grandmother. I'd gotten sick of carrying him around and having all the digimon and humans we came across want to look at him, and coo over him. I could only be accommodating _so_ many times before it became a forced thing. I didn't want everyone cooing over my son. I wanted everyone to get along, and leave me the hell alone.

I was still grieving over the fact that my wife, my best friends and my pseudo-sister were all gone forever. I was _trying_ to come to terms with that, whilst keeping a generally upbeat and pleasant facade, but all the questions and demands were grating at my nerves. Finally, I begged my mother to take my son. I couldn't have him being around me when I was feeling this way. My anger, frustration and sadness were palpable, and he'd been fussy all morning because of it. He needed a much more tranquil environment, and Mom was the best I could think of since Kurayami wasn't an option.

Also, he was getting big, and my arms were ready to fall off from having to carry him around. Seriously, how did Kurayami do it? I couldn't even last a whole day. Granted, I had to hold him nearly all night as well, because he couldn't go to sleep without Kurayami—but neither could I, so I couldn't blame him.

So yeah, I was a grieving widower that had a grand total of two hours of sleep. I was in no mood to put up with all of this crap.

"Do you know where I could find some paper towel?" Mr Washington asked me, popping up from seemingly nowhere at all.

"No," I said through clenched teeth. I had a smile forced on my face, but it clearly didn't look genuine. Mr Washington's smile melted off of his face—something I hadn't really thought possible until just recently—and he took a small step back. "Yoshie might know though, I would ask her. Or Mari, I think _she_ was here while the Coliseum was sorted out."

"Thanks," he said slowly. He took a few steps away, giving me a wide berth, before racing down the hallway behind me. I sighed. I'd never once said I was in charge here, I never once said I knew everything. I wasn't wearing the goggles. I wasn't _meant_ to be the leader right now. Takeru was supposed to be here to answer all of these seemingly stupid questions. _He_ was in charge at the Coliseum. But he wasn't here anymore.

And my sour mood grew worse at the reminder.

A group of digimon—Floramon, Kiwimon and two Gotsumon—were eyeing me from down the hallway. I didn't know what they wanted, and I really didn't care. I gave them what I _hoped_ was an apologetic smile before turning around abruptly and running up to the arena—literally, I ran away. Babamon was working away in Mari's garden, along with Betamon, Dracomon, Tapirmon, Warg and Melga. Behind them, I could see quite a number of plant digimon—Toshiko's Mushroomon, a team of Vegiemon and Weedmon led by a RedVegiemon. I saw a Jagamon, and there were several Woodmon and Floramon too. The large Blossommon was helping some of the children—mostly Budmon and Tanemons from Mr Ogremon's class—plant a row of potatoes. They were all laughing and having fun. My heart clenched tightly when, just for a moment, I thought I saw Palmon among them. It wasn't her, of course. The flower on its head was all wrong—too much blue, not enough vibrancy. I knew this was an Aruraumon, and not my friend.

I forced myself to look away. Mari wasn't with them anyway. I wondered where she'd gone, but quit that soon enough. There was no point in wasting time doing that. She'd turn up sooner or later. In the meantime, I could look for Taichi and Jou, and think about just what I was going to say to her when I found her.

Nothing.

I would say nothing, no matter how much I _wanted_ to rant at her. Mari was just too intimidating to confront like that. But it felt good to _think_ about doing it.

With my back to the garden, I had a clear view of the Memorial Wall. It looked like the Tanemon and Budmon weren't skipping class. Mr Ogremon had his students spread out, each drawing or writing something to add to the wall. He had volunteers in the form of Izumi, Tomoki, Tomotsu and the Dark Spore children-who-were-no-longer-children. They each had a small cluster of In-Training digimon around them, as they helped the digimon that didn't have hands convey whatever it was they wanted said or shown. I wandered over to them, eyeing my Memorial Wall as I walked.

It had spread far more than I figured it would. There were thousands of beings in the Coliseum, so I didn't know why I thought it would end up any differently. When I got closer, I could pinpoint some of Emiko's numerous drawings. I saw Mimi's name up there a couple of times, and remembered just how popular she was among the digimon. I saw tear stained pages, and colourful renditions of happier times. It made my heart ache and soar. I was on an emotional rollercoaster ride just by looking at papers of every shape, size and colour. It was strange to me, that something as simple as a scrap of paper could pack such a big emotional punch.

And seeing the happy faces of those little digimon reminded me just why it was a good idea in the first place, even though Taichi and Mari hadn't thought so.

"What else would you like to say dear?"

I spotted Kae sitting with little Masa, Kunemon and Wormmon. She had a pen in hand, and was writing a letter for Masa. He had a finger to his chin as he looked up towards the frightening, purple sky. Kunemon was in his lap, nestled nicely in his crossed legs. Wormmon was reading a paper on the ground in front of him. Masa's clearly wasn't the first letter Kae had written.

"I love Mommy, and I miss her. And I want her to make me chocolate brownies for my birthday when I see her next time," Masa said. "I want to go bowling for my birthday! And I want Grandpa to come too, but not Grandma 'cause she's really mean. So's Emiko, but she can come, 'cause she's my cousin and she's little like me."

"Alright," Kae said with a gentle smile. She was so patient and kind. I could see where Ken got his inspiration when it came to his crest.

Wormmon caught sight of me, and called me over. I didn't want to intrude on their moment, but I also didn't really want to be rude either. He showed me his letter and my heart dropped. It wasn't to Ken, like I had assumed. It was addressed to Ken and Miyako's baby. I glanced to Kae, wondering just how hard it was for her to write that letter for Wormmon, knowing it was her grandchild she was writing about.

"It was actually kind of therapeutic, dear," she told me, reading the question off of my face. "It's hard, to know that our family had very nearly been expanded, but I still have hope that they're alright. It was nice to get Wormmon's feelings on the page. We share so many feelings about everything that has happened, after all."

"She's helping me take care of Masa," Wormmon said with an embarrassed sort of awe. If he _could_ , I was sure he would be blushing in that moment, as he looked to the ground. "Ken left me in charge of him. I'm trying to be a good babysitter until Ken comes back. Masa's just so much _bigger_ than me."

"I am!" Masa cheered happily. "Write that too. I'm bigger than my babysitter!"

"Yes, dear," Kae said with a soft laugh. Wormmon looked put out at the very idea.

"It's good practice," Wormmon said. "I've got to take care of Masa _and_ Kunemon. It's good for me, for when the baby comes."

"Definitely," I said, wishing I had the same blind faith that he and Kae seemed to have. I wanted to just _know_ that Kurayami was still out there, waiting for me. I wanted to know that Takeru, Ken and Hikari were doing just fine. I wanted to know that someday, within the next six or so months, I would be meeting the next addition to the digidestined family—a playmate for my own son.

But I _didn't_ know.

And if the worry lines around Kae's eyes were any indication, she didn't _know_ quite as certainly as she was leading everyone to believe either.

I spent a few more minutes with them, debating whether it was a good time to write my letter, but eventually decided against it. I wasn't ready just yet.

My eyes wandered around the rest of the arena, hoping to catch sight of one of the remaining digidestined. I didn't find any. That would be too easy. Instead, Kazuya Ichijouji drew my attention. He was watching his wife from his place up in the stands. I excused myself from Wormmon and the others, and headed his direction. As it became obvious to him that I was going towards him, he rested his forehead against his left hand. His right hand clenched. It only occurred to me _then_ that he might have wanted to be alone.

But it was too late to turn back now without making it awkward.

"Hey," I said, wincing at how lame it sounded.

"Hello, Daisuke," he said. His voice was thick with emotion. I took a seat on the stone stands next to him. "How is she?"

"She's fine," I said, knowing he was talking about Kae. "Better than I expected to be honest."

"She's strong," he said. His voice faded into a whisper. "She's so strong. That Team Mom of hers, and Coronamon have made her a strong person. She has so much hope and faith. She's providing both for that little boy, and our son's partner." I looked away when I saw tears forming in his eyes, giving him some semblance of privacy. "I can't do that. Losing Osamu broke us both. I _still_ find it hard to get up each morning, knowing he isn't there. How can I do all of that again?"

"You won't have to," I said, trying to channel Wormmon's confidence.

"Don't," he said simply. "I'm not a child. Don't treat me like one."

"I don't know if he's okay," I whispered, feeling like I was betraying Ken for admitting it out loud. It was okay, when it was just in the privacy of my own mind, but to say it aloud was like admitting that my secret fears were true. "I don't know if any of them are."

"Thank you," he said. His voice cracked, and his breathing was staggered. We sat together a moment, while he tried to reel in his erratic emotions. I cried silently, not even trying to stop it. "I've lost them both. I'm a failure as a father."

"It's not your fault," I assured him.

"It feels like it," he told me. "It feels like my world has collapsed for the second time. I'm so empty. When you have a child, when you put them on the earth, you're prepared to do everything you can to keep them safe. I couldn't do it for Osamu when all I had to contend with was the perils of human nature. I didn't even have a _chance_ with Ken. I don't have a digimon partner; I don't understand this world, or the hate the humans suddenly possess for it. There was nothing I could do to protect my son, and now I've lost him like I did his brother."

I couldn't say anything to that. I didn't understand the feeling of losing a child. I could imagine losing Haruki, and the pain was enormous. It wasn't enough though. Imagining something wasn't the same as experiencing it.

"Last time, Kae and I had each other. We had Ken to take care of. I know we failed him. We were distant too long, and then the Digital World tempted him away. We treated him like a replacement for his brother, desperate to have connection to Osamu once he was gone. I'm alone now," he said. I tried to protest, but he shook his head. "I _am_. Kae had duties to distract her. She's got her hope. She's got that little boy, her partner, our son's partner. She's got kitchen shifts, and cleans the Coliseum. She's so busy, that she doesn't have _time_ to let me lean on her through this."

"I think you should talk with Wormmon," I suggested.

"And shatter his world of make believe?" Kazuya asked. "No. I can't do that. He's so hopeful."

"He's also Ken's other half," I informed him. "That's what a partner is. They are your counterpart from an alternate world. They help you be the person you're meant to be. Labramon isn't Kurayami, but he's _enough_ to keep me functioning. He reminds me of her so much. He's the only reason I haven't broken down and locked myself in my room with my son and blocked off the rest of the world."

"Maybe," Kazuya said, though he didn't seem convinced. Kae glanced up to us from the ground. "I'm going to get some tea. Kae doesn't need me to drag her down."

"She wouldn't want you to hide this from her," I said. Kae wasn't that type of person. She wanted to help. She could assist him through this painful journey.

"I know," he said softly. "But I need to keep it to myself for now."

"Talk to someone," I insisted. "If not Wormmon, then maybe you could see one of the other parents. They'd actually relate more than I can."

"I will," he said. "Just not yet."

It would have to be good enough. I couldn't _force_ him to grieve any faster. I couldn't _make_ him talk to someone if he really didn't want to. I refused to talk to anyone about Kurayami—even Labramon. It would be hypocritical of me if I made him take that step before I could even dream of doing it.

I dwelled on that for ten minutes or so, revelling in the solitude the stands were providing me with. I could understand completely why Kazuya had chosen this location. I was alone, and in the Coliseum—filled with thousands of beings—that was a rare feat.

And of course it couldn't last.

"Hup, hup!" Armadillomon's distinct voice called somewhere from my left. He wasn't alone. He was leading a procession of digimon. He was jumping down the stands as though they were stairs. When he'd reached the bottom, he took five steps towards me before starting to jump up the seats again. At the top, he repeated the process. He looked like a personal trainer or something, leading a group of tired digimon on his relentless circuit.

"Keep it up!" he called encouragingly.

"Can't we rest?" Sukamon called grumpily from his place near the back of the line. He had a broom handle in his hands. Chuumon was hitching a ride, holding a toothbrush in one hand, and holding onto Sukamon with the other.

"Nope!" Armadillomon said cheerily. "Not until we're finished. This is just the warm up."

"What!?" Chuumon cried.

"Yup, yup," Armadillomon said. "Got to work on that cardio!"

"This is _hard_ , yuk, yuk!" a Numamon called. He was in front of Sukamon and Chuumon, and was accompanied by another Numamon. I was sure these were Yuk and Huh. The only Numamon I knew that bothered to associate outside of the Numamon Pit. They were the only ones brave enough to venture out of their sanctuary. They were also good friends to Iori's grandfather. Each of them was holding a leafy stick.

Immediately in front of them were ToyAgumon and Candlemon. The fight club digimon were doing their best. ToyAgumon had to stop once or twice to reattach his foot. Candlemon was hopping with all of his might. Toy Agumon had a mop in his hands. They were hot on the heels of Kamemon, who was holding a mop of his own. He was going as fast as he could, but he was a turtle, so he could only go _so_ fast. He was following after the robotic trust digimon, Shinramon. The robot was also holding a stick, though his had fewer leaves than the Numamon's did. His brother, Shinsetsumon—the mushroom shaped digimon of kindness—was in front of him. Pal and Pul were the last of Armadillomon's lagging followers. They were also holding toothbrushes, and were flying with all of their might trying to catch up to the more athletic of the digimon, but there were at least six seats between them and Goblimon. Goblimon was holding his club with both hands, breathing hard. Labramon was running in front of him, utilizing his _four_ legs to keep his speed up. He had a long feather duster's handle clenched between his teeth. The fuzzy green feathers kept swiping against his face, but he didn't show any signs of slowing.

"Of course it's hard!" Veemon called from in front Labramon. He had a broom between his hands. "It wouldn't be good training if it was easy. Keep up the good work!"

"Yeah," Dorumon called. The Knight was holding a broom of his own—I was starting to think they rifled through Kae's carefully organized supply closet and stole all of her cleaning utensils. "We're almost done!"

"The less you talk," Falcomon informed them, holding a mop. "The less energy you waste." He was silent again after that. I could see that he was pushing himself, trying to overtake Starmon who was in front of him in the procession. The champion digimon was in the zone though, and wasn't about to let a rookie pass him. These two members of the fight club seemed to be enjoying the burn the exercise was causing, though they _were_ part of a fight club, so it made sense that they enjoyed rigorous exercise. Candlemon and ToyAgumon were enjoying it too, even though they were using a slower pace. Kotemon was enjoying it too, and was in front of Starmon. He held his own kendo stick in his hands and stepped easily and quickly up the stairs. Meiyomon was the last in the line, immediately ahead of Kotemon, and behind Armadillomon.

"Excuse us, Daisuke!" Armadillomon called, and I quickly stood up and got out of the way, not wanting to be trampled by the group of twenty digimon.

"What's going on?" I asked, finding it all very strange.

"We're warming up for kendo practice," Veemon informed me as he hopped down two steps at once. "It's tradition, or something."

"Chikara taught Iori when Hiroki passed," Kotemon said, on his way back up the stairs again. "And Iori taught Meiyomon and me when Chikara passed."

"Now it's up to Armadillomon, Meiyomon and Kotemon to teach us, while Iori's away," Veemon said, following after Dorumon on their way back up. He refused to say he'd passed. He was so like me, it wasn't funny. Mieyomon whimpered and I thought Veemon definitely had the right idea. I was just glad to see that Armadillomon and Goblimon weren't locked in their room anymore—and I was happy to have an explanation for all the brooms, mops, sticks and toothbrushes.

"Less talking, more running!" Falcomon ordered.

"I'll see you later Daisuke!" Veemon told me. "I'm volunteering in the cafeteria later. Come see me!"

"I will!" I called, smiling to myself. I really needed to take more time out to see Veemon. He always put me in a better mood. I was done with my wallowing for the moment. I still needed to find the other digidestined so we could figure out what the hell we were going to do next.

I hopped back onto the arena floor, and slipped into one of the exits, entering the maze that was the Coliseum. I headed directly towards the chamber that acted as an excessively large living room. There were at least a hundred people inside at any given time, usually more. There were a couple, smaller sections that were used as more private living rooms and lounges, that were hangouts for all sorts of others, but I knew that most of the humans tended to use the main room—either that or the cafeteria.

None of the digidestined were in the living room though. A lot of their parents were. Natsuko was reading a book on the couch, her feet up on Yuudai's lap as he rubbed them. Fumiko was in an armchair beside the empty fireplace, looking at the stones with vacant eyes. Mr and Mrs Jefferson were playing a board game with Monodramon and Jou's step-sisters. I assumed Isao was in the infirmary. Digimon kept filtering through there at an alarmingly steady stream—for everything from a paper cut to a runny nose. I was starting to think they thought having a doctor around was just exciting, and were all clambering to _meet_ him. I knew Yuuko, Yoshie and Aimi were in the kitchens preparing another meal of some sort. Koushiro's father was teaching Andromon, Centarumon and MetallifeKuwagamon a card game.

And Satoe Tachikawa was standing in the middle of the room, her chair crashed on the floor behind her, screaming at Toshiko Takenouchi.

"You don't know what it's like!" she cried.

"Don't I?" Toshiko demanded. "My daughter died last time."

"But she didn't _stay_ dead," Satoe screamed. "My daughter _will_. There's no way that stupid time key can save her. I want my Mimi!"

"I want Sora too, you know," Toshiko said. "It hurts so much to not have her with me."

"But you know she's alive," Satoe said coldly.

"And trapped from ever seeing me again," Toshiko snapped, "How do you think that feels?"

"A whole hell of a lot better than knowing my baby's dead!" Satoe called.

"Don't blame _me_!" Toshiko said defensively.

"I'm _not_ ," Satoe argued.

"It _feels_ like it!" Toshiko said, throwing her hands in the air.

"Then you should just let me grieve, instead of saying stupid things!" Satoe screamed, getting right up in Toshiko's face. For a second, Toshiko's eyes grew fierce, her lips pressed together, and her hand twitched in the air. I thought for sure she was going to _hit_ Satoe.

"Please don't do that," Keisuke said, appearing at Satoe's side, sliding between the two women.

"I didn't say anything wrong," Toshiko snapped.

"Satoe is very sensitive," Keisuke said, defending his wife. "Talking about Sora in the present tense was enough to set her off."

"So I'm not allowed to talk about _my_ daughter?" Toshiko demanded. "Satoe goes on and _on_ about Mimi, but I can't even say Sora's name? That's _not_ going to happen."

"I'm asking nicely," Keisuke said, with a suspiciously calm voice. "Please keep your recollections away from Satoe."

"I don't like your attitude," Haruhiko said, stepping up next to his wife. She seemed both irritated and flattered that he jumped to her defence. "We miss our daughter _just_ as much as you miss yours. We've lost her once, and she's gone again. We're grieving too. We may _never_ see her again."

"But you _might_!" Keisuke and Satoe shouted as one.

"ENOUGH!" Gatomon screamed jumping onto the tabletop next to them. "This is stupid. You're wasting your energy. People grieve differently, for different reasons. Mimi still might be fine. She might not be. Sora might be okay on Earth, she might not. We don't _know_. Yelling at each other, _fighting_ with each other is just making it so the DWD win. They're still hurting us even though we've found a safe haven among the virus. Don't let them and their actions taint what little good is still left in our Digital World. Mimi and Sora would still fight against them. They wouldn't let them win. You're being selfish. Neither of you are the only grieving parents or friends. You don't hear me snapping at either of you for mentioning them when _I'm_ missing Hikari."

"But you _know_ she's not dead," Satoe protested fiercely.

"No," Gatomon hissed. "I _don't_. I don't know what world she's trapped in; I don't know what enemies might lie in wait there. Is she in the Dark Ocean? Is she going to spend the rest of her life—however short it may be—trapped in eternal darkness? Is she going to be miserable forever? Hikari and Koushiro need to protect each other, because Tentomon and I are trapped _here_. Neither of them are fighters. They could have died upon entering that new world. They _could_ have brought some of the virus with them. I. Don't. Know."

"But you have hope," Toshiko stated, rather than asked.

"She has _reason_ to hope," Satoe snapped.

"You're not alone, Satoe," Gatomon growled. "I may have reason for hope, and so does Toshiko, but you know what? Iori, Takeru, Ken, Miyako, Willis, Kiyoko, Yamato, Neo, Hideto, Tatum, Michael and Kurayami were all out there, _just_ like Mimi was. Do you see any of _their_ parents biting people's heads off? No. Because they realize it's pointless. We cannot fight with each other. We have to channel our fighting spirit towards the DWD. If you can't do that, then keep your mouth shut, because everyone else has heard enough. You can grieve, but don't be selfish about it, and let everyone else do the same."

"She's right, dear," Keisuke said softly. Satoe's shoulders sagged and she started sobbing. Keisuke wrapped an arm around her shoulder and excused the both of them from the room, probably heading towards their bedroom.

"Nothing to see here, people," Gatomon shouted at all of the wide eyed bystanders. Most of them looked away instantly, embarrassed for being caught staring. Gatomon growled and jumped to the floor walking quickly passed me and out of the room. I turned and hastened to catch up to her.

"That was great, what you did in there," I complimented.

"I shouldn't have _had_ to do it," she said with a sigh. "Tensions are running so high because none of you digidestined have come up with a plan. That's all anyone needs, to know to know that _something_ is being done."

"It's only been a day," I said, though it felt like much longer. "Do they expect us to be miracle workers?"

"They expect to see the four of you together, working on something," Gatomon said, shaking her head. "But I've only seen the four of you together once. You're all always too busy running away from the people in the Coliseum to work together."

"I'm trying to find them," I said, but it didn't feel like I was doing enough. I'd been dawdling around all afternoon so far, finding new reasons to stay by myself, and judging by the way she raised her eyebrow at me she was calling me out on it.

"Don't you have any ideas?" she pressed.

"No," I said bluntly. She was saddened by that fact, but I couldn't even apologize. I didn't regret spending my time with my son and grieving my wife. I needed to do that before I could find the motivation to continue on. I couldn't fight and grieve at the same time. I needed to get some of semblance of normalcy before I could really dedicate myself to the war we were facing.

We were silent for awhile then, not knowing what to say to each other. We wandered down the hallway, turning at random intervals with no real destination in mind. I didn't even _think_ of saying anything until I heard sniffling. I felt guilty, for causing her to cry, but when I looked down to her, she was looking up at me, dry eyed. I peeked around the nearest corner and saw Willis' mother holding a crying Terriermon.

"I miss them," Terriermon cried.

"I know," Mary Washington told him, cradling him against her chest, letting him burrow his head into the crook of her neck. She'd come so far from when I'd first heard about her. She'd hated digimon with an unrivaled fury, but now, watching her cuddle a despairing rookie, she looked so at ease. "I miss them too. All of them."

"Even Lopmon?" Terriermon asked in a tiny voice.

"Even Lopmon," Mary confirmed.

Gatomon pulled on my pant leg, shaking her head and pulling me down a different hallway. She didn't let go of me until we couldn't hear them anymore. "That's private," she informed me. "We don't need to spy on them."

"You're right," I said. I didn't want to be nosy. I was irritated that no one would give me privacy, I shouldn't have been taking away theirs. I looked at the unfamiliar walls surrounding us. "Where are we?"

"No idea," she said, shrugging her shoulders. She looked down the hall and pointed her paw towards it. "It gets really dark down there."

"Should we go back?" I asked.

"What, are you scared?" she challenged. Not wanting to be called a chicken, I took a deep breath and walked as confidently as I could down the hall into the darkness. I was only surrounded by the darkness for a few seconds before a warm glow appeared in front of me. Glad to have something to focus on, I aimed myself towards it, entering the scariest room I'd ever encountered. There were sharp, spiky weapons mounted on the wall. Candles were lit on several surfaces, casting strange, and spooky shadows about the room. Jou was seated at the large table in the middle of the room, staring at an array of papers that he had laid out in front of himself. He looked thoroughly horrified.

"Jou?" I asked. He startled so badly that he nearly fell off of his chair.

"Don't _do_ that," he gasped, placing a hand over his heart and taking deep breaths.

"Where are we?" Gatomon asked, appearing from the darkness after I did.

"This is Sigma's secret room," Jou announced. "Here, take a look. He's got all sort of information on Mari here. _Way_ too much information. It's very unsettling."

"Are those...Miyako?" I asked, pointing towards the wall at the sketches of what I was _sure_ to be her.

"Sure are," Jou said. "Sigma had an unhealthy obsession with her. There's a lot more too. There are files of all sorts of different things. There are maps of various locations in the Digital World. There are blueprints, a street map of Japan. There are jot-notes compiling the information he was able to gather about Hikari, Takeru and Willis. You remember how he thought _they_ were the Holy Three?"

"Yeah," I said. "He's got information on Hikari?"

"He _did_ ," Jou said. "Don't forget, he's dead."

"Right," I said. It didn't actually do anything to stop my skin from crawling. "So this is where you've been hiding while I've had to deal with everyone in the Coliseum?"

"I'm trying to find a way out of the Digital World," Jou said. "I'm _working_. Why can't Mari and Taichi help you?"

"Because they disappeared just like you did," I said, grumpily. I picked up a page and put it down when it was a step-by-step plan on how best to kill the inhabitants of a house when setting it on fire. It was far too detailed for my liking. "Have you found anything useful?"

"No," Jou sighed. "It's all just really creepy. I'm looking for any information that could explain how Sigma—and other shadows—seem to be able to travel between the worlds if they want to badly enough. And I _really_ want to." Jou looked to his watch and sighed. "I've got to get back to Emiko. I told Jun and Shuu I'd only be a few hours."

Gatomon and I helped him blow out the candles, and we felt our way back into the main hallway by keeping our hands pressed against the wall. I knew Jou would be back though. I wouldn't be going with him though. No because I was _scared_ , but because it really wasn't a two person job.

Gatomon looked up to Jou once we'd walked a fair way away from the creepy room. "Takeru jumped through the worlds to get Hikari from the Dark Ocean once. At the time I thought it was because love connected the worlds, but I'm not so sure now."

"No?" Jou asked, looking intrigued at the new information he'd been given.

"I've been praying for the worlds to open so that I can see Hikari again, and it hasn't worked," she admitted, seeming to be ashamed of her weakness. I was left to ponder over the whole idea that love was strong enough to bridge the worlds. I would love it if it was the case, but one single incident didn't make it true. It could have been a fluke.

Jou led us to the cafeteria, planning to grab something quick that we could take with us, but our plans got derailed when we spotted both of our children at the same table. We were drawn to them like a moth to a flame. We had our trays of curry rice in hand, and we sat at the table, me between my mother and sister, and Jou across the table, beside his daughter. Haruki was too distracted by Emiko's face to notice me. She was smiling down at him brightly, and wiggling a finger in his face. His eyes were following after her finger as he gurgled happily.

"Strange," Jou commented, heaping some rice on his fork. "She doesn't usually like anybody."

"She's been having a bit of a hard day," Shuu said. "She misses Momoe a lot, and you weren't anywhere to be seen. She was acting out a lot until Monmon convinced Bearmon, Gekomon and Otamamon to play hide-and-seek with her."

Jou winced, and reached his hand out to ruffle her hair. She protested with a laugh, and clambered onto Jou's lap, latching her arms around his neck and started talking a mile a minute, telling him about all of the fun things she did that day. I took that moment to see who all was sitting at the table. Mom had Haruki bouncing on her lap, and Jun was beside me, across from Shuu. On Mom's other side, Labramon was eating up a storm, starving after his big workout. Armadillomon was across from him, with Goblimon at his side. They were talking quickly, making plans for more training the next day. Gatomon had joined them, listening to their stories, fascinated. Otamamon, Monmon, Bearmon and Gekomon were on the other side of Jun and Shuu. I couldn't see Meramon anywhere, but he wasn't quite so attached to Shuu's side as Otamamon was to Jun, so I wasn't worried. I looked away from the table, and caught sight of Veemon who was handing out cookies a couple tables over. He met my eye and grinned. I waved at him, before he got back to work.

By the time I tuned back into the conversation, Jun and Mom were talking about Jun's wedding. I had to roll my eyes. Jun wasn't about to get married _here_ , and until we figured anything else out, there was no point in planning the wedding. If we _couldn't_ get out of the Digital World, then it was really just a waste. Koushiro was the only digidestined ordained to officiate a wedding, and he was with Hikari in some unknown world. Also, Momoe was on Earth, and Jun was determined to have her best friend be her matron of honour. Wisely, I didn't mention that fact. Momoe's husband and daughter were sitting right there. I wasn't about to point it out and make it more difficult for either of them.

"Cookies!" Veemon cheered, racing to the end of our table. "Yoshie made them. They're chocolate chip, and they're still warm and they're so yummy. I only had one though, because I'm being a good volunteer. I've got yours though!"

Emiko cheered, gobbling up her cookie quickly, and looking to Monmon, trying to guilt him into giving her his. He smiled at her and stuffed the cookie in his mouth whole. She pouted and crossed her arms, looking away from him, before trying to take her father's.

"Have any of you seen Taichi and Mari?" I asked.

"Nope," Veemon said. "But I was practicing kendo all day."

"I haven't seen them," Jun said, and Shuu shook his head in agreement.

"That's them, isn't it?" Mom asked, gesturing to the doorway. I looked over and saw Mari and Taichi deep in discussion with Tentomon, Agumon and Gabumon. Taichi looked around the room and locked his eyes with mine. The next thing I knew he was pointing at me and they were all coming towards me.

"Daisuke," Taichi said. "Just the guy we're looking for. We need your help. We're trying to find the Spring Fairy. You guys are connected, right? So do you know where she is?"

"Huh," I said. I hadn't really given it any thought. I closed my eyes and felt for the connection. "I can feel her, but she isn't responding to me." I poked and prodded at her presence, but she continued to ignore me. That wasn't working, so I focussed more on what she was feeling, instead of trying to communicate with her. It was cold. There was a trickling, and everything was wet. There was a light though. She was dry, but she was surrounded by water. "Umm...it seems like she's in a house...but she's under water?"

"That's no help," Mari said, rolling her eyes. "It's just a bunch of nonsense."

"No," Tentomon corrected quickly. "Gennai lives in a house under the water, or he _did_ at least."

"Great," Taichi said pleased. "Mari and I will head to Gennai's house and talk to Spring. Thanks for the help." Just like Taichi to finally show his face only to leave again, making all of these heartbroken people _my_ job to cheer up.

"Hold on," I said. "She's _my_ fairy. I want to go do something."

"I think we all should," Jou said. "That way we can discuss actual plans on the way, or figure _something_ out. We really need to take the time to do that. We can't keep running away." I was pleased to hear him say that, but I was also a little miffed. _I_ was the one they kept leaving behind. I should've been the one to get to say that. I didn't complain though.

"Um...Gabumon and I have been talking with the other partners, and they're all really upset because their partners might be dead..." Agumon said, trailing off.

"Okay," Taichi said. He clearly didn't know what to do with that information.

"Maybe," Gatomon suggested. "We could make it a trip for the remaining digidestined digimon too. We can help you guys."

"Cool," Taichi said. "We're leaving soon though, so everyone has to get ready."

"Right," we all agreed.

 _ **Yamato Ishida:**_

Waking up from a nightmare always reminded me of the time that Takeru had been hanging over me waiting for me to wake up so we could go to the amusement park. And that was because I was always wary about how quickly I sat up during the actual waking period, I had to be sure that I did not bash my head against any malevolent figure that may or may not be watching me sleep, toying with the dark dreams my mind was creating. That, or Takeru, who had not stopped at the first time, there had been many incidents.

But I didn't have to worry about that anymore, at least not right now. That was what my nightmare had been. About Takeru, and unfortunately, waking up meant only that I could live that same dream, but this time I would have to do it while awake, in reality.

But it would be counterproductive for my mental health and for any plans we would inevitably be making to assume the worst. Takeru was the embodiment of hope, and if anything, I would have to honour that and pretend he was okay. That's what hope was, right? Pretending something is true long enough that you convince yourself it is, no matter how messed up.

I let out a long sigh, pushing the blanket I had been using away. Dad had gone out to get us food and had come back with blankets and board games instead. Well, he'd brought food too, but by the time he'd gotten here I hadn't been in the mood to eat. Not with the information Sora had given me.

I sat up and looked around the room. This place had always looked exactly like the inside of a robot's brain to me. The walls were white, with patches of metal screwed into the drywall wherever something had accidentally punched a hole, covering it all while effectively making the room look less than inviting. There were television monitors around the room, some that had already been here, and others that we moved in ourselves. The room was a mess, which wasn't a surprise. There were mostly empty pizza boxes lying about with a few half eaten crusts still laying amongst the lost toppings, and brown paper bags from the nearest coffee shop where my dad had gotten some desserts. At one end of the room there were four chairs lined up alternating directions, where Takashi was sleeping soundly, bundled up with the big pink blanket he'd been given. On the floor next to him Yutaka was sprawled out on his back with his head tilted to the left, he was drooling, and Akira was laying the opposite direction using Yutaka's stomach as a pillow. Katsue had taken the other side of the room for her and Monimon, the two of them were still snuggled up together, obviously sleeping. And Dad, who had stayed awake with me was sleeping sitting up, his head bent back over the black computer chair he'd been sitting in.

I rubbed my eyes and took another quick look around the room.

Without Sora here, it seemed like it could all have been a dream. And maybe it was. Maybe she'd never come in here last night and dropped that bomb on me, and maybe I hadn't spent hours trying to convince myself that Mom and Lunamon and Wizardmon and Taichi and Hikari and Agumon and Mimi and Patamon and Gabumon and _Takeru_ were okay. It was all a foggy memory anyway, I could convince myself it had never happened. But that was delusional. And maybe that's what hope was... a delusion designed to keep our brains full of nonsense so that we could live our lives without fear and instead pretend to be happy.

The door slid open and I turned my head quickly toward the sound. Hushed voices crept into the room and moment later Mantarou stepped inside, a friendly smile on his face. He turned and nodded as if someone was saying something to him, and of course, Sora walked in after him holding a shopping bag strapped over her arm. She paused momentarily as her eyes found me but she diverted them quickly.

"We should go later," Mantarou nodded. "That's a good idea."

"Go where?" I asked, my voice less quiet than I had intended it to be. What was she doing sneaking around with Mantarou? Now wasn't the time to be flirting or frolicking around, this was a very serious time that was sure to involve a lot of planning on our part.

"To the library," Mantarou replied with a small wave, "Good morning by the way."

"Yeah," I said stiffly, "Good morning." Then I turned to Sora, "the library, really?" She nodded, setting down the bag she had around her arm, "Where were you guys?"

"Aqua City," Mantarou said, "You should have come, they have this _really_ cool new—"

"Shopping?" I asked flatly, "Leave it to you to go shopping at a time like this."

Sora paused, and didn't seem like she was going to respond. She was staring almost uncomfortably down to the bag she'd set down, and Mantarou nervously flicked his eyes between the two of us, "Uh—" Mantarou started, but Sora cut him off, apparently reinvigorated.

"Excuse me?" Sora's voice was cold and sharp, like ice, but she was quiet, keeping mind of all those sleeping around us. She reached into the bag she'd brought in and pulled out a large brown paper bag and she turned to me, "I'll have you know that I thought everyone would want breakfast. Especially you since you neglected to eat anything last night." She set the bag down hard, and something heavy clanged inside as the bag toppled over onto the table she'd set it on. "And as for Aqua City," she reached into the bag once more and pulled out a strange black device, "I was trying to think ahead."

The box was black and the size of one of those wind up televisions we used to have in our house for emergencies. That's what my mom always said, though I was never quite certain what emergency would call for us to watch soap operas. "What is that?" I asked.

She set it down next to the food she'd brought but much more gently, "This is a back-up battery." She explained. "This is a hiding spot, Yamato, but have you ever played hide and seek? Eventually the other person finds you. I'm going to use Kiyoko's shield program to protect us from anyone we don't want coming in, but if they find us they can shut off the power, and what if our computer dies? We are not in the Digital World, Yamato, we need a computer to keep things like this running." She tapped the battery with her index finger, "And so, we'll need more power to keep us alive as long as possible."

Sora was staring at me with fire in her eyes as if she was begging me to say something just so she could tear me down again. I felt bad, I didn't even know why I had said anything at all. I trusted Sora to not be a child in the face of danger, so why hadn't I just let it go, and trusted that whatever she found to be important must have been? Because it obviously was important. Both the battery and the food, but my eyes were more inclined to focus on the latter of the two as my stomach growled.

I didn't know how to respond. I knew I had to apologize, but would she even care? "That's clever,"

Both Sora and I looked confused for a moment and then turned to see Katsue who was sitting up now, leaning against the wall with Monimon in her arms. "We should think of more back up ideas in case of an emergency." Sora seemed to relax now and she nodded, I was glad she wasn't going to stay angry. "Now is no time to be sitting around doing nothing, we need to get out and _do_ something."

"Like what?" Mantarou wanted to know. He moved across the room and grabbed one of the only empty seats and sat himself down.

Katsue shrugged, she wasn't sure. "Anything." She said finally, "There are so many things we can do—so many things _only_ we can do." Was that a subtle jab at the fact that my friends and brother and mother were dead? Was she implying that we would have to pick up for their slack now that they were no longer around to help out? Because I wasn't sure my hope could withstand someone pointing out the other sides of the obvious argument. They had to be alive. "Because we're on Earth," Katsue said, making eye contact with me as if she'd read my mind.

"You're right." Sora said, nodding. "Some of us should think of ways to keep safe, and other should solve the issue of the separated worlds."

"And the rest can find a way to stop the DWD." I added. Sora nodded, but did not look toward me, and instead found the floor more interesting apparently. "But what were you talking about the library for?" I asked, hoping for Sora to actually make eye contact with me so I could maybe shift the conversation into an apology.

She didn't though. "Sora thought it would be a good idea to go to the homes of your trapped friends and check on things." Mantrou replied, "In case they have anything they left unattended."

"Like pets?" Dad asked, we all turned to him to see that he'd woken up. He was rubbing his eye with the back of his hand, but fully attentive and in the conversation with the rest of us. "Wouldn't they have taken their pets along to the Digital World with themselves?"

Sora stood up suddenly a hand flying over her mouth, "Oswald!"She shouted, ridiculously. "I have to go!"

Katsue, Mantarou and I exchanged confused looks as Sora hurried toward the door loudly, stirring those who were still asleep, which unsurprisingly were just my former band mates. Dad was already on his feet though, following Sora out the door and I was quick to do the same. I heard footsteps behind me, but wasn't sure which of the others were following me.

Selfishly, I stopped at the bag of food and grabbed a plastic container with a sandwich inside, and taking it with me. Katsue and Mantarou had both passed me now, following Dad and Sora down the hallway. Monimon had been left behind smartly, to inform Yutaka and the others where we'd gone. We'd be back for them of course, but first we had to see what had Sora all worked up.

The elevator door almost closed without me, but Katsue had her foot in the way, keeping it for me. Sora looked to the sandwich in my hand and raised her eyebrows, "You're welcome." She said flatly.

"Thanks..." I said awkwardly.

"Yamato," Sora said, and for a moment I thought she was going to yell at me, but thankfully when she spoke again she had a much more relaxed voice, "You take your dad to Seaside Park."

"No offense Sora," Dad said, "But I'm not much in the mood for a swim."

Sora smirked at Dad, which I found unfair. He points out that we need to be serious and it's funny, but I do it and I get a lecture. "I mean go to the Yagami's house. Susumu Yagami should still be home, we haven't heard from him. Someone should tell him what's happened."

"Right." Dad agreed.

"What about you?" I asked, keeping my voice as soft and kind as I could, "Who is Oswald?"

"Mimi's pet octopus." Sora said, apparently shocked that I did not know this, "Back when she had that horrible octopus and lentil salad on her menu she kept one for herself because she couldn't kill him. Oswald? Remember?"

"Honestly, no," I admitted, "But good idea. We could send Katsue and Mantarou to the library and check that, and maybe Jou's house?"

"Oh you're going to send us are you?" Katsue asked, one eyebrow raised in a daring way, "In a crate with a stamp? We have legs you know, we could just walk."

"You know what I mean." I groaned. Why was it that women were so difficult to talk to? No matter what I said one of them would always be mad at me. Was it because I was overcompensating and trying to make Sora forgive me, making her the leader of the group and thus making Katsue feel insignificant and as if I were objectifying her? Probably.

The elevator dinged and we reached the bottom floor where many people were arriving to work. "Uh..." Dad said hesitantly, "I think we're going to need a new place to hide." He stepped aside and began telling everyone that he was working on something personal inside the viewing room and that everyone should avoid it until he returned.

"He's right," Sora said, running her hands through her hair, "Where are we supposed to go? We can't all fit inside an apartment, especially if we bring more people along."

"Who says we all have to be in the same place?" Mantarou asked.

"Me." Sora and I said as one. We looked to each other awkwardly and she diverted her eyes again, "It's safer if we know where everyone is. I don't want to find out on the news that one of you has been imprisoned or something for anything we're about to do."

Mantarou's face lit up at the prospect of doing something that might get us arrested, but Katsue seemed skeptic. "If we're going to get caught, then why bother?" She asked, "Either way, I agree. We should stay together."

"I'll figure something out." Sora said quietly, already the gears in her head were visibly turning, then she paused, "Let's meet back here in a few hours, okay? I have to pick up Natsuni and Jenna from my house."

"Where do you live?" Katsue asked, thinking.

"Omotesando," Sora said as her cheeks flushed. How could she be embarrassed about that? Sure it was widely regarded as the fashion district, but she would fit right in there, and everyone knew that.

"It will take you at least an hour to get to Mimi's house and to yours," Katsue said, thinking. "Mantarou and I heading up to Ebisu will take probably the same. How about we meet back here..." She checked her watch and nodded, "Two and a half hours? So ten o'clock?"

It was a plan, a pointless plan since there wasn't much we were doing. But we were regrouping. That was something. We'd have Natsuni and Jenna too, that was two more people who would help us figure out how to save the others, and they had just as much reason as Sora or I did. Iori, Willis and Michael were in with the virus. They'd want to get back to them, and hopefully they'd want revenge as much as I did. Whoever was in charge of that stupid virus was going to pay.

Sora left with Mantarou and Katsue because they were going to take the same train for a while, and that left me and Dad alone. He turned back to me, ready to go and looked momentarily shocked that the others were gone, but he got over that quickly and motioned for me to hurry. We had the shortest distance to go by a mile, but it made sense to go quickly anyway. Dad strayed from me, and for a moment I'd actually forgotten he had a vehicle. I stumbled on my way over to join him and I pulled myself into the passenger seat as he started the engine.

He didn't speak for a brief moment, but as we came to a crosswalk he tilted his head and sighed, "So what do you think?" He asked. I looked to him, confused and he added, "About that virus. What do you think happened?" I swallowed the lump in my throat, not saying a word. "Do you think they're okay?" I looked away from Dad and out the window as the van started moving again. "You don't."

"I do." I blurted. It didn't matter what I thought, as long as he was sure they were okay. I turned back to him and saw that his eyes were watering. "Are you crying?" I asked nervously.

He shook his head and turned away from me for a moment, wiping his eyes. "No." He said flatly. "I just... I don't want them to be hurt."

"Who is them?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"My wife?" Dad said flatly, "My partner, my _son_?"

"But not Mom?" Even I was annoyed with myself now. Could I not just _shut up_?

"You know that's not true." Dad said, his voice much softer than I'd been expecting. "I care for your mother, Yamato. And I care for Yuudai, and Toshiko and Haruhiko. My friends. You of all people should know that love is complicated." Love. He'd used the word love, and it was as if someone had smacked me upside the head. Why was I judging his relationship with Fumiko or his relationship with Mom? It wasn't my business who anyone else loved. He was right. Love was complicated, and I knew that well.

"I'm sorry," I said quietly.

"I do seem to recall you having a fairly complicated relationship with a red haired girl," Dad said thoughtfully. "Now what was her name? Sora, was it?" I groaned as Dad laughed playfully. "She lived with us, do you remember that? She was the best daughter I've ever had—and she cleaned up after you which was nice."

"I remember, Dad." I said, "Then she moved out and broke up with me because I joined the side of Darkness because Fanglongmon promised me the thing I wanted most in the world."

"What was that?" He asked.

"I don't want to talk about it." I said flatly, and Dad quieted instantly. There was an enormous line of traffic now, and it seemed that we might just get there faster if we were to get out and walk. The building was in sight already anyway. But we didn't, we simply sat still.

Dad seemed to want to break the silence as he kept making odd noises like he was about to speak, but always decided against it. Apparently whatever it was that he wanted to say was too hard. "Do you hate Fumiko?" He asked but looked away for a moment, refusing to meet my eyes. I decided it was probably better that way, and turned to look out the window myself.

"No," I admitted. "She's really nice."

"That's all?"

"I hardly know her." I said. If he was asking if I hated their relationship, the answer was no. I didn't _hate_ it, and I didn't even dislike it. I did not care who he dated or married, I only cared when it involved me, because I had no intention of changing my family up now, I was an adult. "I fully support your relationship as long as it's not hurting anyone else."

I heard Dad sigh, but he didn't say anything to accompany the sound, so I was left to make assumptions on whether it was a happy sigh or a disappointed sigh. Either way, it didn't matter because the relationship wasn't mine to have an opinion on.

A couple minutes later we'd finally arrived at Taichi's old apartment building, which was actually irritating because it was supposed to be no more than a one minute drive, but it didn't matter. We were here and already heading up to the front door. I was painfully aware that the apartment that I had grown up in was directly behind me with every step up the stairs. It was almost sad to think about that place. To think about when Takeru had been brought back from the hospital—now, I didn't remember much, but I remembered _him_ —or to think about Sora and I carving into my bedroom walls with pens, and coins or whatever else we could find. There were so many memories and now it was like they were in a jar under a floorboard because someone else lived there now, and someone else had swept them all up to make room for their own memories...

Dad knocked, reaching the door to Taichi's old house before I'd even reached the top of the steps, but when no one answered I reached forward and pressed the doorbell. Still, no one answered. Then Dad slammed on the door harder, surprising me. "Susumu, if you're in there you should really open the door."

"Who is it?" A man, likely Susumu, said through the door, his voice sounding very muffled and distant. "What do you want?"

"We just want to talk," Dad said kindly through the door, "it's me, Hiroaki Ishida."

"Who?" Susumu asked for clarification.

"Hiroaki? We've met _several_ times." Dad said, then after waiting a moment for Susumu to reply he added, "Your daughter is dating my son?"

"Yes, yes!" Susumu shouted impatiently, "I know who you are." There was a moment of silence and then the locks were clicking and the door was pulled open. Susumu stood in his pajamas, holding the door open for us to step inside. He ran his hand over his tired looking face and he said, "Come in." We did as we were told and stepped over the threshold and onto the wooden flooring. "Would you like some coffee?"

"No," I said quickly, "We shouldn't stay, we just came to talk." Susumu stopped in his tracks and turned back to us, the expression on his face was asking me to elaborate. "Well I don't want you to be alarmed because I'm sure they were all safe—"

Susumu's face broke into quick panic and I realized how bad I was at delivering news. "What happened to them? Are they okay? Who? Which ones?"

"They're fine." I assured him even if there was no proof. "I don't mean to worry you, we just thought you had the right to know." He still looked panicked but was not saying a word, waiting for my explanation, "The Digital World is closed off again, and your children are inside, as well as your wife and partner." He relaxed knowing that was all the problem turned out to be, but I winced, knowing better. "And a virus was sent out to kill them."

Dad elbowed me sharply, "But they were under a protective barrier." Dad said. We both knew that the Temple wasn't safe and that was where all three of them had been, but if Dad didn't think it was right to tell Susumu, then neither did I. I learned that this morning was not my best time, and I should definitely not trust my own instincts.

"I knew something like this was going to happen." Susumu said finally, shocking me and, by the sounds of it, my dad too. How could he have known? There was no way he wouldn't have said anything if he had. "The Digital World always comes with danger." Dad seemed to understand where he was coming from, but I certainly disagreed.

"Listen," I said, "it wasn't the Digital World that did this. It was people."

"I know," Susumu said, nodding, "But I knew it was going to happen. Do you think I am still on Earth by sheer coincidence? No, I stayed because I know better."

Dad and I exchanged nervous glances at one another. "Know better than what?" Dad asked.

Susumu did not answer right away, instead he ran his hand over his head, and through his short hair, thinking. "Have you ever thought about closing the Digital World?" He asked finally, his words coming out quickly and nervously.

What was that even supposed to mean though? "The Digital World is closed right now." I reminded him. "That's what we're trying to fix. So we can save your family, remember?"

"I know it's closed." He said, "But it's so dangerous. Don't you think maybe it just happens to be more trouble than it's worth?"

"No." I said flatly. "Gabumon is worth all the trouble we go through."

"Isn't that selfish though?" Susumu asked, "Sixteen years ago I stood in the streets and watched you, and my children and your friends fight against a monster that wanted you dead, but you all won and you saved the world. I was so scared for your lives then because I didn't know what would happen. But you saved the Digital World and all was well. Except it wasn't." Susumu took a break in his story and looked each of us in the eye intently, "There was more trouble in paradise because that Yukio fellow wanted back in. Then you were all trapped inside, and a few years after that Taichi and Hikari caused two worlds to fuse together and then Earth was soon to follow where mayhem and danger lurked around every corner. My wife, who was in her forties by this point was forced to defend her world and her friends and her children against a monstrous flying parrot." His eyebrows were raised now, irritated, but also scared, and that was the only thing that was keeping me from stopping him. He seemed so scared, and I could write this off as his fear. "Then, as the story goes, a tree from a different dimension set his sights on destroying all life because a group of digimon imposed their darkness on those who were chosen to protect us."

"I see where you're coming from," Dad said, not giving Susumu a chance to continue this time, "But if you look at it from the other perspective—"

"What other perspective?" Susumu asked. "The way I see it nothing good came from the worlds having a connection." He paused thoughtfully, "Or at least since they were closed off 'indefinitely' by that Gennai fellow."

"That was nine years ago," I said, rolling my eyes, "I'm going to have to disagree."

"Oh?" Susumu asked. "Well, since then that same Gennai man died, some worlds melded together to fuse one super world of darkness and destruction, many digital Gods and deities have tried to destroy the worlds, and now it is pitting the worlds against one another." Susumu was angry now and he reached around to the table by the door where a bowl full of change and keys sat. He picked up a rolled up newspaper and opened it up to the front page, "Yep, just as I thought." He showed me the paper and I leaned forward, looking to an image of a masked man robbing a bank with a Vademon. "This man is using his partner for evil." I looked to Dad and we both furrowed our brows. "This world is fighting enough wars on its own, we don't need to fight those of another as well. I love Kamemon, and I have nothing against digimon, but at least I know that it would be selfish of me to say that I want the worlds to always be in total chaos just so I can have my friend by my side."

Dad was entirely silent, and I was too, hoping for someone else to say something so I wouldn't mess up again, but it seemed it was going to be up to me. "I understand you're frustrated—" "That's not even the half of it!" Susumu interjected, upset. "—but your lashing out at us is entirely unacceptable. We are not to blame for the pain your family is being caused right now. All we ask is that you stand by us and find a way to help them."

"I'd like to," Susumu said, suddenly very serious, "But I don't know how."

"Neither do we," Dad admitted.

Susumu seemed frustrated again and he ran his hands through his hair again, his face turning red, "I just don't know what to say." He said finally, "I'm not against the digimon, really I'm not. But I don't want to fight against my own people, either."

"Well the difference is that we're not asking you to," I said boldly, "The digimon have never claimed war over the people, it has only ever been the other way around. The digimon are trying to live their lives parallel to our own, and the humans are trying to change that. To me it sounds like you want peace. So do we."

"But how much war are you willing to go through until you find that peace?" Susumu asked, very seriously. It wasn't even a rhetorical question.

"As much as it takes." I said weakly. "No matter how tired I get, no matter how much struggle I go through, I'll always fight." Susumu looked ashamed of himself, "Will you help?"

He looked away from both of us. He didn't want to answer. "I will..." He said quietly, "Because what the humans did is awful. But I stand by what I said. The worlds were separated for a reason. Don't you think Gennai wanted you to stay out because he honestly thought it was better that way?" I swallowed another lump in my throat and ignored the question. "Either way. I'm with you. I am. As long as it means my family will survive." I diverted my eyes from his intense gaze and he immediately seemed panicked, "They are okay, aren't they?"

"I think so, yeah." I said, but even I didn't believe myself.

"Yamato, you should go," Dad said, patting my shoulder. "I think I should talk with Susumu alone for a while." I nodded and waved to Susumu, before turning out the door we were still standing by. "I think I'll take you up on that coffee." I heard Dad say as I closed the door behind me.

I knew I was going to grab the sandwich from the van, but aside from that I had no idea what I was doing. Maybe going back to Yutaka and the others and then finding a new place to hide if the Fuji TV Station wasn't going to work anymore.

All I knew was that Mr Yagami was right. The Digital World being in connection with Earth had only brought negativity along with it ever since Gennai fully closed it off. I wondered what he'd say now if he were still alive. Would he tell us that what the fairies had to say was nonsense? Would he remind us that if we'd never opened the Digital World then the crests of Tenacity, Desire, Pride and Honesty would never have found their rightful owners? Or would he simply tell us that it would not matter if all the crests were held within the world? Would digimon become the rightful owners of the crests? Gabumon had the crest of friendship now, it was possible.

Wouldn't it be better for everyone if we just separated the two worlds? Just like Gennai wanted them to be. Separated indefinitely.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Miyako and Jou seek refuge and answers and they Know Places that might be able to give them what they need.


	10. I Know Places

**Y/N:** I wrote this one a long time after the other parts too. I basically waited as long as possible to write anything in the Dark Ocean. I don't know why. Once I started writing it, I realized it's way better than the Land of Dreams.

 **U/N:** So this was one of Jou's longest parts since the end of 05, which was rather interesting to write I guess. Jou has been dominating this war though. Originally when planning we said "Well, Jou has his dream job, a perfect family and a spectacular house to live in. He has nowhere to go." But he's pretty heroic when he needs to be and that's weird because… it's Jou. Anyway, reaaad. Reviewww. Love. Continue.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 10: I Know Places**

 _ **Miyako Ichijouji:**_

I held my finger to my lips and put my hand out to keep Bengoshi from moving. I peeked around the corner of the street, keeping my eyes peeled for any shadows that might be lurking out there. We'd ditched the ones that had started chasing us on the beach. They sort of retreated when we raced into the town. I hadn't known there _was_ a town in the Dark Ocean. It wasn't a place I'd ever really wanted to explore in any way. But there was one. All of the buildings were made of wood or stone or bricks, but each was a shade of grey. The cobblestone streets were bland and grey. Everything looked to be in some sort of decrepit state. The bricks were partially crumbled; the wood had cracks in it. Some cobblestones in the streets were missing entirely. A chilling breeze blew through the streets. I was shivering, but the eerie whistling of the wind masked my chattering teeth.

There were no shadows, so I slipped around the corner, waving my hand for Bengoshi to follow after me. I slipped into the nearest doorway, where we would wait a few minutes. I'd developed a system to keep us safe. It was how we'd escaped the earlier shadows. We turned too many corners in this town, and accidentally fell through a doorway. The shadows hadn't expected it, and continued "chasing" us down the streets.

It had taken us an hour before we'd felt confident enough to take even a single step out of that first doorway. Now, I only took a cursory glance, making sure no shadows were waiting for us, and then we raced down to the next building.

They were all abandoned. Long grey drapery fell in tattered rags over the broken windows. The floors creaked, and once Bengoshi's foot crashed right through to the basement. We left that house faster than any others. I feared that the shadows might be hiding in the basements, laughing at our antics. I feared they were following us, waiting for us to get comfortable, grow relaxed, before they popped out and caught us unaware. I didn't tell this to Bengoshi though. He'd put his faith in me entirely. He was expecting me to protect both him and my baby. It wasn't something I was sure I could do. I was so scared. Every time I entered a house, I had to convince myself that it wasn't time to panic yet. I couldn't even think about Ken anymore. Instead I tried to remember every detail about Sigma's demise. Gaiomon's attack pierced through his figure and he had burned, and he had died. It was possible for shadows to die, and that thought would keep me going. For now at least, and that was all I needed. I needed enough courage to get us to that castle. I _needed_ time to sort through my feelings and fears. I needed to calm myself and remove all of this tension. I had three lives depending on me—mine, the baby's and Bengoshi's. I couldn't afford to make any mistakes, but I was tired. I'd been running for ages, I was too stressed. I'd run out of water, having shared it with Bengoshi. We'd eaten my snacks while we were waiting in that first house.

I needed a drink.

I needed a meal.

I needed a bed.

I needed to get out of the Dark Ocean.

I would've preferred to get out of the Dark Ocean _first_ , but I didn't particularly care about the order of the other three. I'd checked the taps in a couple of the houses, but the water that ran out of them was practically black, it was so dark. I didn't know what was _in_ the water, but I wasn't about to drink it. Not while pregnant—and probably not even if I wasn't. Bengoshi had choked back a few swallows before pulling away from the sink and getting sick all over the floor. Even _he_ hadn't been brave enough to eat the blackened apples or rock solid, grey bread. I didn't know if they were a part of the decor, or if these houses belonged to shadows. I didn't know if the shadows needed to _eat_.

Part of me was certain the shadows were providing it in order to give us temptation. They wanted us to succumb to our basic needs and feast on these disgusting—most likely rotten—foods. I couldn't do it. I _wouldn't_ do it. There were stories about eating in hell. In Greek mythology the goddess of the dead only held that title because she'd eaten six pomegranate seeds. Eating food in hell _could_ mean we were trapped here forever. Ken had told me about his nightmares when he'd saved me too. He drank from the ocean, took the water into his system and he still woke up sometimes from the painful memories it had caused him.

I was not about to risk it.

My child took nutrients from whatever I ate. If I ate something the shadows provided us with, I would inadvertently be feeding it to my child. My child would be stuck in this horrible place forever. They'd be _born_ here and they would continue to live here until they died.

I'd made enough mistakes during the past couple of days. I wasn't going to sentence my baby, my sweet child, to an eternity in hell. I wasn't making any more mistakes.

"Are we almost there?" Bengoshi asked me. I glared at him, and he pantomimed zipping his lips closed. I shook my head. We probably weren't anywhere _near_ the tower anymore. The buildings were too close together, and the streets were too narrow for me to get a good angle. I couldn't see it. I was aiming us blindly.

"We need to go to the beach," I whispered. His eyes widened, and he shook his head frantically. He didn't want to go back to the shadows. But if we _didn't_ , we'd be fish in a barrel. I was _certain_ we were being played with now. I didn't want to march to the shadows' fife. I wanted to get into the castle where Winter could keep us safe, and hopefully get us out. "We _have_ to."

"Why?" he whined. He was acting more childish than Emiko did. And she had the legitimate claim of being a _child_. He looked around my Dad's age. I didn't know how much of that was because of his time in the Dark Ocean. The stress and fear had clearly aged him, but he was plenty old enough to take care of himself. I was trying to be sympathetic. He wasn't _used_ to strange and crazy things and parallel worlds the way I was. But _still_. He was getting annoying. I would _never_ abandon him here, but I was seriously debating simply ignoring him. He was needy. I wasn't ready to have a child following me around yet. Mine was still in the oven. I had a bit more than five months to get ready.

"We're lost," I told him, wincing when he looked both terrified and extremely disappointed. "I can't find it if we're not on the beach. I'm going to get us there. I'll take a quick look, and we'll be on our way. It will be easy. We'll stay safe."

He didn't believe me. I could understand that. I didn't believe me either. I was pretty sure the shadows would be waiting to get us. I could see them out of my peripheral vision all the time. I just wasn't sure whether they were real, or if they were figments that were conjured up by my fear.

"Fine," he grumbled. He looked at me expectantly and I tried not to let him know that I had no idea which way the beach was. I'd gotten turned around while we ran away from the shadows. I didn't know north from south anymore. It wasn't like there was a sun in the sky to help me find my way.

I led us down six more streets before I saw any sign of the beach. We were extra careful on our way towards it. I double— _triple_ —checked each street before we made any move. I was determined to not let the shadows get the best of me. I was not in the mood to see them.

I'd _never_ be in the mood to see them.

Instinctively my fingers traced the scars Sigma had given me through my sleeve. I would not be a victim again. I didn't have friends this time though, I didn't have Ken. I was alone with a man that was mostly a stranger—and not particularly brave. The panic was bubbling too close to the surface. I beat it down, knowing that Winter was here somewhere. Winter would be able to keep me safe from them. She would help me keep myself safe. I wouldn't allow my fear to get the best of me this time.

It helped that none of the shadows that had been chasing us was wearing a bowler hat.

Sigma was dead. Gone forever. He would never be able to get me again. Hideto had promised me that ages ago when I'd confided my nightmares to him.

"Do we really _have_ to?" Bengoshi asked.

I hushed him. We were too close to the beach to be able to speak. We wanted to keep the element of surprise. It might've been possible, if _someone_ had any idea what it meant to whisper. As Bengoshi seemed to lack that particular talent, I'd decided absolute silence was the better option. I reached out and took his hand though. I drew strength from his presence. I was also making sure that he couldn't run away and leave me alone. He was safer with me too. I had a digivice, and they were useful against shadows. Mine was within my firm grasp. The one I'd taken from Morestuna was still in my backpack. Bengoshi wouldn't be able to use it.

Dragging him behind me, I walked forward onto the sand with a brisk pace. It was instantaneous. The moment we stepped onto the beach shadows crept out to meet us. My breath faltered, and I took a small step back, but I clenched my teeth together, and held firm to my resolve. I marched forward, looking to either side of me, looking for the tower. It was on my right. It was _really close_ on my right. I could make a run for it. I lifted my digivice. I'd let the shadows get close enough. I held it up and a familiar burst of light shot out at the shadows. Loud, hideous screams ripped through the air.

I winced.

Their screams had called to the other shadows. They seemed to be bleeding out of every street. Dozens, _hundreds_ were swarming at us. They were everywhere. Bengoshi was screaming, trying to pry his hand out of my grip, wanting to run away. I wouldn't let him go though. I held my digivice up again, and cleared a path between us and the tower.

It was harder, in a way, to run through the shadows than it had been to run from the virus.

The virus had only been chasing me from one direction. I'd had _some_ experience with the virus, but only because of the guns. Each shadow, each long dark finger was something that terrified me. They caught in my hair, they slid across my arm. They clawed at me. They wanted to get me. They grabbed onto Bengoshi more than once. Each time, I turned my digivice to face him, and they backed away. In that instance though, when the digivice was saving _him_ , the shadows got too close. I could hear their breaths, _feel_ the chilling presence. They would wrap their fingers around my throat. They would run their fingertips from my temple to my chin. They would grab hold of my arms. They would run their fingers down my scars, sending a phantom pain so intense I would scream out. More than once, they laid their hand on my stomach. They'd caress it, they would drag their fingers across it, lay their hand flat.

Each time, my lips would start trembling. My screams and panic would build up, and my knees would grow week. It was bad enough that they were targeting my biggest fears, knowing that they actually stood a chance of besting my artificial confidence. They could do whatever they wanted to my mind. But they _would not_ touch my child. They would not harm him—or her.

With every touch, they instilled more fear within me—but they also made my determination stronger.

The tower grew closer, and the shadows grew more desperate. They were constantly screaming now, keeping my ears ringing with the horrid sound. It was distracting, and kept me from hearing Bengoshi screaming. I had to keep looking at him to see if they were hanging off of him. I held on to him as tightly as I could, but he'd been caught by four shadows, and I just wasn't strong enough to beat them in our game of tug of war.

It was terrifying, feeling his fingers slip through my own, knowing I'd failed to keep him safe. I turned, holding the digivice to him, blasting them off of him. He crawled towards me, but shadowy hands curled around both of my wrists, one shaking the digivice out of my hand. A shadow stood in front of me holding his hand up. I stared, as if hypnotised, watching as his fingers curled into sharp claws. He crept up towards me, raising his new claws to my face, running them gently down, scratching me only lightly.

My knees gave way, but the shadows holding my arms wouldn't let me fall.

Deep, bone-chilling laughs surrounded me. Bengoshi was being pounced on by several shadows. I could barely see him anymore. The claws slowly made their way down my neck to my collar bone. They continued down towards my stomach.

"No," I pleaded. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!"

My breath caught. Tears were pouring out of my eyes. I couldn't see. I couldn't breathe because the fear was just too great. The shadows had beaten me. I couldn't save myself. I'd failed my child once again. I'd failed Bengoshi when I promised I would keep him safe.

But I couldn't win against _hundreds_ of shadows. Maybe if I'd been on my own, I could have made it.

I'd lost.

"ENOUGH!" The command rang loudly, silencing the screams and laughter. It continued on into a bunch of words I couldn't understand, and then there was a flash of blue light. A warm feeling passed through me. The shadows screamed in pain as the wave of magic slammed into them. They fled quickly. Bengoshi's eyes were pressed closed. He was in a fetal position on the ground, protecting himself the best he could against the shadows, not seeming to realize that they had left. He had bruises forming on his skin. He looked so weak and old in that moment that I just sobbed harder at the thought of failing him. I was on my knees, a crying mess as all the fear and panic and grief exploded out of me.

"Get up," a commanding woman's voice called. Bengoshi didn't move, and I couldn't. The woman sighed. She knelt down in her glamorous gown and pulled my arm up around her shoulders, hauling me to my feet. Her pale blue skin felt cool to the touch. I leaned into her though, wrapping my arms around her and sobbing into her bare shoulder.

"Winter," I cried. "I'm so happy you're still here."

"That makes one of us," she said dryly. I could imagine living here wasn't very fun, but I'd never been so thankful to see anyone in my entire life. She saved my baby. She saved me. And she saved Bengoshi. "You there, get to your feet. We're going inside. You can stay if you want. I actually don't care." At the threat of being left behind, Bengoshi clambered to his feet and unsteadily followed after Winter—who was half carrying me, half dragging me—as she walked through the open doors of the castle.

I focused my every thought on the way her skin felt against mine, the way her power was warm and surrounding us, keeping the shadows from entering the castle. Soon enough I was being seated on a large wooden chair—which I realized was an uncomfortable throne. Winter disappeared, and whimpers flew from me before I had a chance of stopping them. The warmth vanished almost instantly and it was frightening how reliant I had already grown to the feeling. Without her, I had nothing to distract me from my thoughts. From my fears. From Ken, and Hawkmon and Wormmon and all of my friends.

She came back though. She pressed a warm towel to my forehead. I moaned at the warmth. I hadn't realized just how cold I had become. I raised my shaking hands up to hold the towel, to get some warmth into my fingers.

"Explain to me your presence here," Winter demanded.

"The Goutokuji girl—"

" _Not_. You," Winter snapped. "Why are you here in your state, Miyako? You shouldn't be here."

"It's safer to be here," I said with a shaky voice. She started petting my head with awkward, unsure movements. It was oddly _very_ comforting. She laughed without humour.

"I find _that_ hard to believe," she said, looking through the tall window on the nearest wall. I took the time to figure out where we were. I was sitting on the wooden throne at the far end of a room. The large wooden doors were opposite me, and a large, heavy chandelier hung from the centre of the ceiling. Bright orange flames cast light from the torches lining the walls and the candles that were on the chandelier. There was a large stained glass window behind me, but it was in varying shades of grey, so it wasn't much to look at. There was _some_ colour in this room, but most of it was provided by the orange flames. All the wood was a dark, dark brown, and Winter cast of a sort of bluish glow.

"Can they get in?" Bengoshi asked. I looked to the tall windows that lined both side walls of the throne room. I nearly screamed at the sight. Shadows were clawing at the glass, trying to get to us.

"Of course they can't," Winter snapped at him. He cowered, and ducked out of the large doors, wanting to get away from the woman who seemed to hate him so much.

"I remember you being nicer," I mumbled. My towel was losing its warmth. "I remember meeting you before all that stuff with S-Sigma and Daemon. I remember first meeting you as a kid. You were a lot nicer then."

"What do you expect?" she asked, raising an eyebrow to me. "This is what happens when you spend eternity in the Dark Ocean. No matter how desperately I wish to leave some days, I must remain here, and continue doing the duty that was asked of me."

"That's horrible," I whispered, trying to wrap my head around the idea, and recoiling at the very thought. "Who would ask you to do that?"

She shook her head at me, and sighed. "It doesn't matter any longer. I must remain here, but _you_ do not— _should_ not—stay. I will do everything in my power to find a way for you to escape this fate before your child meets this world. I am not a monster, no matter how I appear. I will keep the child safe. But it will take time."

I felt that she was going to continue speaking, but she didn't. Her eyes unfocussed, looking at something other than me, something faraway. Her mouth opened in a silent gasp. She closed her eyes and gave her head one shake. She looked me straight in the eye. "Your lawyer friend is in trouble."

"Huh?" I asked intelligently.

"AH! IT'S GOING TO GET ME! DON'T LET IT GET ME!"

"I'll be back," I said, clutching my digivice in my hand and raced out of the throne room, down the hall towards the continued screams. How had the shadows gotten inside? Would I really be able to beat them this time? Yes. I _had_ to.

I burst through a set of doors, digivice out at the ready. Bengoshi was standing on a heavy, wooden table screaming his fool head off, pointing down at the ground towards an Armadillomon. The sight of him made my heart hurt for my friend, but he wasn't scary in any way.

"You guys are still here?" I asked the Armadillomon. He looked away from the screaming lawyer and nodded at me.

"We've been slaves here for so long," he said. I knew he was thinking of Dragomon and Daemon, who both took advantage of the Armadillomon population here. "We work for Winter now, out of habit. She is a kinder ruler than our previous ones."

"Why are you just talking with it?" Bengoshi yelled at me. "Get rid of it! It's going to eat me!"

"If you want to stay in this castle, you're going to have to accept that there are digimon here," I told him simply. He shook his head emphatically. "We're going to be here awhile. Winter can't just snap her fingers and send us home. She's going to need time to work. She just told me so. If you can't accept the digimon, you're going to have to leave. They were here first. This is _their_ home, and they are letting you stay here. If you're mean or rude, you aren't being a good guest."

"I don't want to," Bengoshi protested childishly. "They're abominations." Armadillomon whimpered, and I glared at Bengoshi, who had opened his mouth to start a rant about his feelings for digimon.

"What do _you_ think should be done with digimon?" I asked him. It came out in a threatening sort of way.

"I don't want them around," he said. "The DWD _was_ making that happen..."

"What did the digimon ever do to you? What did they do to _any_ humans to make their hate so powerful?" I asked.

"Nothing..." Bengoshi said, looking at his feet and twiddling his thumbs.

"Exactly," I told him. "A couple rotten eggs tried to take over Earth, but it was digimon that _saved_ the people of earth too, not humans. Digimon are not horrible, disgusting creatures. They're the same as people, just like I told you earlier. You don't have to change your mind right this second, but if you took any time at all to really think about it... Besides, you promised to not speak ill of them around me. So keep that promise."

"It's not going to eat me?" he asked, already looking far less frightened.

"No," Armadillomon said slowly. "I don't... eat people. We eat regular food items. We're making soup now. Do you want some soup?"

"I would..." Bengoshi said awkwardly. Armadillomon nodded, looking tentatively happy. He looked to me. I nodded, even though I didn't think I would be able to stomach food at the moment. My baby needed to eat, so I would eat.

"Maybe we could eat with Winter," I suggested.

"That could be fun," Armadillomon said excitedly. "She lets us eat with her and everything. None of the other masters have let us. She's so nice."

"I wouldn't say _that_ ," Bengoshi muttered. He pretended he didn't say anything when Armadillomon sent him a dirty look. Bengoshi would soon learn not to insult Armadillomon's queen, I was sure. Armadillomon might be tempted to bite him, just to freak him out. I laughed to myself, not caring that the others looked at me like I was crazy.

We followed Armadillomon back to the throne room, because we couldn't remember the way, and I presented a perfectly safe Bengoshi to Winter with a wave of my arms. She nearly smiled, but didn't. She shook her head after a momentary pause.

"He's not the one in danger," Winter told me. "It is your other lawyer friend that has found trouble in this world."

 _My other lawyer friend..._ I gasped.

"Iori?"

 _ **Jou Kido:**_

"Sorry," Izumi said, giving me a sad look. In her hand was the intricate wooden key that could potentially lead to the In-Between, "it's not working."

"Didn't Hikari say it could save us?" Tomoki asked with wide eyes. Izumi nodded, "Good thing we didn't rely on it then."

"It usually works," I assured them, trying to redeem Hikari's general reputation, "I was really hoping it would now." But we couldn't rely on it anymore, and that meant it was useless. Instead I looked to MarineAngemon who was fluttering around Emiko's head annoying her. I felt bad for saying goodbye to her so soon, but this could be very important.

Taichi was already waiting in the antechamber with Agumon, Gabumon, Tentomon and Gatomon. Each of the four digimon he had collected seemed energized and ready to get out the door, ready for whatever mission it was that we were about to go on. Sure, the plan was to find Gennai's house, but there was no guarantee that we would ever reach our destination. It wasn't close. Or was it? I couldn't remember.

I spotted Mari sneaking up to the arena area and I winced. It wasn't her fault, but every time I saw her now I could only see twisted insanity. Sigma's room had been filled with Miyako and Mari. There were drawings of the two of them, _pictures_ of the two of them sleeping, plans for their deaths, but anything that was kept on Miyako was nothing compared to what Sigma had written about Mari. There were disturbing stories of sorrow, pain, lust and anger. Sigma wanted her dead, but more than that, he wanted her _alive_ , and in his world, that was so much worse. Sigma had been keeping tabs on Mari ever since she was young, following her for years, waiting to find a moment alone in her presence, and had attempted to take Lalamon from her numerous times before, but the simple concept of Lalamon's protection kept him from doing so. It was lucky that he died the same time as Lalamon had, or Mari may not have been here today either.

I shuddered, trying to force the thoughts from my mind and I turned to the child in my lap. "Emiko," I said softly, "I'm going to go out for a bit."

"I'll get my shoes!" she said quickly, panic written on her face, not wanting to be left behind.

"I was thinking you could stay here, with Shuu and Jun?" I asked, looking up to them both finding fallen faces of disappointment. "Or someone else." Emiko looked hurt and sad, but I couldn't stay. Not because I was necessarily needed on the hike, but because I wasn't sure how much more time I could spend with Emiko with no way to tell her that Momoe was just gone. She wanted her back, and I could not give her what she wanted. I was not the hero Emiko thought I was, but merely a human with faith that could watch others do the fighting and the hero's work for me. I could not bear to look at Emiko's eyes when she asked me about her mom, not anymore. It had only been a _day_ and already it was too hard.

Emiko shook her head, and held her hand up. "Wait here," she said, "I'll be right back! My shoes aren't far!" I could let her go, and sneak off without her knowing. I could do that. I'd be back. I wasn't running forever.

"Emiko, no," I said as she slipped from my lap, landing on the concrete floor. "You can't come."

"Then take me home!" Her voice cracked and her eyes filled with tears. "Daddy, I want to go home. I don't like it here. I'm scared."

I closed my eyes and turned my head away. "I can't, Emiko. I don't know how."

When I looked back her lip was shaking, like she was about to scream, but instead she turned and ran off. A moment later Monmon had bound after her, weaving through the people in the crowd. I watched for a moment, wondering where she might be going, and then Shuu spoke. "You have to go after her."

I turned to him sharply and stared. "Do I?"

"You _should_!" he insisted, "She's hurt, and just lost all contact with her mother. All she wants is for you to be there for her."

"That's what I want too," I said bitterly. "But I can't keep lying to her in an eternally optimistic way. Parenting is hard." Shuu looked ready to retort, but Jun grabbed his arm and he silenced himself. Jun looked to me and suddenly looked like she were about to cry. "I don't know what to do."

"But you can't distance yourself from her, Jou," Jun said quietly. "You have to understand, she may be simply a _part_ of your life, but to her, you are now her everything. You're all she has."

"She has Monmon, and she has Bearmon," I said bitterly.

"I know," Jun said, looking to where Emiko had vanished, "but she needs _you_ too."

"Where were you today even?" Shuu asked suddenly.

"Around," I said, pushing my chair back and standing. I wasn't about to let them talk to me with the assumption that I was neglecting my daughter. That wasn't what I was doing. I was trying to keep her happy. I didn't know how to do that, especially in the state of mind I was in. It wasn't my duty to report to anyone else about how I chose to parent my daughter. I was never the best parent, everyone always knew it was Momoe who was really good at it. I was always just along for the ride. "I have to go."

"Jou," Jun tried, sympathy written all over her face. "Please."

I turned on the spot and walked off, running my hands through my hair as I pushed through the crowd. They were right of course. I _did_ need to keep looking after Emiko, but that just wasn't something I knew how to do. I was more comfortable leaving her with family members, because that was normal. When she went to stay with any of them for any length of time, it was a treat. She was allowed to eat different foods, and try different things. There was no constant. But if she were to stay with me she would be expecting just that. She would want her mother's cooking, and she would want Gomamon back, and she would want to be in her own bed.

"Jou!" I almost screamed, assuming it to be Shuu at first, but when my father stepped into my vision I stopped. He was sitting with Aimi in one of the more laid back sitting areas where the parents of the Digidestined generally took their place. I side stepped into the room where my father was sitting and waited for him to speak. "Where are you going?"

"We're looking for Spring," I told him.

"Are you building something?" Aimi asked, "Perhaps you could take a spring from one of the beds?" She was confused.

"No, it's a fairy," I explained. "There's one fairy for each season. The Spring fairy should still be here in the Digital World. No one has seen or heard from her. Either way, the fairies created the looking glass, and maybe they can help us get out of the Digital World."

"Does that mean you have a plan?" I turned to see Okotte Higorashi looking to me with hopeful eyes. He was sitting on the floor, his back leaning against a wall with a small green digimon in his arms. I was pretty sure it was Oikawa's partner. "Are the four of you working on something?"

"We are," I confirmed. "I'm so sorry it took so long. We don't know if we'll ever find the fairy, but it _is_ a start. We're trying, really we are."

"I need you to find Kura for me," Okotte said, his eyes desperate now. I took a step back instinctively. He looked like he genuinely _needed_ her back. "I have nothing else." He paused for a moment. "Nothing."

"You have Haruki!" Aimi said positively. "You have him still!" Okotte glared at her as though her were daring her to say that again. She slowly leaned back into her chair and Okotte fell silent, staring off into space with the comfort of the digimon in his arms. Slowly, I turned my head back to my father.

"Are you taking Emiko?" he asked.

"Not out into the virus!" I said, shocked. "No way. She's staying here."

"Who is watching her?" Dad asked.

"I don't know yet," I admitted, looking between his face, that showed he was internally lecturing me knowing I was too old to actually treat like a child, and Aimi's face which was looking brightly up to me. "She's upset. She wants me to stay."

"Then stay," he suggested simply. I didn't have to respond, he knew why I couldn't. "Raising a child alone is not easy, Jou." He was looking to me with a very serious look in his eye. "I lost your mother, Jou, and I distanced myself from all three of my children, unaware of how to treat you. How do you talk to a child who wants nothing more than something they can never have? Well, the same way you spoke with them before. You treat them with love and understanding. I learned this too late, but you have this opportunity, Jou. Think to how you felt when you lost your mother." I didn't have to try, the feeling was something that never _fully_ went away. I felt so lost without her, and alone. All I wanted was to feel safe and comforted when I was at home, but I never got that. Not from Dad. I spent a lot of time at school, after school clubs, summer school... All I wanted was a family. "Emiko feels that way now, Jou."

"Momoe is still alive though." I said flatly, refusing to accept that his experiences were similar to mine. "If I can find a way back to Earth she can be with her mother, and that would be better than just me." Dad nodded, but did not look pleased. "Wouldn't it?"

"I'll watch her for you," Aimi said suddenly. "You want her with family, right? I can watch her." It felt weird having her refer to herself as family. She wasn't really part of my family, but she _was_ part of Emiko's family. I had been childish during the last couple years to feel bitter toward Aimi, but I had gotten over that in the heat of the drama, knowing that it was the last thing I should have been worried about. She was Emiko's grandmother, even if she wasn't my mother. "If you want, I mean."

"I do," I nodded, "Thank you. I don't know where she is right now..."

"You'd best find her," Dad suggested, "at least explain why you can't be with her." I nodded. He was right. I owed her at least that much. I was gone a moment later, walking through the crowds until I came across Goblimon sitting against a wall, hugging his legs close to himself. He was sitting next to a closed yellow curtain that I knew to be Iori's room.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He looked up to me, surprised anyone bothered to speak to him and he shrugged his shoulders, "Iori's mom won't let me in yet. She's doing something." I furrowed my brow and pushed the curtain aside, stepping in.

Fumiko was sitting on her son's bed, her back against the wall staring blankly at the opposite end. She'd been doing that a lot lately, though I wasn't sure why Goblimon wasn't permitted to join her, especially so considering it was actually his room and not her own. "Mrs Ish...hida..." I said awkwardly, not knowing if she had taken the Ishida name, or kept Hida. "Are you okay?" She did not respond. I looked over my shoulder when Goblimon poked his head through the curtain. "I understand you're hurting, but would it be okay if Goblimon joined you?"

She suddenly looked to me with vacant, lifeless eyes and she shook her head. "He better not." She then resumed her staring as though she thought if she looked long and hard she could burn a hole straight through the wall. "Don't get too close..."

"Why not?" I asked, confused, sitting on a bed I assumed to be Goblimon's. "Are you alright?"

"Are any of us _alright_?" she asked bitterly. She then closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the wall behind her allowing a single tear to fall from her eyes, "I just want my husband back." I swallowed a thick emotional lump in my throat and decided that this was over my head. I could heal physical wounds, but nothing as deep and internal as what had happened to Fumiko.

"If you need anything, just let me know." She did not respond. I then stood and took my leave, allowing Goblimon to take his bed as his own again. Fumiko was broken, possibly beyond repair at this point. I did not know how to help her. On my way to infirmary, where I had assumed Emiko would run I passed by Meiyomon speaking loudly with Shinsetsumon and Shinramon about how he desperately wanted the location of the rest of his siblings to be known. He didn't want them to be dead any more than the rest of us wanted our families dead. The only difference with him was that he wanted to go find them but instead was forced to keep helping us until the virus struck, and he never got the chance to find any of them.

They had just as much chance as being alive as any of the others did though.

And that's when I came across Terriermon, dragging his ears along the ground, depressed. "Hey," he said, looking up to me. "Nice weather, huh?"

"Not particularly," I noted. "Are you in the mood to come with us?"

"Where?" he asked, suddenly perking up. "Outside?" I nodded with a small smile, "Absolutely. When? Now? I'll be waiting. Don't forget me. Please take me with you!"

"I will!" I insisted, laughing a little now. "I promise. Just find Taichi, he should be by the door."

And then Terriermon was off, leaving me by myself heading to find my daughter who, just as I'd thought she'd be, was sitting by herself in the infirmary. She looked annoyed when I showed up and turned her head away from me.

"Emiko," I said, "I need you to come to see grandma Aimi." She ignored me. "I need you to be safe okay? Because I'm not going to be here for a while, and I just really need to know that you're in good hands. I'm going to try to find a way to get you home. All I want right now is for you to be at home and to be with your mom."

"You're gonna find mom?" she asked, turning toward me quickly. "Literally?"

"Literally," I nodded. "I promise I'll do whatever it takes to find her, and I'll look for however long I have to. But I need you to be strong and wait, okay? I can't take you with me, but that doesn't mean I'm not coming back. I don't want you to feel like I'm leaving you behind because I don't love you, because I do."

"I love you too," Emiko said slowly. "So, where are you going?"

"We're going to find a fairy," I said. "And hopefully she can tell us how to get home."

"To Mom?"

"Exactly."

Emiko looked to Monmon who was waiting for her reaction to see how to treat the situation himself and then finally she nodded. Monmon turned to me with a smile and Emiko slid off of the seat she was sitting on. "Good luck, Daddy. I'll be with Grandma." And then she was gone.

And with that taken care of there was nothing keeping me from returning to the antechamber to get ready to leave. When I got back I saw Mari waiting with her garden workers, Dracomon, Tapirmon, Warg, Melga and Betamon. Taichi was still with his group, Gatomon, Tentomon, Gabumon and Agumon. Daisuke had located Veemon, Armadillomon, Wormmon and Labramon. Terriermon stood in the center of the room, alone until I showed up.

"This is everyone?" Taichi asked nonchalant.

"Sure is," Veemon assured him, reaching up to hold Daisuke's hand. "We're all here and ready to go."

Taichi looked to me for assurance, and I ran through everyone who we were missing to be sure. Biyomon, Hawkmon, Patamon, Lopmon, Palmon and of course, Gomamon. My stomach twisted and I winced. Taichi seemed to take that as a yes, and then Mari was handing Terriermon and I our own phones.

"They're all charged," she assured us all. "Just keep the program running and you won't die. I don't know where any of your partners are, but if they're alive, they won't want to come back to us having killed you. Keep safe, be prepared, and stay with the group."

"We've turned the invisibility off," Taichi explained. "It's useless now. We want to know where you all are."

"Yeah, yeah," Labramon said. "We get it, we get it."

"Can we go now?" Terriermon asked.

"Sure we can." Taichi insisted, turning to the big doors. He pulled on them with the help of Agumon and they were open in no time. Babamon bid us farewell and we stepped out into the protected area of the Coliseum where a wall of violet fog was now facing us. "Everyone, turn your barriers on." I heard a series of clicks and beeps and soon everyone had created a barrier around themselves. I followed suit and felt the warm feeling of elation as the barrier passed through me. "Ready?" He was greeted with a general murmur of agreement, and then he turned to the fog. "Let's go then."

Stepping out into the fog that had been hand crafted specifically to kill us all felt both terrifying and satisfying. Terrifying because the odds were that it had taken at least one of my friends away from me. Satisfying because we were one step ahead this time, beating them in the game of war.

At least partially.

It seemed that the fog was thickest around the barrier, because as we came out further it had thinned down enough to see the others, as though they were walking through a very cliché horror movie scene, only instead of ridiculous mist that had no business being in the shot, it was a killer cloud of virus. The air around us was heavy and tinted purple, more than tinted really, it _was_ purple, and seeing the others was hard, but doable.

Every few moments Taichi would call out for us all to check for our partners. I didn't have a partner to look after aside from Mari, and I trusted her to keep on track, so I spent most of the time watching and counting everyone. Everyone seemed to find the scene just as eerie as I did though, so they were all silent, and keeping track of them was not an easy task.

Every now and then I would hear someone strike up a conversation, only for the dialogue to die down soon after. "Iori would be happy that I was teaching kendo." Armadillomon had used this as the newest conversation starter.

"He sure would," Gatomon, his partner, agreed. "Maybe you can challenge him when he comes back."

"Maybe." Armadillomon agreed. "Maybe."

"Check for your partners, please." Tai called out again from the front of the group.

"Wormmon?" Labramon questioned.

"I'm here!" Wormmon shouted back to his partner. "I am, I promise." There were more questions and answers, calling out to the others, but no one seemed to have lost sight of whoever they were meant to be keeping track of, and we all continued, again in silence.

It wasn't until a good half hour into the walk that a conversation actually lasted long enough to actually be considered one. "I'm glad to be out of the Coliseum," Betamon said, his voice showed how nervous he was. I couldn't see him, but heard him near where I could faintly make out Mari's figure. "I don't like it in there."

"Me neither," Dracomon shuddered, "It reminds me of when Neo was evil, deleted the Digital World and trapped me in a cage with his sister, but don't worry I broke her out of prison and we saved the day."

" _I_ saved the day," Veemon corrected, "You may have broken Rei out of prison, but I beat Arkadimon."

"Actually," Gabumon said, "I thought I did that."

"It's true, I saw it happen." Dracomon confirmed, "In the past."

"I meant the first time!" Veemon said, defending himself, "I beat him up with Taichi's help." Daisuke looked down to his partner and smiled, but when he looked to the front of the group he seemed annoyed with Taichi. I didn't want to get caught up in any more pointless feud's, especially not now, so I would stay out of it, I just hoped they weren't _actually_ angry enough to cause a scene, not in front of the digimon. The point of this was to make them feel comforted, not like they had been caught up in a crossfire.

"I just don't like it because I was tortured there." Betamon said as if it were nothing. No one responded to him for a moment, and then he added, "Not to be blunt."

"What was that like?" Tapirmon asked, floating away from his partner, Dracomon. "If you don't mind me asking."

Betamon was silent for a moment, and I couldn't blame him. It _was_ a rather personal question. "It was sad. And lonely." Betamon answered finally. "I don't even really know who it was that had been torturing me. I just remember feeling pain and seeing darkness."

"I thought you said it was Arkadimon," I said, remembering when Michael and I had gone in to save him from his prison. "You said Arkadimon was using the digimon and the shadows to hurt you."

"Sure," Betamon said, "if you think so. I never really knew. I do remember hearing his name though."

"Wait," Tapirmon said thoughtfully, "A shadow in the Coliseum...? Hurting you?"

I knew where he was going with this, and I thought now would be a good time to change the topic, "That's not likely, Tapirmon," I said, "Let's just think of more positive things."

"He might be right though," Betamon said, "It could have been him. He was Michael's grandfather, wasn't he? Whoever it was wanted to use Michael's body to control me." It was starting to sound more and more believable, but it had been three years ago. Even if Betamon was ready to talk about it, I didn't want him reliving these memories. He may have felt comforted outside the walls of the Coliseum, but we would inevitably be going straight back there, and I didn't want him to be up all night, unable to find enough sanity to sleep.

Thinking back to that day caused my stomach to seize up again anyway. That day I had gone out in search of Gomamon, and I'd found him, and I'd brought him back with me. That wasn't a possibility now, because I was trapped here, barely able to see three feet in front of me. And that was only if, by some miracle, Gomamon was still alive. And I didn't know that he was.

"I think Jou is right," Veemon said, "Let's think of something more positive. Like deep fried ice cream."

"It is positive though," Betamon argued, "In a weird way. I spent three whole years in that building, wishing and hoping for Michael to come back. And then he did. It took a long time, but he came for me and I never lost hope once, because if I had, then I would have broken. I would never have been able to fight against the enemy. And my hope paid off. It's just like right now. We'll keep hoping until our friends all come back to us."

There always had to be that one eternal optimist. I wanted to join in with him too, but it was just so hard.

"There is a difference now," Labramon said, "This time it isn't one person who has to keep hope, it's a whole herd of us."

"All the better," Betamon countered, "We can keep each other distracted and hopeful."

"The odds are highly against our favour," Tentomon buzzed from nearby, startling me. I hadn't known he was so close. "At the very least, one of us is bound to lose our partners."

"It'll be me." Terriermon's voice sounded defeated and weak. "I have two partners. I'll lose them both. Don't worry guys, you're all safe from Tentomon's mean statistics."

"Actually," Mari cut in before anyone else could, "It was me who lost my partner. The statistic is now countered, just keep up the hope Betamon suggested. It might seem bleak, but it's all we have right now, we have to keep the hope burning."

"And the other crests too." Gabumon agreed.

"Sure thing," Mari said.

Then Taichi called out for everyone to check for their partners. It took a moment for Gabumon and Tentomon to find each other again, and for Tapirmon to work his way back to Dracomon, but otherwise everyone was still accounted for.

And as we walked, we were silent once more. It was probably for the better too, rather than talking about how horrifying being tortured might feel like. It wasn't a very relaxing conversation topic, really.

I stopped walking when I heard something from behind. When I kept still I didn't hear it anymore. I wrote it off as the wind and kept walking until I tripped over something in front of me.

"Hey!" Terriermon shouted, "Watch it!"

"Sorry!" I muttered, pulling my face out of the dirt. The side of my face was aching from slamming toward the ground. It was lucky I hadn't dropped the cell phone that was still wrapped tightly in my fingers or that could have been my very last clumsy fall. "Why did you stop walking anyway?"

"I thought I heard something," He said as he grabbed onto my leg.

"Like crying?" I questioned slowly.

"Exactly," Terriermon said, suddenly serious. "Did you hear it too?"

"I did."

We both stopped this time and listened closer. Surely we could not both have been hallucinating. We were standing in total silence, I had my eyes closed, and we were listening for any sounds at all, but neither of us seemed to hear a thing.

"I can't find Terriermon!" Betamon shouted from a distance. "My partner! Mayday, mayday!"

"He's right here!" I shouted back, "I've got him!" I was not greeted with a response, but no one seemed to be panicking up ahead anymore, so at least there was that. "Come on, we should catch up." I told Terriermon, "It must have been the wind. Besides, nothing could survive out here in the vir—"

Only there it was again.

"That's no _wind_." Terriermon whispered. "Come on!" I followed the tiny blur that had to be Terriermon as he ran quickly toward the sound of the soft cry. He was moving quickly, so I increased my speed and held tighter to the phone. I could not drop it. I could not die out here when Emiko was so certain I'd be back with her mother.

Then Terriermon stopped and I skidded to a halt, nearly running into him again. "Did you fin—"

"AAAUUUUGGHH!" A scream had erupted from the silence and both Terriermon and I jumped in surprise, screaming right back, ready to run. "Who's there?"

The voice was so distinct and so clear. There was no denying who we had found. "It's me, Jou."

"Jou?" There were clearly tears in her eyes as she ran forth to hug me. Her arms wrapped around my legs and I looked down to her, but I could not see anything. "I thought everyone had died!"

"Palmon," I said, "Can you turn off your invisibility?"

"I don't know how." She admitted.

"Okay," I said, "Then take my hand and don't let go."

"Okay!" immediately she had wrapped her poison ivy around my hand. I was pleased to know that it wasn't _real_ poison ivy. I was allergic of course.

"We should get back to the others," Terriermon said, clearly disappointed. He must have had a hope that it would be Lopmon. I tried to comfort him but he was running off already, leaving Palmon and I behind. I felt horrible for him. All he had _ever_ known was Willis and Lopmon, and now they were both gone. Palmon tightened her grip on my hand when I started off after him, back toward the others.

I looked down to her, forgetting she was invisible, but smiled anyway. Mimi would be pleased to know that we'd found Palmon. But then... why had Palmon been out here alone? Why had she been crying? "Palmon?" I asked. She hummed a response, still clearly emotional. "Where is Mimi?"

"I... don't know." Palmon admitted. "I lost her when I was running. A-a-and then I saw her. She was screaming, and I was screaming, but I don't think she c-could hear m-m-me. And then they took her through the door."

Relief washed over me tentatively. "Who did?"

"Tatum," Palmon said, "Hideto. Michael."

"D-did they close the door?" I asked nervously.

"I think so." She said simply, and then she said nothing more. We found the others easily because there were so many of them, and even though it was hard to see, the general moving blob was sure to be who we were searching for.

"Did Terriermon make it back?" I questioned.

"I'm here," He said bitterly.

"Where did you go?" Daisuke asked, popping up next to me with Veemon holding his hand. "Did you get lost?"

"Yes," I said, "That's why I'm back with the group."

"Hey now," Daisuke said quickly, "Just making conversation."

"We found Palmon," I told him. Apparently my voice hadn't been as quiet as I'd thought it had been because may questions began firing my way.

"Is she okay?" Agumon asked.

"May I see her?" Tentomon wanted to know.

"Where was she?" Gatomon asked, "What happened?"

"I'm right here!" Palmon shouted, answering before I could. "I'll answer your questions when we find safety."

There was a silence, no one wanted to be the one to tell her that we were deliberately walking through the clouds that had caused her so much fear. "We are actually heading to Gennai's house," Gabumon finally told her. "We'll be back to the Coliseum tonight though."

"Really?" she asked, her voice full of hope. "That's so soon. Have you all been there? Keeping safe?"

"Of course we have," Dracomon said, "But we're not everyone."

And another silence followed his words, until Agumon said, quietly, "I'm glad you're okay, Palmon." He was by my side, looking for Palmon a moment later, and when he grabbed midair I assumed she'd reached out to him. He walked with his hands wrapped in hers, feeling content with himself, knowing his friend was alright. Even if Mimi and Taichi weren't the closest, Palmon and Agumon always seemed to be. I sometimes thought Agumon had a little crush on her. If digimon could do that.

"Does everyone have an idea where their partner is?" Taichi asked.

"I think so," Palmon said suddenly, her voice more cheery now, "In one of the other worlds with Michael."

"Michael is safe?" Betamon asked loudly. "Are you sure?"

"No," Palmon told him.

"Seriously, though." Taichi said, "We're just about there. I need everyone to find their partners to make sure we didn't lose anyone. Jou, is that Agumon?"

"I'm here, Taichi." Agumon shouted. "I'm okay." There were no complaints, and so we all followed Taichi for another couple minutes having complete faith that he actually _did_ know where he was going, even though the fog.

Thankfully, he did.

We stopped on a beach of sorts, at least I assumed it was a beach because the ground had shifted to that of sand and it was clear that the sounds reaching my ears were that of waves. I had not been to Gennai's house in quite a long time. More than fifteen years, in fact. I wondered if Spring had taken it upon herself to keep the place in respect to Gennai, or if she'd simply needed a home. Or maybe she wasn't here at all, and we had simply made assumptions.

I certainly hoped she was here. If she could help us all find a way back to the safety of Earth, then we could all rest easier knowing we at least had resources to try to find the others. Here in the Digital World we had a very limited supply of, well, food. Nothing else.

"Anyone read the Bible lately?" Taichi asked awkwardly.

"No, why?" Mari asked.

"I need to know how to part the seas." Taichi said.

"You merely have to announce that you wish to reach Gennai's home." Tentomon told him, "Koushiro and I visited him often. Every path in the sea comes to an end in Gennai's yard."

"All roads end in Gennai," Armadillomon said, "that's deep."

"Deep-sea," Veemon added, and many of the digimon laughed. I even heard Palmon chuckle a little, which lifted my spirits. At least a bit.

Taichi cleared his throat and held his arms up into the air, "I wish to find Gennai's old home." He paused, "Please?" At first it seemed that nothing had happened, and we all stood, staring toward a large mass of supposed water for a while and while it seemed rather dramatic, it was also rather pointless. "Maybe I don't speak fish. Betamon, you give it a go."

But then there was a loud crash of water and we all stared dead ahead to where the water was parting. It was hard to see, but I could still make out enough of what was happening to understand a path was being made for us. We all waited as the path stretched wide enough and soon the crashing of water died down enough for us to move forward.

"Everyone ready?" Taichi asked.

"Sure thing," Daisuke responded.

And then we were heading in. I waited with Agumon and Palmon until everyone else had made their way inside to ensure we weren't leaving anyone behind, and then finally stepped toward the water. It took a moment to find the path, but as I did it became clear that the water really was protected from the virus. Soon the virus was only surrounding my waist and above, and then eventually I was deep enough in the water for it to be entirely over my head.

"Palmon, you can turn yourself visible now," Agumon said, "You don't have to be afraid of shutting off the barrier. We're under water." Palmon released my hand and a moment later she was flickering into existence, staring down to the phone in her hand. "Is the barrier still up?"

"I think so," she said nervously. "I hope so anyway."

Agumon leaned toward her and looked at the phone, "Yup, it says it's working. You're safe now." She smiled to him, "It's good to see you again."

"You too," Palmon giggled, skipping along the sandy path toward the others. I could see Terriermon, his head stooped low in his disappointment. I could understand where he was coming from. I would have loved to have found Gomamon too, but I was not disappointed to have found Palmon. I was glad in fact. I did not want her to be stuck out there alone anymore. I had no idea what had happened to her, but now that she was here it was one less person to worry about. I smiled to her as she giggled with Agumon chasing after her.

Then, in one swift movement I was watching water hit my barrier, splashing like rain against an umbrella. At first I'd assumed the walls were caving in and we were all going to drown, but when I turned to see a figure emerging from the water I grinned. It was a Dolphmon it looked happy to see us all, and then it was gone, swimming back into the ocean excitedly.

The path to Gennai's house was shorter than I'd suspected it might be, like the house moved to wherever you were. It wouldn't be surprising as it was made of data, a particularly light material, all things considered. The house looked like it was at the top of a mountain oddly. It had its own sort of atmosphere, with a blue sky above, though looking closely you could still see the fish swimming around up above, colourful and peaceful. It was lucky their entire world had been saved. The grassy yard of Gennai's house looked particularly inviting to many of the digimon as they had quickly sprawled out, laying down and turning their barriers off to feel the nice soft grass. Labramon was chasing his tail, running in circles as Veemon and Armadillomon climbed into Gennai's personal pond, watching as Gatomon leapt from stone to stone, luring Gabumon across, but he seemed afraid to get his fur wet. Agumon, Palmon and Terriermon were sitting in the grass, and Tapirmon was leading Dracomon toward the front wooden porch of Gennai's respectable looking house. The last time we had been here it had looked older, but it was now more modern, with more wood and structure. Wormmon was near me as he was the slowest of our team. Warg and Melga leapt into the pond, splashing anyone nearby, laughing all the while. Betamon simply looked relaxed as he closed his eyes and took in the serenity of the place. I wondered if maybe he would want to stay here instead of returning to the Coliseum. What would Taichi say? Would we be permitted to allow him that choice? Was it even up to us?

Taichi caught my eye and motioned for me to follow him into the house. I moved quickly, passing the playful digimon and falling in stride with Daisuke as he followed Taichi and Mari into the house. No one bothered knocking, and instead we all stepped into the entrance room.

"Woah," Taichi said, unable to form any other words. We were staring into a mess like none I'd ever seen before.

"This Gennai fellow wasn't particularly organized, was he?" Mari asked, pushing aside a sweater with her foot. She then paused and looked down to it, "He wore modern clothing?"

"No... not really." Taichi said, following her gaze.

Then the door was thrown open and Agumon stormed into the room with Palmon by his side. He was holding a small silver gun. "The DWD have been here." He said flatly, holding the gun out for Taichi to take. Instead he turned to the door, but Daisuke was already outside, calling to the digimon. We couldn't leave them by themselves if there could be a chance the DWD might catch us. We watched nervously as Daisuke led all of the digimon into Gennai's home.

"What do you think they wanted here?" I asked. When I turned to Taichi he looked like he was far too infuriated to actually answer. He turned and stormed from the room.

"What do we do?" Labramon asked.

"Just... look around," Daisuke suggested. "We're looking for Spring or, well, anything useful.

"Yes, sir!" Veemon shouted, saluting his partner. "Get to work soldiers!" Everyone seemed to take this as a game, and even though it was a serious matter I didn't have the heart to tell them that. They had been aching to have fun, or relax or do anything aside from think of their fallen partners for more than a day now, and while that wasn't long, it seemed like an eternity when all you'd thought about was how your very best friend was gone.

I could understand what they were going through. I was going through that too.

Mari and Daisuke followed Taichi out of the room, but I stayed with the digimon to keep them safe. Or, to keep watch at least.

"Hey, Mr Jou," Tapirmon called, "I think more than one person was here."

"You think so?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said, "Lots of stuff. Unless someone was hiding here for a long, _long_ time it would have to be more than just one. I think Agumon was right. It was the DWD."

"Good job Agent Taprimon," Dracomon shouted from across the room, "Keep searching and you might get that promotion you were asking for!"

"Oh golly!" Tapirmon shouted, playing along, "Now I won't have to feed my children salted cardboard!" Warg and Melga giggled from nearby, and Dracomon rushed off to scold them for playing on the job.

I caught sight of Wormmon sitting on top of the cluttered coffee table staring toward the fireplace where a large portrait of a young Gennai was hanging. I moved toward Wormmon and picked him up, startling him. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I am," Wormmon said slowly, "It's just... he looks so familiar." I looked up and tilted my head. He looked familiar to me too, but that was because I knew Gennai. I'd seen him younger, but not _this_ young. The way his brown hair stuck up was the same as his later years, and his eyes were bright, blue and full of thought, as always. He may have been young, but he was the same Gennai. Or, Hiraga I supposed since Gennai himself was never that young.

"Look what I found!" Veemon shouted, "Baby Takeru!" He laughed and held up a framed picture. When I got closer I saw that it was the picture we'd all taken after our first adventure into the Digital World. Veemon spent a few moments laughing at how young we all looked and then passed it off to Palmon who stared longingly to Mimi.

I set Wormmon down on the couch and slipped into the room the others had fled to when I heard Daisuke raise his voice. "I'm not playing around," he said through gritted teeth as he faced Taichi and Mari who were both standing by Gennai's large bed. It made me sick to think about who had set foot in the room. Our enemies had specifically sought out and located Gennai's home and trashed it. There was no coincidence here either, they had done so intentionally because one could not simply 'happen across' a house at the bottom of the ocean. But _why_ had they wanted Gennai's house? Was it because they knew he was important to us, or because he was important to _them_? Did they want something Gennai had? His power, perhaps? "She's here. I can promise you that. I feel her. She's close."

"Well can you find her?" Mari asked nervously, "I don't want to be here too long."

"I can't just _find_ her though," Daisuke sighed, "I don't have a tracking system in my brain. Just a connection." Taichi looked annoyed, "I'll do my best." Daisuke decided, defeated. He stepped away from Taichi and closed his eyes to think.

"Jou," Taichi said, catching my attention. "What do you think?"

"They wanted something." I said flatly, knowing exactly what he meant. "They were looking for something that Gennai had."

"Information?" Taichi wondered.

"Maybe." I agreed. "Power cores? I don't know. Gennai had a lot of mysteries. We don't know what the DWD are really up to anymore. If all they wanted was to destroy all digimon, then nothing here would help them with that."

"That's true," Taichi said, "unless it wasn't even them who had come here."

"Don't," I warned, "I don't want to worry about other enemies right now. I don't have any more worry in me." Taichi nodded and looked apologetically to me, so I slipped backward and out of the room so he and Mari could theorize alone.

"I think I may have located something of use," Tentomon said the moment I walked through the door. He popped up in the air in front of me, and then turned toward a separate room, "Follow me!" I did as he asked. He led me through the main room and into a smaller office like room with a computer. He landed next to the old fashioned machine on the wooden desk and pointed to a pile of cards. I picked them up and flipped them over, seeing an Etemon card. "We once used them to return to Earth. Perhaps we could do so again."

"I don't know," I told him, wishing it could be true, "Myotismon's castle was destroyed."

"That door is ancient as can be," Tentomon said, "I think it may have survived the destruction."

"It may have," Gabumon interrupted from the doorway, sounding ashamed of himself. "But I melted the door. Yamato told me to. He said it was safer knowing that the DWD couldn't use it to travel back and forth."

"I doubt the DWD knew how to use such a powerful travelling device," Tentomon said, sounding all too much like Koushiro.

"But they did!" Gabumon insisted, "We saw them, that's why he told me to destroy the door!" Tentomon and I sighed. Another option shattered. "I'm so sorry..."

"It's not your fault," I comforted him. "You didn't know. No one knew. We'll find a way back without that. I promise." Gabumon nodded, but didn't seem so sure, though I didn't get a chance to say more because Armadillomon's voice interrupted everything within the home.

"Someone is coming!" He shouted loudly, bursting in through the doorway in a panic. "What do we do?"

Taichi was already rushing toward the door calling for Agumon, and when Daisuke appeared, Veemon was ready to run too. Our only complete teams, ready to fight, but Daisuke shook his head. "Taichi," he said, but Taichi wasn't listening. He ran out the door after him leaving all of us to follow. "Taichi, it's okay," Daisuke insisted, looking up to the sky.

"How can you be sure?" Taichi asked.

"Because it's Spring." As if on cue the sky opened up above us and two figures burst from the waters above, making the illusion of the sky ripple. Daisuke pointed up and we all watched as a mermaid dressed in black swam her way down from the sky, leading the way for the girl with wild hair and the purple and red dress. Somehow, neither of them looked particularly wet despite having just emerged from the ocean. Spring's flower petal wings were fluttering slightly as she tilted her head to the side, looking to us all.

She bare feet hit the grass gently as her mermaid friend swam around her in circles. Spring was holding her shoes, one in each hand and she stretched her arms out to the side, squinting her eyes. She then stopped, turned to Daisuke and stared for a moment. "Hello!" She shouted suddenly, jumping toward him, dropping her shoes. Instead of landing, she began fluttering, her wings keeping her afloat as she made her way around Daisuke in a full circle. "What are you doing here? I haven't seen you in a while! You hate me? You do. You must."

"I don't hate you," Daisuke laughed as she poked his face with her index finger.

"You're warm. Have you been drinking enough water. A water a day keeps dehydration away. Actually they say you need _eight_ glasses of water a day. I just don't have time for that nonsense." Daisuke couldn't force the grin off of his face and Veemon was full on laughing. Spring turned her sights on the little blue dinosaur and she lifted him up with a big smile, and kissed him on the cheek. "Veemon! You small creature, you! What's your excuse."

"I've been working!" Veemon insisted.

"Oh, sure," Spring said nodding, "Right. Now if you'd said you were on the run from a sociopathic giraffe I might have believed you." The odd thing, was that I couldn't tell if she was joking or not... Most of the others seemed to have the same shocked expression I felt had to be on my face.

"We're actually here to ask you something," Taichi cut into their reunion.

"Well you should hurry," Shinkoumon, the mermaid said, "Those who invaded this home may come back at any moment."

"Meiyomon is looking for you," Terriermon said, looking up bitterly to the mermaid. It seemed he'd had an encounter with her previously and did not much enjoy whatever it had been.

"Please tell him I am doing well," Shinkoumon said politely, "But that I must remain here with Spring to keep her from acting rashly."

"Kill joy," Spring shot over her shoulder.

"Okay," Taichi said, "We need to get back to Earth."

"Try the computers," Spring suggested.

"The the portal is blocked." Taichi said, rolling his eyes.

"Ah well," Spring said, shrugging her shoulders, "tough luck." We all stared in shock to her blunt response, but didn't take it too harshly. Apparently she'd been really messed up when she was tortured, or maybe she was always messed up. Her mind didn't work particularly well either way. She looked away from us and started walking off.

"Wait!" Daisuke shouted, "What about the Looking Glass?"

She turned back to him and looked sad, "The magic is gone." She said simply. "Taken away. No more Looking Glass."

"What?" Taichi gasped, "Who would do that?"

"My sisters." Spring nodded. Then she cupped her hands around her mouth as if to say she were about to whisper, but her voice came out loud and clear, "they're crazy." She nodded, spinning one of her fingers around her ear to explain just _how_ crazy her sisters were.

"So what you're saying," Agumon said, "is that there is no way to leave the Digital World?"

"Guess not," Spring said. "You're trapped. I'm trapped. We're all trapped in a world that hardly exists any longer."

"Sounds about right." Taichi said, defeated.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Koushiro and Yamato experience life in a sort of Sad, Beautiful and Tragic sort of perspective as they are forced to continue life in their new predicament.


	11. Sad Beautiful Tragic

**Y/N:** The fact that I was writing Koushiro during this chapter was probably the only thing that was enjoyable to me. It's really hard to keep writing in the same mindset that the characters happen to be in. The Land of Dreams is just the most confusing location, because anything and everything can happen there, and it's hard to rein something so ambiguous in. I hope that it's coming across in an enjoyable way. Exploring the worlds was something we wanted to do. I didn't expect this world to be so hard to work with. I thought it would be one of the easier ones.

 **U/N:** Again, Matt is a lot harder to write for me in situations like these than anyone else, but I did my best. Also, him interacting with Sora is always fun.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 11: Sad Beautiful Tragic**

 _ **Koushiro Izumi:**_

Five.

It was a relatively small number. But there were only five known digidestined that still lived. Once, there were nineteen of us. It was only yesterday that that fact ceased to be true. It proved too difficult for Takeru, Ken and myself to actually calm our minds and bodies enough to achieve sleep. We'd searched all night for Hikari, and we didn't appear to be getting any closer.

There weren't any signs for us to follow. No arrows pointing us in the right direction. For all we knew, Hikari could have disappeared from the face of this world, and we would never know. She hadn't disappeared though. As mad as she was with me, she would have come and told me if she found a way out of this paradise we were trapped in. She would not have stranded me without having the decency to at least inform me that she was leaving. She was too polite, and kind hearted for that.

Takeru was convinced we were on the right track, ignoring all the evidence supporting the contrary. He could _feel_ it, he said. I'd rolled my eyes. I was tired. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to have a well rested mind as I tackled the issue of world hopping. Yes, Ken and Takeru had told me that Summer—the fairy in charge of this world—was on the case, but it wasn't enough for me. I needed to be _doing_ something. Searching for the girl who hated me wasn't exactly at the top of my priority list. I'd learned with Mimi and Sora that if someone was angry with me, I needed to let them have time to dwell on it, to let them work through it _before_ I went and talked to them. Hikari was well passed angry. She _hated_ me. That was something I couldn't say had happened often. It wasn't just Hikari, most of my friends couldn't be bothered to put forth such negative feelings towards me. Ken had once upon a time, but we'd gotten over that issue. I was the one that hated people—mostly for completely well thought out and obvious reasons. I wasn't typically on the other side.

I did not like being on the other side.

And now I was racing towards the person in possession of all that hate. What was I supposed to do when we found her? Present her with Ken and her boyfriend and hope she forgave me, just because I'd brought her a present? That wouldn't work. They came her of their own accord, and people weren't presents. My best bet would be to hide _behind_ Takeru, until _he_ talked her out of her foul mood. Even then, it was iffy. She might never forgive me for what I'd done.

I'd saved her life though. And that _had_ to mean something.

She was angry that I'd taken away her chance to complete D'Arcmon's last request, but what about me? Taichi _wanted_ me to save his sister. I knew he didn't have much hope that he'd make it to the Coliseum in time. It was in his eyes. Sending his sister with me was his last ditch effort to save _someone_ , and Hikari was the most important person in Taichi's entire world. Taichi cared for Hikari more than his parents, more than his girlfriend, and more than Agumon.

I'd stopped her from completing D'Arcmon's request, and I _did_ feel guilty about it, but I'd had to complete Taichi's final request as well. Taichi was one of my oldest friends. We'd known each other since _before_ that fatal day at camp. He was the one I looked to when things got tough. He depended on me to help him save the day—the worlds—and he'd asked me to save his sister. It was just one look, but I'd understood it completely. He wanted to know that his sister was safe, and knowing it would give him the extra push he needed to try to save the others.

I didn't think they'd made it, but I knew that taking Hikari away gave them the best chance of survival. I couldn't see how they could be alive though. The virus was moving at an accelerated speed. No matter how much ground they covered, the virus would catch up. Even if the shields _did_ hold up against the virus—which I still didn't believe, despite Takeru's earnest faith—they weren't moving fast enough to escape the wave of purple death.

Five.

I had to stick to the facts. Until I knew for certain, until I had tangible proof, I would assume the worst. It was so much better to be pleasantly surprised than it was to have all your friends ripped away from you for a second time. No. I couldn't bear to hope. If it turned out my hope was ill placed, I would lose Tentomon _again_ , and Mimi, and my mother. I couldn't bear the thought of losing them for a second time. If the shields held up, and if we found actually, tangible proof of it, _then_ I could think about it. But until that evidence was brought into light, I would go on as if they were gone.

It would be easier that way.

That was the reason I had to tune out everything Takeru was saying to us. He was prattling on about how much hope he had, and how everyone was okay, and I just couldn't take it. I was much more realistic than he ever was, and he couldn't accept my negative outlook on things.

"If hope is dead," he said. "What use is there, still being alive?"

It was these types of nearly profound questions that made me itch to get back to the temple I'd created. I longed to be staring at the digi-runes on the wall, trying to string together the right pieces of code to access the keys from a separate world. It had to be possible. Gennai wasn't in possession of the keys to Earth _or_ the Digital World, yet he was able to get us through to both worlds. And Kiyoko—though I was certain it was more probable that it was Sigma—was able to _create_ a path between Earth and the Digital World. I couldn't replicate his method, because I didn't understand what he did. But I _did_ have a thorough grasp on the working of the keys. I'd studied them intensely during the year following their discovery. I knew how they worked. I _didn't_ know where they came from, but I hoped that wouldn't matter while I tried to put my theory into practice.

The runes on the wall weren't much assistance in getting me to my end goal. They were mostly bits and pieces, fragments of incomplete nonsense I'd created when I'd wished for _something_ when I didn't know any specifics, but they were much more interesting than pedaling our way around the Land of Dreams on hastily wished up cobblestone streets, and old fashion bicycles. I wasn't having fun, as Takeru had promised. He thought we needed something different, something _faster_ , since we were all growing tired. He swore we'd have a riotous good time, and we'd find Hikari in "like an hour, tops." It had been hours, and we'd yet to see even a _glimpse_ of her.

We'd also not seen any sign of her personal swamp either.

Hikari probably wasn't anywhere near us. I would've explained it to Takeru, but my words would have fallen on deaf ears. He was so convinced I'd heard Hikari wrong. She didn't _hate_ me. She wasn't upset. She had hope too. We weren't really seeing eye to eye on the whole thing.

The main problem I had was that I _knew_ Takeru believed me. He just wouldn't accept the truth. His own hope depended on this picture perfect, optimistic view of the world, and he just rejected anything that didn't fit in with it. He was overcompensating, trying to balance out my extremely realistic—and thusly rather negative—view. Ken was bouncing back and forth between each extreme.

Takeru created apple trees, and Ken was _sure_ Miyako was alive.

A lamb stomped in the grass, and suddenly Miyako was dead.

Evidently, we needed to pick our surroundings with a more careful eye. Ken couldn't handle young animals, or the colour purple in any shade. Bugs were fine, and so were deep shades of blue and pink. Any pale blues or pink though were expressly forbidden. Obviously he was thinking of the fetus his wife was carrying. I could sort of understand his thought process, but having never been in the same situation—expecting a baby, married and separated into different, mostly uncharted worlds by a computer virus created to destroy all of digi-life—I couldn't comprehend it entirely.

My bicycle teetered under me, and I forced my mind back to the present, the here and now. I needed to stop letting my brain wander down dangerous paths. It was difficult to accomplish, however, as I'd trained my brain so that it was always working on two different things at once, not wanting to waste even a second of each day. I needed to keep my productivity level high. I needed to feel as though I was accomplishing _something_ , even if it was just alphabetizing Mimi's movie collection. I needed to keep busy. Bicycling didn't exactly take much brain power. And the fact remained that we weren't near Hikari at all. Unless she'd magically _stopped_ being angry and had created a field of large, shining bubbles.

I stopped my bicycle and squinted into the distance.

I was right, they were floating bubbles that were shimmering in the sunlight—which was bordering on too warm, thanks to Takeru's constant wishing. Takeru let out a triumphant laugh. He clearly thought it was the work of Hikari too. I had to pedal hard to catch up to Ken and Takeru, but they skidded to a stop, and ditched their bikes on the cobblestone. I used the kickstand myself, when I came to a stop once again. I didn't race after them, as they ran through the bubbles. I stopped and really observed each one. There were scenes playing out within each bubble. I was careful not to let one touch my skin—if Hikari really _did_ create them, they would no doubt feel like acid on _my_ skin. The others would probably be fine, but I still remembered the mosquito attack in the swamp.

"Patamon would _love_ this place!" Takeru laughed happily.

Damn him.

Once again, thoughts I tried to keep buried flew to the surface. Tentomon would love this field too. He would look at each bubble with the same inquisitive eye as I did, and hypothesize to his heart's content, coming up with every available theory that could explain the bubbles abilities. He was nearly always more creative than myself. Between the two of us, we would have already figured out what they were. I had a hard time being away from him, knowing what I was _sure_ I knew about his fate. He'd been my best friend since I was ten years old. That was more than half my life. It was fifteen years. Fifteen years that I'd known he would always be there for me. Years that we spent happily researching together, and watching nature documentaries as he tried to expand his knowledge of _my_ home world, so that we'd be on even ground. He was always matching wits with me, challenging my intelligence and reminding me that I would never be done learning. There would always be something more out there. I wouldn't ever know _enough_. I would never be smart _enough._ He humbled me, and supported me.

I wanted him with me now.

I took in several big breaths, suppressing my memories of my partner, struggling to keep myself and my emotions under control. It was Mimi that cried at everything, not me. And I had to resort to deep breaths yet again, as I thought of my girlfriend—who had died mad at me. What I wouldn't give to be less logical, to rely on hope the way Takeru could. Would I ever be able to apologize for our silly fight? Probably not. I wouldn't get to tell her I loved her, and I wouldn't get to spend the rest of my life learning all the little details of hers, just to make up for my slight error.

"Hey, Koushiro, come check this out," Takeru called.

For once, I was happy with his distraction. Instead of drudging up memories, he was able to force them away. I shook my head, and blinked my eyes quickly, trying to dry what moisture had pooled there. Once I was satisfied that I looked as calm and detached as ever, I headed to the others. Ken had his face up to one of the bubbles, watching the scene with furrowed brows. I glanced at the bubbles as I made my way to Takeru, seeing a woman in a tutu leaping across a stage in front of a vast audience. There was a man on bended knee in another bubble, the woman in front of him was crying and nodding and a smile spread across his face. I looked away from their happiness, and saw a young child was chasing after his dog along the beach in yet another bubble. There were roller coasters, and ball gowns and confessions of love, and skydiving all around me. It was disorienting.

"Look at this," Takeru said, pointing to a bubble where a young girl was flying in the clouds, a big grin on her face and her shoulders shaking in silent laughter. "I've had this dream hundreds of times. Of course, Patamon or Angemon was always right next to me, but isn't this cool?"

"I think that's Yakuin," Ken said, before I had a chance to say anything in response to Takeru's statement. I didn't even have time to ponder over his speculation that these were _dreams_. I simply moved to Ken's side and investigated the bubble he'd been so serious about. I didn't know this Yakuin, and wouldn't be able to confirm his identity, but Ken clearly wanted to show someone, and I was curious about Takeru's theory. "That's him," Ken said, sounding surer now, than before. "That's inside the police station. I've been there a lot, I can recognize it. He's turning in his badge. Morestuna looks furious. Wait. That can't be right. Moretsuna is..."

"Yeah," Takeru said, trying—and succeeding—to be irritatingly vague.

"He's what?" I asked.

"Dead," they chorused in dull voices.

Oh.

Perhaps that was the reason they weren't safe in the Coliseum—or deleted _with_ the Coliseum, more likely—with the others. I didn't care to ask for more details than that. I wasn't sure I really wanted to know them. I didn't want to find out my friends had murdered someone—no _killed_ , most likely in self-defence, there _was_ a difference, however slight. And I didn't think Hikari would really want to know either. Not right away, at least.

Later, when things were more settled, and I wasn't ignoring the deaths of all of my family and friends, and my emotions and wayward mind had finally been wrangled into some sense of control, _then_ I would get my answers. Until then, I had enough on my mind that I was trying to not think about.

"Well, if he's dreaming he's quitting, that's a good sign, right?" Takeru said, trying to pump some energy back into the conversation.

"Maybe," Ken said with a sigh, catching on finally to Takeru's dream theory. "It could just be his guilty conscience trying to guide him onto the right path. It probably doesn't mean anything."

"He's got a conscience at least," Takeru offered. "That's something that Morestuna didn't have."

I turned away from the conversation at that point, looking back to the dream sequences playing out before my eyes. A young girl's teddy bear grew to enormous size and started carrying _her_ around, playing games and dressing her up. A teenager was now popular, with girls falling over themselves to get his attention. A man was playing a guitar with his band on a stadium stage. A young boy had just hit a home run, winning his baseball team the championships.

Every one of these people had hopes, goals to strive towards. I was certain that were I to actually have time to sleep, I would not be seeing something nearly so pleasant. I winced, as I caught sight of a catwalk, as a woman dreamed of being a supermodel, wearing ridiculous clothing that could not possibly be worn in a typically daily setting. Sora's designs were much more functional.

I reached out a poked the bubble. It caused a ripple effect, and the model stumbled midstride, struggling to get her footing and continue her walk. Her face was now bright red, her eyes screwed shut with embarrassment. I pulled my finger away quickly, accidentally bumping my elbow into another bubble, this time knocking a man out of his fishing boat, and causing him to get tangled in his fishing line. I backed away, but I was a walking disaster. The teddy bear dropped the child; the newly popular teenage boy regained his acne, and thick glasses in the middle of a conversation with the girl of his literal dreams; the band was playing terribly, and the audience started throwing rotting fruits and vegetables onto the stage; just before the baseball flew over the fence, one of the outfielders' legs changed into springs and he caught the ball, causing the boy to _lose_ instead.

I stopped moving. I didn't want to cause any more trouble. I wasn't just ruining Takeru's unnecessary hope—and subsequently Ken's—I was destroying it for everyone I came in contact with. With a touch of my elbow, a baby turned into a stuffed doll while its proud mother was showing it off to her parents. With the brush of a finger, a parachutist forgot to pull the release chord and was pummelling towards the ground below.

My hands covered my eyes; I didn't want to see anymore. I fell to my knees, trying to ignore how my very presence, the pessimism I carried with me could tarnish the dreams of complete strangers. I could feel myself shaking, my breath being let out in staggering gasps. I couldn't help the others. I couldn't fix my own mistakes. I couldn't do _anything_ to change the way things had happened, just like I couldn't fix the mess I'd made of these dreams.

I didn't like this place anymore.

It wasn't fascinating. It was a nightmare waiting to happen.

The ground shook, and I heard the others gasp. They fell to the ground. I could pinpoint the exact moment they hit the dirt, when I heard their stifled groans. One of them rolled towards me, and forced my hands from my face. It was Takeru. His blue eyes were confused, and he looked towards the dream bubbles around me. When his face turned back to my own, his brows were furrowed. He was concerned.

About _me_.

I didn't really deserve it. I was going out of my way to try and make him feel miserable. I wanted him to believe what I _knew_ to be reality, when I had no proof that my reality was any truer than his. I was ruining what little hope they had by refusing to allow myself to hope.

And _still_ he was concerned about my well being.

"What's going on?" Takeru asked.

The ground shook again before I could answer, and I was knocked off balance, falling flat on my back. I could feel the rumble through my skin, and the shaking was so strong it _hurt_.

"Someone's shooting at us!" Ken shouted. Takeru and I looked to him and followed his pointed finger, seeing a shaking silhouette of a man coming towards us. He seemed to be glowing, holding a long staff out in front of him. The end of the staff was gathering light, a warm, golden glow. When he deemed it to be enough, he shot that magic energy at us, and the ground shook stronger. Takeru's arms went flailing as he tried to keep himself from falling down again, and he hit a bubble, causing the teddy bears at a little girl's tea party to become animals, trashing her high society affair, and making her cry.

"Be gone!" the man shouted at us. Takeru scrambled to his feet, grabbing my arm and pulling me upright. He started dragging me towards Ken. It would have been safer if we'd all run towards our bicycles. As it was, I was bumping into dream bubbles left and right, leaving only misery in my wake. The young girl that was flying through the clouds started falling. A groom waited for a bride that would never show. A man who thought he'd purchased the winning lottery ticket found out he was wrong. Fishing accidents, freefalling, wild animals were all around. Each dreamer had a look of sever disappointment. No matter how I tried, I couldn't avoid hitting the bubbles.

And then I was frozen.

The man had thrown more of his magic at us, engulfing us in golden light. I couldn't move my limbs. I struggled; I wriggled, but could do nothing. Takeru was growling angrily, and I knew he too was stationary against his will. Any hope I had that Ken had escaped this strange captivity was dashed at his own sounds of protest.

"Did he think I wouldn't notice?" the magic man said with a humourless laugh. "Did he think I would do _nothing_ , just because he sent someone else? He thought wrong, and unfortunately, you will be the ones to pay for his mistake. I cannot let you go free. I cannot in good conscience allow nightmares to continue to wreak havoc on our world."

"Nightmares?" Ken questioned with a strained voice. I could not turn my head, but I was certain that he was struggling against the magic.

"Don't deny it," the man said. "I've seen what your presence has done to these poor dreamers. You've shattered their dreams and I am left once again to try and pick up the pieces."

"That was an accident," I protested, closing my eyes to keep them from straying towards the latest catastrophe. I didn't think I could look at the young child who had dreamed of reuniting with his mother, only to have her vanish before his eyes before he had the chance to speak.

"I am not so naive," the man sneered. "You've been hired by the Boogeyman to distract me, and I want to know what he's planning!"

"Uh... _Boogeyman_?" Takeru questioned. I was thankful he did so. The shock was too prominent for me to put the questions flying around my brain into words.

"Don't play innocent with me," the man said. "He's been after this field for an eternity. He doesn't like that it's Sandman property. He wants it for himself, so he can spread the fear and nightmares to the unsuspecting people of the worlds. I won't stand for it. Tell me, before I obliterate you, _what is he planning_?"

"We don't know," Ken shouted desperately.

"The worlds," I murmured. My brain latched onto the word as he'd said it. This field had access to all the worlds. This field was filled with the dreams of every inhabitant. If the dreams could transcend the barrier, then there was definitely a chance that _we_ could—not that I was going to have a chance to do more research, if this man was to have his druthers. We'd be dead within minutes.

Just like everyone else we knew.

Except Sora. I needed to remember that. Sora's life was the only light of hope I had. We weren't alone. Not entirely. I could _not_ forget that. She'd lost everyone just as we had, but she didn't know she still had us. We were faring better in that respect than she was.

"What is he planning?" the man demanded once more. He was closer now, right in my line of sight. He was nose to nose with Takeru. His unruly curls—deep gold in colour—were tied back at the nape of his neck with a dark chocolate ribbon. He was dressed impeccably, and I knew Sora would be fascinated by his style choices. He had a light brown vest over a crisp, white buttoned shirt. His tie was a dark chocolate, tied in a perfect Windsor. His jacket matched his pants exactly. Both were the same sandy, tan colour. His golden brows were narrowed over angry, sandy eyes. He was holding his wooden staff dangerously close to Takeru's face. Magic sparked around it, and Takeru winced as it got closer.

"We don't even know who you're talking about," Takeru said pleadingly. The man didn't seem inclined to believe his honesty.

"I suppose next you'll tell me you're not a figment of his imagination," he drawled.

"We're real," I said quickly. "We're new inhabitants of this world, I _will_ admit to that. But we were born on Earth, not from some Boogeyman's imagination. We came here through a gate directly from the Digital World. I'm sure if you asked Summer you will find that our story is true. We're not minions, we're the Digidestined."

"Summer?" the man asked, his brows leveling out as a thoughtful look crossed his face. "You've met her?"

"She gave us lunch," Takeru added. "She's the one that sent us out to wander. We're trying to find my girlfriend. She's in this world too, but we don't know where she is."

"Why were you ruining these dreams, if you were meant to be looking for her? It is obvious, that there are no humans here, just dreams," the man said. "This is my domain. If you were really sent by Summer, you would know this. She would not send you unprepared."

"Well she did," Ken grumbled. "She didn't tell us there were other people in this world."

"Not many," the man admitted. "I suppose it must've slipped her mind. Perhaps I ought to visit, see what is troubling her. It can't be the Boogeyman, since he's too busy trying to ruin _me_."

"Who are you?" Takeru asked, trying not to seem angry, but not quite succeeding in that goal.

"Why, I'm the Sandman," he said. "I send sweet dreams to all who slumber. That is what this world is about. Dreams—hence it's name: the Land of Dreams. Of course, the Boogeyman is always trying to mess things up. Nightmares are becoming more common. He's growing bored, and I can't possibly watch over _all_ of the dreams at once. I've only got the two eyes."

"Have you seen Hikari?" Takeru demanded, before the man—the _Sandman_ —could continue on his rant.

"No," the Sandman said, a little upset that his story wasn't of interest to us. I was actually more than a little interested, but we were on a mission. We needed to find Hikari, so Summer would send us to another world, where I would hopefully be able to get us to Earth—and thusly Sora. If I didn't have such a pressing matter, I would have been fascinated by everything he said. "I've been too busy listening to the screams of fright from my dreams. I still don't believe you weren't the cause of the night terrors, you know."

"We _did_ cause them," Takeru said. "We just didn't mean to."

" _I_ caused them," I corrected. "You caused _one_. I panicked. Things spiralled out of control."

"I saw my partner—my _ex-partner_ 's dream," Ken said, interrupting the lecture I was undoubtedly going to receive. "Is it possible, that I could see my wife's too?"

"It is not safe to enter someone's dream," the Sandman told him. Ken visibly deflated.

"I wasn't going to do that," Ken lied. "I just wanted to know if she was okay, maybe send her some nice thoughts."

The Sandman thought for a moment, and then closed his eyes. He stepped away from Takeru, and raised his staff in the air. The golden magic flowed out of it and spread across the entire field of dreams. Once the magic settled, he shook his head and opened his eyes. "She is not asleep."

"If you can do that, how is it that you can't watch over all the dreams at once," Takeru asked shrewdly.

"You know," the Sandman said suddenly. "I think I saw a woman over by the town. I didn't think much of it, but perhaps it could be your girlfriend. It is definitely worth a look, in any case."

"Uh-huh," Ken said suspiciously. We could all identify a diversion tactic when we heard one, and this was a shining example. He waved his staff and we all fell, very suddenly, to the ground in a heap. With a blinding flash of gold, he was gone. We pulled ourselves to our feet, and cast one last long look at the dream bubbles. I didn't like them. They brought too many things to mind that I didn't want to think about. To distract myself, I turned to Ken, who was still looking around him, trying to find any sign of his wife, despite what the Sandman told him.

"Instead of searching for Miyako's dreams, you could be focussing on the matter at hand," I told him, a little peeved by his slow movement.

"Miyako could be _dead_ , Koushiro," Ken snapped. "I just want to _know_."

"You should look at the obvious solution then," I hissed back. "Once we find Hikari, we can get out of here and find a way to travel between the worlds. You'll literally be able to _see_ Miyako! If Takeru's convinced that she's got a key, that's got to mean _something_. I'll just try and access her key and we'll just travel to her."

Ken sighed, but didn't respond otherwise. He clearly didn't have much hope in my abilities. He gave in though, and started back towards our fallen bicycles. I was upset by his lack of faith. He was able to believe in anything Takeru said, blindly, no proof required, but when I make a suggestion—a logical suggestion—nothing. I very rarely was unable to achieve what I set out to do.

We were silent as we sped along Takeru's path, waiting for the view of the city to show itself on the horizon. I was too frustrated with everything to talk. Ken didn't believe in my capabilities, everyone except Sora was dead—probably—and those dreams were making me _think_ about my own opinions and the effects they had on others. It wasn't in me to keep my opinions to myself. I was always spouting them off, sharing what knowledge I'd been able to gleam.

But perhaps, in light of recent events, I could _try_ to keep them within the confines of my brain.

I didn't want to be responsible for _their_ nightmares in addition to all those innocent people in the dream field—though it might've already been too late.

"There it is!" Takeru called with as much mustered enthusiasm as he could—which was actually quite a lot, all things considered. Hikari was ahead of us after all.

Along the horizon, I watched as the buildings grew. There weren't very many. It was strictly a small collection of buildings. All of them were tall, and they all wore signs boasting of their stock within. They were all lined on a single street. There was a clothing establishment, and one for shoes. There was a bank alongside the grocers. There was an entertainment store that was fashioned to look like an old fashioned record store. There were several other buildings behind them, whose signs I couldn't yet read. I couldn't help but feel that this entire street was entirely unnecessary. In this Land of Dreams, one could simply dream up whatever they wanted, leaving stores useless.

I didn't voice this opinion though—but not for fear of ruining others' happiness.

Someone was on the road ahead of us. Takeru skidded to a stop and leapt off of his bike in one quick motion. I was not so graceful. Ken followed quickly after Takeru, and I made up the rear. Takeru had his hands in the air, waving them excitedly.

"Hikari!" he called with a laugh. "Can you believe it? We both got stuck in the same world!"

The woman in the road turned to greet us, and we all skidded to a stop. This wasn't Hikari. There were certain resemblances, but it couldn't be her. Her skin was a pale, sickly yellow, and her arms were far, _far_ too long. Her fingers had sharpened into claws, and were twitching as she looked to us. I couldn't see her eyes, to know how they'd changed, because her hair was draped in front of them, blocking them entirely from view. She smiled at the sight of us, but it wasn't pleasant. Her teeth were as sharp as her claws, and she showed them all to us in a feral grin.

Takeru took a step back, confused, afraid.

"Takeru," the woman called. "Ken. Koushiro. My friends. You've come to join me at last?"

She stepped towards us, but her steps were strange. Her movements were jerky, as though she were moving under a strobe light, and we could only see half of the motions. Her arms jerks wildly about her and her smile never wavered.

She was like something out of a horror movie.

"You're not Hikari!" Takeru snarled at her. "What have you done with her? Where is she?"

"Takeru, don't you recognize me?" the woman asked, wounded. "Don't you love me anymore?"

"You're not her!" Takeru insisted. He continued backing up, as the woman moved forward. He crashed into Ken, who had been frozen in place.

"I am her," the woman said, pouting. "I love you, Takeru. I love all my friends. I found them all. You should come and see them. They're just at the other side of town."

"You're lying," Ken said in a shaky voice. He wanted to believe her words, that much was obvious. I was pleased to see that he didn't give into her, though.

"I'm not," the woman said. "You're wife is over there. She's waiting for you. Don't you want to see her? She's been crying. She's so scared without you. Don't make her wait any longer."

"Don't listen to her," I urged, though I was _sure_ he wouldn't.

"Don't you miss your lady friend?" the woman said, turning to me. "She misses you. She's so upset that you're making her wait. She doesn't like it. You're angering her. She'll come after you next."

"Mimi is dead," I said tonelessly.

"Don't be like that," the woman insisted. "She's with all the others. Come and have a look. I'm sure you'll find you're wrong."

"You're not Hikari, and it's impossible for our friends to be in this world," I said, not falling for her tricks in the slightest. I did not appreciate a stranger telling me I was wrong—even if in this one instance I would have preferred to be. There were only two access points to this world, after all, and they were used to bring just the four of us.

"You will come!" the woman snarled, dropping all pretenses. She could see now that we would not be fooled by that terrible impression of Hikari. She held up her clawed hands and lunged forward. Takeru and Ken jumped to the left, narrowly avoiding her attack. They continued to run, but the woman disappeared from view, appearing only moments later directly in front of them. They ran back at me, shoving me along, and the three of us ran a different direction.

But there she was.

She wouldn't let us escape. There was nothing we could do, no amount of running would get us away from her.

But...

She couldn't chase after all of us at once.

"Keep going," I told Ken and Takeru. They nodded, but were confused by my orders. I made a sharp turn and raced back towards my bike. The woman snarled, appearing in front of Ken. Takeru shoved her backwards and they took off running another direction. I situated myself on top of my bicycle, and started ringing the bell I'd wished onto the handlebar. She snarled, and appeared in front of me. I continued ringing the bell as I took off back down the cobblestone path.

I kept wobbling, as she appeared before me. I tried to keep upright, however. I didn't know what I was going to do with her, but I knew I had to buy time for Ken and Takeru to either find help, or locate the potentially hurt Hikari. I didn't know how long they would need, though. This plan was reckless. I hadn't thought any of it through, and it was strange, doing something so reckless without Sora at my side.

But I _would_ do it.

Because I had to.

 _ **Yamato Ishida:**_

Somehow I'd found myself on a train after leaving my dad with Mr Yagami, unable to wait, not with everything going on in my mind. I thought briefly about going to Hikarigaoka to try to understand why I was chosen, or to remember what Gennai had said to me, or said to all of us. There had to be something he'd said that could give me the answers I wanted now. For nearly three years a simple statement played in my thoughts and my nightmares, and perhaps that was why it was so easy for my mind to draw back the sound of his voice, but the only sentence I could draw from my past that had come from Gennai was not one I wanted to hear again.

" _You must return to your world," Gennai told us, "Your presence in this world has served three purposes. You've restored the crests, you've saved the existence of our world, but you've caused a disturbance with the way the worlds are laid out."_

" _We're blurring the lines?" It was Koushiro who had been brave enough to speak then._

" _To put it simply? Yes." Gennai agreed. "And we must remove human life from the Digital World in order to restore that balance."_

" _How long do we have to stay away?" Mimi asked timidly._

" _Indefinitely." Came Gennai's forever ominous reply._

The more I thought about it, the more it all made sense. He told us that we needed to leave so all the worlds could live in the balance they'd been created to do. So, by leaving all should have been well, but Gennai made one mistake, and that was the other crests. Maybe he thought they didn't exist.

" _No, he knew."_

I actually stopped, looking all around me on the crowded train. There was no one around that was paying me any mind, and the only people talking were a group of young teenagers laughing about something that was clearly hilarious.

But I knew I wouldn't find the source of the voice because it had been Gabumon. It was a fantasy in my head. It had to be. Just Gabumon's voice replacing my conscience to ease the pain of losing him. But I didn't lose him! I had to keep that ridiculous hope going strong. I had to keep playing pretend. Or I wouldn't make it.

" _Then why did he separate the worlds?"_ I asked the Gabumon in my head awkwardly _, "If he knew of Neo and the others, then he would have ensured they were united with their crests before sealing the worlds. If he'd done that, then Kiyoko, or Sigma rather, would never have broken through the walls between the worlds, and Ladydevimon, Marinedevimon and SkullSatamon would never have returned to the human world and we'd never have gone back. It would have been hard, but the worlds would have been in balance."_

" _You're forgetting another problem too,"_ Gabumon told me, _"Meiyomon and Otamamon. They snuck through the barrier. And Kanashimi Higorashi, but she was basically gone as it was. Those two digimon still would have broken the balance. Gennai never intended for them to leave their home world. But if perfect balance could be achieved, then perhaps you're right, the worlds would be in peace."_

" _I know."_ I told him. _"And that's what we wanted isn't it? That's what we're here for?"_

" _The Great Evils though!"_ Gabumon remembered. _"You were chosen to destroy them."_

" _We were chosen to keep balance and ensure the Great Evils did not wreak havoc."_ I corrected him, _"Who's to say that staying away from the Digital World wouldn't have kept that exact thing from happening? What if, by keeping each Great Evil in their home world, we reduced their powers and made it easy enough for them to be defeated. It's possible and you know it."_

" _You're right, I do know that."_ Gabumon agreed, _"But you're forgetting about the Great Evil of Earth."_

I had to stop to think about that one for a moment. The fake Gabumon in my head had a point, but I knew how to counter it. _"The Great Evil of Earth at this point seems to be humanity itself fighting over what is right and what is not. If the worlds were sealed the correct way, and everyone was on the world they were supposed to be, then the Great Evil of Earth would cease to exist at all."_

" _So, you're saying that the two of us being reunited is what caused all the problems the worlds have been, and will be facing?"_ Gabumon asked weakly.

" _It seems that way."_

Gabumon sort of faded away after that and I sat in silence, staring at the sticky floor of the subway. There was a lady in a whimsical dress humming beside me, tapping her finger on some cardboard box she was holding, and on my other side a large, friendly looking man was swaying to her tune. How could people be happy when it was so obvious that hell was ensuing? Man had tried to do a God's duty and had done sloppy work of it.

Across from me there was a shy looking girl, her hair draping over her face, she was bent over a notebook and was scribbling away furiously like she wanted anything but to be in public. I knew that feeling.

The train stopped at the next station and a buzzing completely incomprehensible voice sounded through the speakers telling us where we were. Next stop was Jiyugoaka, my destination. A series of people crowded onto the train at this point as others found their way off. I diverted my eyes the moment faces started to appear, not in the mood to make friendly conversation, or to give up my seat if needed. I felt dizzy enough to pass out constantly and I didn't think standing in a moving vehicle would help the cause.

The new riders were far more talkative than the previous group had been however, and the entire train filled with voices. There were no stand-out voices until the train started moving, and a very loud female took center stage of the excited buzz.

"Well I'll be!" I looked up at the sound, curious as to who was talking, but not motivated enough to actually care. The voice was feminine and pompous enough that I'd picked it up in just three words, "if it isn't Yamato Ishida!"

Of course they were looking for my attention, couldn't they tell that I was probably the most emotionally distraught person on the train and could probably use just like, ten full minutes of silence to think to myself? I finally lifted my head though, annoyed, and saw what looked to be a tourist family, all with blonde hair. The girl in the front, an adult, but clearly the daughter had been the one that had spoken. Beside her were her two irritating parents. I knew they were irritating just by the look on their faces. "What are you doing out and about?" The father asked, a smug look on his face.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "Who are you?"

Apparently the knowledge that I did not know them did not discourage them in the slightest, and in fact grins spread across each of the three faces before me. "We're just coming back from Hikarigaoka." The mother said, flashing her beautiful teeth. She knew me enough to know that the simple title of the neighborhood would stir something in me, even if I knew she was lying. She may have gone there previously, but she was too far away to have just been there. She was very specific about it too. They definitely knew who I was. "We were asked to investigate for any Digital traces." She said stiffly, "Boring work if you ask me, besides the last time a gate was opened here was nearly twenty years ago."

"You're looking for a digital portal?" I asked, my voice shaky, from my internal crisis. My hands were shaky too.

"No, of course not." The daughter in the front said, folding her arms across her chest.

"Did you find anything?" A battered old man asked from his place down the row, sitting with his wooden cane laying over his lap.

"We did not," The father said proudly. "As it is, the worlds are completely separated, finally. Just the way they were meant to be."

My fingertips started digging into the padding of the seat I was sitting in. I had to keep calm. I had to be an adult and ignore them. That was easier said than done however with the already overflowing pot of negatives inside my chest.

"What was that about a virus?" The whimsical lady next to me asked.

"The virus was sent out to ensure our land would be protected." The father said.

"A virus killed everyone inside," The daughter said, tossing her hair over her shoulder as if none of that mattered at all. "We did it for the safety of our home. Of our people. Of our _family_." Her intensity was catching the attention of the others on the train, some were nodding as if she were the president and they were soaking up all of her political crap. "And lucky for us our family is now safe." Then, in a muttered voice she said, "Well, aside from Hideto, but that's one connection I'm willing to lose." So this was Hideto's family? I'd heard of them. Their names were just out of my reach. There were objections of horror, thankfully, showing me that not everyone in this world was heartless, but the daughter cleared her throat and spoke loudly, "Sacrifices _had_ to be made." Everyone was quiet, to listen to her, but many people were getting to their feet, apparently everyone was now fully invested in the conversation. I saw, through gaps of people, that quiet girl across from me was still scribbling in her book. "As we know, the Digimon have been ruining our home. We were just taking back what was ours, and you, the simple minded people of the world have been uninformed of everything. If only you knew everything that had happened, you'd never question which side to be on."

My eyes locked very briefly with that girl across from me, and she slowly folded her paper over, flipping to the next page, and then gently lifted her book so a drawing she'd been working on was facing me. She looked up and one startlingly blue eye was locked with mine through the gaps in her hair, and slowly I looked to the image of an Angemon. I looked back to her and she set her book down.

"You've got that right." I said loudly. The girl, whoever she was, had given me enough courage to actually say something. I jumped to my feet and turned to Hideto's sister. "If the people knew the horrible things you and your team have been doing to the Digimon—the kind creatures who have saved your life again and again—they would know what side to be on. And it would be against you."

"As if." Hideto's sister snarled at me, "You think people will believe that?"

"Why would the humans be hiding information that makes them look _good_?" I asked flatly. "They wouldn't. That's enough proof for me."

There was a murmur of agreement throughout the crowd and Hideto's family became instantly infuriated. "Of course _you'd_ say that." His sister shot as her face showed mock hurt, "You're one of them. You're upset about the actions the government has taken part in because you're a Digidestined." Then her lips curled into a malicious smile. "The last Digidestined. Sad for you, I guess. All your friends were inside. And now they're dead."

With a quick and sudden movement I had swung my fist back and slammed it against her face. She let out a loud, blood curdling scream that caused everyone on the entire section of the train to silence themselves completely. The girl fell back into her mother's arms stiffly and reached up to touch her face where her lip was bleeding.

"Well I _never_!" Hideto's mother gasped as she held her daughter close to her.

There was complete silence still as the entire train remained lifeless, aside from the three blonde Fujimoto's in the middle of the aisle.

"You shouldn't have done that," Hideto's father said through gritted teeth as he made his way toward me, rolling his sleeves up menacingly. I did my very best to not break eye contact. I was about to be _killed_ and I had to keep a brave face. After everything I'd gone through, this man wasn't so scary. Not really. "You've just made an enemy of the Fujmoto family, and let me tell you, we don't let our enemies off easily."

"I'm proud to be on the opposing end to your ignorance." I said bitterly. "I'll fight until there's nothing left of me _to_ fight. Gennai picked me for a reason, and I'm not going to let you destroy what he built."

All three of them looked confused, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that I know knew where I stood. I stood with Gennai, even when he couldn't stand there anymore, and I wasn't alone. There were people all over the world, hidden in plain sight ready to fight alongside me. "Well," Hideto's father said, shaking his head, "someone should have taught you to never hit a lady."

"I was taught that," I said, my lips twitching slightly into a smile, "But I was also taught to never let the monsters under my bed get the best of me. To fight back against the demons the world presented. And you, all three of you, are just that. You're _monsters_."

Hideto's father lunged forward and I panicked, stepping back, but my panic was for nothing, because the train lurched as it began its inevitable stop, and Mr Fujimoto fell to the floor. That was when the stillness of everyone around us had come to an end and I had no way of knowing who was on what side of the argument, so I needed to get myself out of there. I slipped under a man's arm and grabbed the arm of the girl who had drawn the Angemon.

"It'll be safer to get away from here."

"Okay!" I heard her call from behind me. She was quicker than I had thought she'd be, But it didn't matter, I found my way to a different section of the train and the doors were opening. Apparently everyone was rather impatient to get on the train and on my way out I lost track of the girl. I was pushing through the crowd and eventually found myself standing in a crowded train station.

I cleared my throat and awkwardly raised my voice, "L—Uhm... little girl?"

The only response I was granted was a series of awkward looks. I could have worded it better, besides the fact I was sure she was around my own age, and not a little girl at all. I dropped my head and was staring to the ground in disgust. Not only was the station filthy, but Hideto's family had made me feel like I'd never be clean again. Like their horribly dark and twisted minds had tainted me forever. How could someone be so cold? And how could people _agree_ with them and see their side of the war? _How_ in the _world_ had this war come so far, so fast? This was not normal procedure! Were Digimon looked down on to such extremes that they were not qualified for normal courtesies? Such as _life_?

I was angry because I hadn't said enough to the horrible people. I hadn't done enough to convince everyone that this was wrong, I was almost as bad as they were.

I stormed out of the train station like a child, ignoring the burning feeling in the back of my mind, reminding me that I had to start heading back to Odaiba soon to meet up with the others. I'd be late for our regrouping and that was so far the only plan we had. I couldn't screw that up. Not yet.

But instead I found myself walking down the narrow streets lined with little shops and unique streetlamps. Then, I found what I was looking for, sitting in the early morning sunlight in its place of former glory, Mimi's restaurant. I was quick to cross the street toward it, not bothering to look for cars. The place was so populated by people it was always safe to just go for it.

I pulled out my keys from my pocket and used the key Mimi had made for me, and I pushed through the door, stepping into the building. It was nicer than the last time I'd seen it, but it still needed much work after the fire. I wasn't even really sure why I was here, only that I wanted to be.

I pulled out a charred bar stool and sat down at the counter, my head in my hands, thinking. Poor Mimi... She had to still be alive and that meant she could redeem herself, but she'd had such a crappy time near the end there. Not the end-end, just... the end of...

I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked down the counter where I could see that someone had been doodling in the dust that had gathered. The grooves created by someone's fingers were filling in now too, but the drawing was still faintly visible. It was a sketch of someone's crest, and even though I knew which one it was, I tried desperately to pretend I couldn't remember. But that very crest was failing me, and playing pretend didn't work this time.

It was the crest of hope, and seeing it filling up with dust like that felt all too metaphorical. I ran my hands through my hair and clenched my eyes shut when the stinging in my eyes surprised me.

I couldn't cry. I was supposed to stay strong, and believe. But who was I staying strong for? They were all gone now.

Before I could counter that very convincing argument I had begun crying, with tears pouring from my eyes and flooding the dusted countertop. It didn't matter if they were alive or not, they'd gone through hell without me because I was lucky enough to not be in their world at the time. They were now stuck away from us, potentially forever—and that was if they were still alive.

"H-hello?"

I jerked away from the counter quickly and my stool toppled over and I fell to the floor quick and hard. I was wiping my eyes furiously with the sleeve of my jacket, but it was just spreading the tears around and no one would believe I hadn't been crying for a second.

"Who's there?" The voice was suddenly very familiar to me and I turned away from the doorway quickly when I saw a shadow coming closer. "Y—Yamato?" It was Sora. Her footsteps stopped in the doorway and I could tell she was alone. "Are you okay?" I didn't answer. "Right, that was a horrible question." She was clearly unsure how to treat the situation, so I thought I'd make it easy for her.

"I'm fine." I said flatly. This time we were both silent as we stood in the room that was once the home base for our team. Our team that no longer existed. "I'm sorry for how I treated you this morning."

"Don't you dare apologize." Sora said fiercely as her footsteps drew closer now. "I don't hold that against you for a second. We all deal with grief in different ways." I didn't say anything as her arms wrapped around me from behind. "You're just scared. You're upset." And then we were silent again. For a long time, too. I didn't move an inch and she just stayed behind me, holding me.

"Sora?" I asked finally. She merely hummed a response. "Do you think he's okay?"

Sora breathed in a choky breath that told me she was crying now. She didn't respond right away, and instead just squeezed tightly for a moment and then she sighed, "I hope so." She said weakly. "I hope they all are." Her voice was shaky and practically broken. "I'm sorry." She said, releasing me.

"Sorry?" I asked, looking over my shoulder where I saw nothing aside from an empty restaurant. I felt Sora nod, but she didn't say anything. "Are you okay?"

"I'm scared." Sora said quickly. "I can't stop my mind from thinking about tomorrow. W-what will it be like? How can I keep going without them? W-without my _parents_ , or Biyomon? Or T-Taichi or Koushiro? They're all in there, and now I may never see them again, all because of that stupid b-button."

I furrowed my eyebrows in thought and paused, "What button?" I asked.

Sora's arms tensed up and when she spoke her voice was quiet, "The one that sent out the virus."

The virus. The beast that had ruined everyone's lives indefinitely. That word playing in my head again hurt this time. It was Gennai's word. At the time I'd thought Gennai was being horrible, but he was doing his best to keep us safe. Indefinitely. This virus was the opposite of Gennai. It was horrible in all the ways he was good. "Whoever pushed that damned button is going to pay." I said through gritted teeth.

Sora immediately removed her arms from around my waist and I heard her stand up behind me. "R-right." She said, "We should go."

I finally turned to her, seeing the streaks of tears on her cheeks and she looked away. "Why?" I asked.

"I only came here to check for anything that needed to be dealt with." She said, "We have to find a new place to hide."

"Why not here?" I asked feebly, "It makes sense, doesn't it?"

She looked around to the charred walls and the blackened furniture, to the boarded windows and the dust covered counters. "Just like old times." She said with the hint of a smile on her face.

"It was only a month ago," I said quietly.

"But it seems like so much longer."

And then my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at Katsue's name on the screen. I wiped my nose and held the phone up, pressing the green button. "Hello?"

"Arnold is moving." Her voice was quick and direct. "What do I do?"

A billion questions shot through my mind, but my mouth was more focused, "What the hell are you doing spying on Arnold?"

Sora was intrigued suddenly and fell to her knees next to me so I put the phone on speaker. "Well," Katsue said sharply, "I thought I'd maybe utilize the fact that I'm a human being and do something worthwhile. Don't worry, Mantarou went to the library and he's off to Jou's house now. Everything you wanted it getting done, and then some."

"O-okay..." I said, still unsure.

"What's going on?" Sora asked sharply. "What's he doing?"

"He's going somewhere." Katsue said, "Should I keep following him?"

"Yes." Sora said before I could respond. "Do whatever it takes."

"Deal." Katsue agreed.

"But be careful!" I shouted just before I heard her hang up her phone. I looked to Sora who was thinking quickly, and then she jumped to her feet. "Where are we going?" I asked. She grabbed my arm and pulled me to my feet and didn't answer right away. Instead she headed straight for the restaurant door and we were outside. She locked the door as I looked to the bench nearby where Momoe, Chiziru, Natsuni and Jenna were sitting together, waiting for Sora.

Sora was quick to rush across the street and we all headed to the Train Station again. Jenna told us all how she'd contacted Chi, her boyfriend I guessed, and he was coming to Japan as soon as he could. Natsuni was going on about how she wanted to go save her dad, but now wasn't the time. We'd go soon though. And of course Momoe was silent, as Chiziru tried to cheer her up. I wondered if it was different to lose a child than to lose a sibling. Then again, Momoe and Chiziru had been subjected to losing both. We were on a train quickly, but we nearly missed the departure time. We all crowded in one row of seats, and sat in almost complete silence for most of the trip.

It wasn't until near the end that I bothered to ask Sora where we were going again.

"To Katsue," She said, as if it had been completely obvious. "Then we'll collect your lazy band mates and we'll set up Mimi's restaurant as a hiding place. We're going to be okay." She nodded, as if assuring herself of such things, "And then we're on to step two."

"And what's that?" Natsuni asked quietly.

"I have no idea." Sora admitted.

It wasn't long before we were getting off the train and Sora was texting Katsue asking for her location. Soon enough we were creeping behind a big brick building and crowding around Katsue. She had a finger pressed to her lips, but held up her phone and Jenna took it into her hands and began flipping through the pictures Katsue had open. I craned my neck and stood on my toes to see over the girls and saw that it was a picture of a well put together man, who Sora called Arnold, and Katsue informed us that the man he was walking with in the pictures—the big one with the scar on his face—was called Maugrim. I'd seen him before, at Myotismon's old castle. Katsue looked to me with recognition and it dawned on me that if I'd not destroyed the damned door we may have had a way back into the Digital World.

"We have to break in there." Katsue said, pointing to the building she was looking at. Sora looked to the building with total fear. "We have to stop them."

"Not a good idea." Natsuni said, "We can't just rush these things. We need a plan." Katsue seemed annoyed.

"It seems we need a lot of plans." She said, annoyed. "Why isn't anyone coming up with one?"

No one answered, and the obvious reason was because we couldn't. No plans could be made if there was no solution, and without hope, the solutions certainly seemed grim. And really, it was no surprise that our hope was gone. Destroyed in the virus, just like everything else.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Takeru and Mimi find out what it means to have a Perfectly Good Heart.


	12. Perfectly Good Heart

**Y/N:** The Queen is throwing a ball, and all of the digidestined are invited….kind of. It was really fun to write this chapter. It's always fun to write chapters in Sidhendor. It's so whimsical, and interesting, and it's just my favourite place to write in. I hope you enjoy the ball!

 **U/N:** So the Land of Dreams was probably the hardest world to write just because... well I dunno why. Oh well, I hope you like the chapter anyway :D

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 12: Perfectly Good Heart**

 _ **Takeru:**_

"Takeru!" Ken shouted quickly. "I want to go back for Koushiro!"

"What?" I asked briefly, looking back over my shoulder. I saw Ken running behind me, and then, where Koushiro should have been was a blank, empty space. I groaned. He was supposed to have followed us, not gone off to play hero. I stopped running immediately and Ken crashed into me sending both of us toppling to the ground.

My head smashed into the soggy grass and a horrible squishing sound hissed from the earth. Ken practically whined as he pulled himself off of me and looked to me with narrowed eyes. "I certainly hope the plan you're about to come up with works better than that one," he said almost snidely. He then reached his hand out to pull me to my feet and paused when his eyes travelled up. "Koushiro!"

I spun my head quickly to see him, and sure enough, Koushiro was standing over us, smiling broadly. "Hello friends!" he said, his voice full of cheer and optimism. Ken's hand released mine and we both stared toward him awkwardly. "Take my hands, I will help you to your feet."

Ken laughed as if Koushiro was simply joking, but his laugh faltered quickly when Koushiro did not respond just as cheerfully. "Okay..." he said quietly, pulling me to my feet. "Uh, we should keep running?" Ken suggested, looking over his shoulder shyly. I looked back as well, but all I could see were the empty streets of the random city we'd found, and a clear blue sky. My vision was blurred from having looked for Hikari all night, but I thought I could make out a few helpful street signs. You know, for all the traffic.

I slowly looked back to Koushiro who was looking out to wherever Ken was looking, a big smile on his face. He noticed that I was staring and looked to me, smiling still. "Hello!"

"Hey," I said slowly. A chill shot straight through my body when a thought occurred to me. That Hikari we'd seen... what if it _had_ been her? What if this world could shift you into something so opposite to yourself? If that was the case, then I'd just run with fear from my girlfriend. And now, Koushiro was stuck in a place full of joy and excitement. And he was still staring at me, which was really quite annoying. "Ken's right. We should... go," I said, deciding that until we found a way to revert Hikari back to normal, there would be no way to connect with her, and so she'd have to be out on her own.

At least she was alive. While I entirely believed the others to be alive as well, it was still nice to see her face to see it was true. It wasn't the same as Ken. We'd been in the field of dreams in the middle of the night... she should have been sleeping. She should have been dreaming. Did that mean she wasn't able to? Was she dead? Were we never going to see her again?

"Miyako," Ken breathed weakly.

I looked quickly to Ken to see where he was looking, and saw her standing in the doorway of a nearby shop. Her violet hair was hanging over her shoulder and she was looking to Ken with tears in her eyes. The last time I'd seen her she'd been crying over the corpse atop her body. The fear in her eyes was something I couldn't ever forget, and now she... had come here to find Ken. They were reunited...

"I love you," she said kindly.

And that's kind of what did it really. It made me feel incredibly stupid too, but Miyako was not one to have public displays of affection, even in dire circumstances such as these. I couldn't remember ever hearing her tell Ken that she loved him—now, I assumed she _did_ tell him, just not in public. Koushiro had run the other way. There was no way he could have gotten in front of us. And there was no way Hikari would ever let herself be turned into something so insane.

Besides. She had said her friends were on the other side of town. This must have been them.

I reached for Ken and grabbed the sleeve of his shirt. He shrugged me off and stepped toward Miyako. "Ken, no." I blurted. Panic sunk in quickly when Koushiro and Miyako both turned their sights on me, no longer smiling, or teary eyed. Their faces seemed to sink into themselves and before I knew it they'd lunged toward us. "Go!" I shouted, and then Ken and I were both running in different directions with one of our fake friends following each of us.

Obviously the freak who copied Koushiro's body followed me to cause as much pain as possible in Ken's head as his crazed fake wife chased him with the intent to kill.

And weirdly, whether it was because I'd been through this enough times, or because I was too tired, my adrenaline wasn't kicking in as I ran, pushing with all my might to make each step count in my attempted escape, but there was just something less real about everything that was happening in this world. Either way, I knew I had to catch up to Ken. Summer trusted us to all join up and become one force, not split up into four different sections, which we were obviously very good at. We'd split up enough times in the past, and practice makes perfect. Even if splitting up never really worked out in the end. Especially when our only way of fighting was our digimon. What good were we humans in a fight against other worldly beasts without the help of our trusted sidekicks? Or magical swords stolen from a crazed clown and the inspiration of saving the women we love?

Well, to be fair, I still wanted to save Hikari. If only I had Piedmon's sword.

I squeaked a little in fear when Koushiro hissed at me—apparently I was scared, even if my brain was too slow to pick up on that. And then I saw in the distance, something growing from the ground. It looked like a big flower on fast-forward, breaking through the soil and stretching up with the goal of touching the sky. But it stopped at my waist height. I was nearing it now. Hopefully it had poisonous gas inside that could at least knock out my stalker.

But when the bud opened to reveal its silver petals I saw a glint from the sun overhead just as I came into reaching distance. I knew what it was immediately and I reached into the flower and grabbed the hilt of a blade, drawing it quickly from the flower and turning on my attacker, wielding a weapon this time. The look of fear that shot through his eyes was enough to give me the courage to keep going.

I stepped forward and Koushiro melted into the ground as if he'd never been there at all. It was one of the weirder things I'd seen in my time, watching my friend become liquid and soak into the ground. I didn't have time to think about it though. I needed to find Ken.

He wasn't far off though. I could see him from where I was standing. He was sitting at the base of a tree, his knees pulled up to his chest with Miyako on the ground a few feet away, she was crying. I started running toward him but it didn't seem he was in any immediate danger. There was something different about this creature. She wasn't trying to physically hurt Ken at all. As I grew nearer I saw that she was holding something covered in blood. I diverted my eyes the moment I realized what it was.

"Ken!" I shouted, falling to my knees next to him. "It's not real, you know that."

"It's dead," Ken whispered, looking to me, his eyes coated with tears. "The virus killed it."

"Ken, we've been through this," I told him quietly. "You have to have hope, and believe that they're going to be okay. You can't just believe everyone who speaks just because negativity is easier to connect with. You're going to feel pretty silly when you get back home and find Miyako there. You're going to wish you never spent all that time worrying."

Ken didn't say anything and instead just looked over to Miyako only to wince and turn his head quickly away from the mangled sight of what was in her arms.

I acted quickly and threw my sword toward her, and just like Koushiro had, she melted into the ground. I wondered for a moment if she had ever really been there at all as I stared at the sword topple over, digging some dirt from the ground. "Ken," I said as softly as I could. "You can't let your negativity take shape in this world. It's dangerous. You know that, we've been here before."

"I know," he said quietly.

"Just the abstract concept of dreams from a bunch of kids actually ripped apart MaloMyotismon," I reminded him. "Just think what negativity could do to us."

"I _know_."

"And that feeling you have right now," I said putting my hand on his shoulder. "That longing to see Miyako and find she's okay. She's feeling the same way right now. You can't let her find out you're gone just because you couldn't find a way to be happy."

"Could you _not_?" Ken said sharply, standing up quickly and pushing my hand away from him.

"I'm just trying to help."

"And you're just making things worse," Ken shot. "Not everyone can be as perfectly content and happy like you, Takeru. Let me deal with things at my own pace. I'm worried about my family! I'm allowed to be worried."

"Are you implying that I'm not?" I asked. "Not worried?"

"Well you sure don't seem it!" Ken shouted, running his hands through his hair. "You're walking around with a smile because Hikari is here, and that's awesome because, well, who doesn't love Hikari? But I'm worried about Miyako, and our baby, and my parents and our partners, and my friends. Because we were lucky enough to find the looking glass in time, but Miyako ran _toward_ the virus. She could be _dead_ and you don't know that she's not."

"You don't know that she is though," I told him, trying to keep calm but finding it harder than usual. I pulled myself to my feet, and took a deep breath. "That's the point of keeping hope. You don't know the truth, so you pray that the best outcome is true."

"So you want me to lie to myself?" Ken asked sharply.

"I want you to trust that she's capable and smart enough to keep herself and her baby alive," I said, raising my voice now. "And I want you to stop taking all of your frustrations out on me. Koushiro and I have been walking on glass around your feelings all night. We're trying to be good friends."

"A good friend would have let me go to my wife," Ken said coldly.

"You would have died!" I shouted, losing my cool completely.

Ken was angry too, and he was looking around for something to hit it seemed, judging by the way his fingers curled into fists. He apparently couldn't find anything until a long thin whip materialized in his hand. For a second I thought he was going to hit _me_ with it—which wouldn't be the first time—but instead he turned on the tree behind him and swung the whip as hard as he could, smacking a large chunk of bark off of the trunk of the tree.

He swung again and the tree creaked with the stress he caused it. He swung again and this time part of the tree broke away where he'd hit. I thought I should stop him, but if it was relieving his stress I figured I'd let him have at it. But it didn't matter, because with a mighty scream and one last crack of his whip the tree had been split in two.

This world was awesome and terrifying, somehow simultaneously.

As the two pieces of the tree fell apart, creating a view of what was behind, Ken fell to the ground, tossing his whip aside. "Are you okay?" I asked, unable to take my eyes away from the tall brownish grass that I now saw. There were tall cattail plants, and swarms of bugs soaring around, and the stench of manure or something equally horrifying. It seemed suddenly, that the wetness of the ground was coming from inside the grass, and despite how disgusting it seemed, I desperately wanted to go inside.

"I'm fine," Ken said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"Don't worry about it," I said, stepping toward the mangled tree stump. "I'll be right back, okay?"

"You're going in there?" Ken asked. "Shouldn't we find Koushiro?"

"Yes," I agreed. "In a minute."

I wasn't sure if he kept talking at that point, because there was something very heavy drawing me towards the swampy area, like a fish hook had caught my chest and was reeling me into something I'd been looking for. And I certainly knew what I wanted it to be.

As I pushed through the tall grass and sticky plants, ignoring the squishing sound my shoes were making, the hope began bubbling up in my chest. I just wanted to find her right now, so we could get out of this world and find Yamato and Patamon. My pace quickened immediately as I started swatting at the bugs floating around my head, and then I was running. I knew which way to go without thought, and it seemed the faster I moved the easier it became. Until I slammed my foot into a large rock and flung myself to the ground, crashing into the mud and grime that coated the earth.

I groaned loudly.

"W-who's there?"

I silenced myself immediately upon hearing a voice, and carefully pulled myself to my feet. I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. I strained my ears, listening for movement of any kind, and instead heard quick, heavy breaths.

I slowly pushed aside some of the grass in front of me and peeked through. I saw a murky pond filled with grime and lily pads. Sitting on a rock on the other side was Hikari, her hair pulled behind her ears, and her eyes wide with panic. She was looking frantically around for the cause of the sound.

As quietly and as gently as I could, I pushed the grass aside and stepped through. There was no doubt in my mind that this was her. She was exactly the way I remembered her, and it wasn't anything like the Hikari I'd seen in the streets earlier. This one was really her. "Hikari..."

She gasped and jumped to her feet, staring me down with a firm glare. "Get away from me," she said sharply. "Right now."

"Are you okay?" I asked, holding my hands up, to show I didn't mean her any harm. It hurt to have her act so coldly toward me. Did she just not want me to see her like this? In a state of mind where she could create a place like this?

"Go _away_!" she shrieked. "Leave me alone!" Her voice was desperate and filled with fear. I froze for a moment, wondering how to react, and finally decided I needed to see her up close. I needed to know she was okay and wasn't just pushing me away to avoid hurting me. But with the first step, she called out to me again. "Don't move!" I didn't listen. I moved around the pond quickly and headed straight for her. She turned and ran, straight into the grass before I could reach her, and then I was running after her.

"Hikari!" I shouted, "Wait! Where are you going?"

I heard her scream as I got closer, and then finally, I reached forward and grabbed her wrist, stopping her. She screamed again and punched my shoulder. I released her for a second and then she tried to run, but I grabbed her around the waist. "Stop!" she shrieked, punching me everywhere she could.

"What is wrong?" I asked loudly, releasing her. "Please, _talk_ to me! I'm sorry!" She hesitated a moment, looking up to me, and then turned her head and started running again. "Did I do something wrong?" I winced. "I mean, other than just now. Chasing you and all that."

Hikari stopped running and looked over her shoulder to me, confused. Then she shook her head, "I'm not falling for this again!" she said loudly, her emotions were clearly threatening tears as she held them back, as she always tried to. "You can't keep doing this. You can't keep messing with my mind!" And there they were, the tears.

"Oh," I said flatly, finally understanding. "I'm not one of them, Hikari," I told her. "Those creatures. I fell for it too—Koushiro, Miyako, and _you_ just tried to kill me."

Hikari tilted her head and took a step back. "I don't believe you."

"I'm real, Hikari," I promised. "It's me."

"No!" she shouted, this time taking a step forward. She looked angry and unsure but slowly she made her way closer to me. "Koushiro used the only key to this world. You can't be."

"We used the Looking Glass," I told her gently. "Look, I wouldn't lie, Hikari..." I said, tears welling up in my own eyes now. "I'm just really glad to see you. I'm so _relieved_ that the virus didn't get you. I m-mean, Koushiro said you were fine, but... it's different... to actually see you."

Hikari was close enough to touch now as she stared at me, her face screwed up in anger. She pointed her finger at me and tried to speak, but no sound came out. "No..." she said slowly, even less sure than before, and then she let her arms drop and she was crying harder. "I don't believe you." She looked away, scared. "You're going to hurt me."

"I would never hurt you, Hikari," I said, reaching out my hand for her to take. "I love you. I care about you, and I'm so, _so_ , glad to see you're okay."

Hikari looked like she wanted to talk again, but couldn't find the words or the breath. She swallowed a lump in her throat and opened her mouth, only to have it close again and she stepped forward, throwing her arms around my neck and hugging me. "I'm glad you're okay too," she whispered. I hugged her back and we just stood there a while as she cried softly.

"But," I said, hating to ruin the moment. "The thing is, Koushiro's in trouble right now."

"W-what?" Hikari gasped, a look of horror in her eyes as she pulled away from me. "Where?"

"I don't know," I admitted.

Hikari turned and set off at a run through the grass. I was following her, pushing as hard as I could. I was faster than her, and so I caught up, but she was determined to find and save Koushiro. I started calling out for Ken the moment we'd emerged from the grass but I didn't hear a response. I called a few more times, but he didn't show up, so I just turned and followed Hikari.

She was well on her way to a place in the distance where Koushiro was using what appeared to be a broken part of a bike to fight off the demon-Hikari. Apparently his 'hero' streak was over.

I was running again, but Hikari reached them first and slammed herself into the fake Hikari. I felt my eyes widen as I grew nearer. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have imagined something so bizarre. The fake Hikari stretched her arms out and wrapped them around the real Hikari who bit into them and spun herself around and punched the fake-her in the face.

"Hikari!" I shouted, reaching down and grabbing the blade I'd thrown. I knew it hadn't landed _here_ , but this world was just weird enough for it to make sense. I tossed the blade to her and she caught it in mid-air, and swung around, slicing through the fake her that shrieked and turned itself into black fog, floating off into the sky.

"Get lost," Hikari said daringly, dropping the sword and turning to Koushiro. He sighed with relief and dropped his weapon as Hikari stepped forward and hugged him. "I'm so sorry!" she said loudly as he stood awkwardly in her embrace. "This is my fault. I made them. I'm so, _so_ sorry." She pulled away from the hug and looked him in the eyes with her hands on his shoulders. "I do _not_ hate you. I cannot believe I said something like that. You were just trying to help." She hugged him again and then her face fell. "I still wish you hadn't done it though."

"That I can handle," Koushiro said, finally cracking a smile. He then pushed her off of him and he looked to me, his smile fading slightly when he noticed Ken wasn't around. "Where—?"

"No idea," I admitted.

Koushiro sighed and set off to look for Ken immediately. Hikari looked to the sword on the ground and almost cracked a smile. "Do you think I'm weak?" she asked.

"You just attacked a demon with a sword," I reminded her.

"I _mean_ ," she said, rolling her eyes, "do you think I'm weak for crying so often?"

I shook my head and stepped toward her. "You have to know that feeling something doesn't make you weak. You were scared, alone, frustrated _and_ sad. If that's not a reason to cry, then I don't know what is." She smiled, but I could tell it was faked. "I'll always be here to support you though. If you don't want to cry, just come to me whenever you feel it coming. I can help. Whenever. Always." She looked to me, shocked and just blinked a couple times, her eyes wide and then she smiled, and looked away blushing.

"So how was your day?" she asked quietly, reaching for my hand and setting off after Koushiro.

"Well," I said with a sigh. "A crazed group of sociopaths sent a cloudy purple death zone after me and everyone I know, I'm stuck in a world without any of my family, I've been comforting Ken through the separation of his wife who I saved from a psychopathic police chief, and then demon versions of my friends tried to kill me."

She looked to me with a sad look in her eyes. "Well, it happens to the best of us."

"I feel like it's only _ever_ happened to me," I said thoughtfully.

She leaned into my shoulder and rested her head there for a moment as we walked. "Exactly."

 _ **Mimi Tachikawa:**_

There were a lot of things I wasn't happy with about our current situation. I was furious that they'd taken me away from Palmon when I _needed_ to be with her. I was heartbroken that Koushiro, Taichi, Hikari and Mari were at the Temple when the virus struck. I was terrified for Willis and Kiyoko, who I'd lost on my frenzied journey away from the virus. I was tentatively hopeful that the others were safe within the barrier of the Coliseum, but a little voice was constantly filling me with doubt. I didn't like the woman who was playing the part of our host. She was pushy, and had little fashion sense. She was incredibly rude to Michael, and continuously provided him with new jobs to do right after he'd finished one. I didn't particularly care for the wolf that had tried to eat me _twice_ now, within two days either.

But the wooden tub I was sitting in was the most prominent on my list at that moment.

It was uncomfortable having my legs curled up in front of me while I tried to wash away two days worth of sweat and grime. I was tucked away behind a small, wooden folding screen, and I could still hear Michael, Hideto, Tatum, Lopmon and that woman talking just on the other side of it. I felt incredibly exposed. I couldn't even submerge myself entirely in the water, because the tub was just _too_ small.

The water wasn't even hot.

That was my fault though. The woman had demanded that Michael heat the water for me to bathe in and I felt guilty about it. I told him to just warm one pot full of water, and that would be enough. I didn't want to make more work for him. As it turns out, I was wrong. One pot full was _not_ enough. I didn't think I could even call the water lukewarm. I was shivering, and trying to wash myself with weird, scummy, homemade soap in a wooden tub and I wasn't happy about it.

"Darling," the woman called, coming around the tub. I covered myself with my arms the best I could, sending her a scandalized look. I didn't know how they did things _here_ , but on Earth people generally were allowed privacy whilst bathing. "Let me give you a hand," she said, not even noticing my general discomfort. "I know how hard it is to wash long hair like that." I couldn't even say anything, because we'd all already come to the conclusion that this woman didn't actually pay any attention to anything we said. She'd come to some sort of conclusions about us from the very moment she first laid eyes on us, and nothing we said or did would change her opinions.

The next ten minutes were the most awkward and embarrassing minutes of my life—and that includes that time Sora walked in on my wretched "We Hate Sora" club meeting. The woman continuously ran her fingers through my hair, lifting cupfuls of water and pouring them over my head. She used that gross scummy soap in my hair, which made it feel _terrible_ , and then, to make me even _more_ uncomfortable, she didn't leave when she'd finished. She dried my hair with a towel, and continued to tell me how beautiful I'd look in my gown, and how I was bound to turn many heads my way—almost as many as the Queen.

I didn't _want_ to turn heads. I already had Koushiro, even if he didn't know my middle name. He was the one I wanted. I just couldn't have him though. He was at the Temple, and he was probably one of the first to go. He'd never been very good at running.

The woman thought my silent tears were of happiness about the ball. I didn't correct her. She wouldn't have listened anyway. She just started talking bubbly about how many _noble_ and rich men and women would be there. "If you play your cards right, you could catch me a baron, or a count." She also sang Hideto's praise. "He's handsome enough that maybe the Queen _herself_ might fall for him, wouldn't _that_ be lovely?" She seemed to be under the impression that marrying us off to rich people would help _her_ in some way. I was starting to think there was something to Tatum and Hideto's theory that she thought we were her children.

It didn't really matter though, because I _knew_ Hideto was devoted to Kiyoko, and I sure wasn't marrying a stranger, so any of her manipulations would be wasted on us.

"Out you get," she told me, holding up the towel for me. I stared at her in horror. I wasn't about to stand up and bare _everything_ while she was watching me. She stared at me in return and we'd entered the fiercest of staring contests I'd ever been in. After a solid minute of listening to my chattering teeth she finally relented. "Oh, good _heavens_ ," she said exasperatedly. She closed her eyes and turned her head away. Knowing that this was the best I would get, I stood hastily and wrapped myself in the towel. I walked hastily out from behind the partition, not caring at all if I was just wearing a towel in front of my friends. I actually _trusted_ them. They made me feel comfortable. Not one of them even batted an eye at the sight of me.

"Don't stare at her, wretch," the woman snapped at Michael. "Get heating some more water. We'll need it for later. It's your turn dear." She smiled at Hideto. He just looked at her. I did too. Wasn't she going to empty the tub first? "The water's already cold, you best get done quickly."

Hideto and I shared a look of disgust, both at the idea that he'd be using _my_ bathwater, and the thought of having no plumbing for the rest of our lives. What if the Wizard couldn't get us out of here? What if we were trapped here with no plumbing and no electricity, and no _Palmon_?

Hideto didn't have much of a choice, so he grabbed his pile of clothes and stormed behind the curtain to wash up. He was smelly and gross from all of that wood chopping he'd been up to, so I knew he couldn't pass up a quick dip, even if it _was_ in my water. I forced myself to stop thinking about it, because it made me uncomfortable. I couldn't possibly understand how people used to do this before plumbing was invented. It seemed so primitive.

I sighed, but noticed that Michael was standing beside the stove, staring at the wall, waiting for me to get dressed. Tatum came over to help me, handing me a piece of awkwardly sewn white material. I realized it was meant to be undergarments and almost cried at the thought of wearing something that looked so horrible and uncomfortable. I didn't want to be wearing a towel any longer though, and quickly slipped them on. Yep. Uncomfortable. Tatum already had my bright pink skirt ready for me, ugly, fluffy flowers and all. I stepped into it, and she fastened it, while the woman handed me my pale blue top. I glared at her and she sighed, throwing her hands up in the air and turned away. While Tatum was working on my skirt, I quickly dropped the towel and stuck my arms through the sleeves. Tatum was quick to lace up the ribbons that held the top together at the back. I flicked the big flower that was centered on my chest. I looked like a fool.

The woman grabbed the towel and headed towards the partition again, to give it to Hideto.

"Don't _do_ that!" Hideto yelled at her. "Get out. Get out _now_!"

She hurried back grumbling about unappreciative children. She dragged me over to a chair and pushed me into it, holding up a comb that she proceeded to run through my still damp hair. Once she'd brushed it, she started attacking my head with pins. Hideto walked out from the partition then, looking furious. His face was scarier now than when he'd been evil. He was so mad. I could see _why_ though. Hideto wore only black. It was the only colour he felt comfortable in. This woman didn't seem to care about that though. Hideto had bright yellow, puffy pants that were tucked into a pair of green leather, over-the-knee boots. He had a white shirt tucked under a high-collared grey vest that was fastened all the way up to his throat. He had a green jacket in his hand that had elaborate detailing down the front, and fringe on the shoulders. He was also holding a bright yellow scarf.

"This won't do," the woman said, rushing into her room. She came out with a top hat and a small strip of green material—a similar shade to his jacket and boots. She made quick work of wrapping the material into a hatband. "You there, get bathing," she snapped to Tatum, who looked even more uncomfortably disgusted than Hideto and I did, but did as was bid. "There we go, now try this on." Hideto didn't have much of a choice, since she climbed onto a chair and stuffed it on his head. "Yes, that's better. It covers up those unsightly bumps. I don't know what you were thinking, injuring yourself with the ball tonight."

"I didn't do it on purpose," Hideto growled. He obviously wasn't pleased with the addition of the top hat. She took his jacket and held it out patiently until he caved and let her put in on him. She left it unbuttoned, so that the vest showed through and hopped back on the chair to tie his scarf around his neck so that it puffed unnecessarily.

"Oh, my children, my beautiful children," she cried. "You are everything I'd ever hoped for. Look at you!"

She left again, to find my shoes, leaving my hair only half pinned. I looked pleadingly to Hideto, and he sighed, reaching out to fix the mess she'd made. He pinned far more gently, and it was almost relaxing. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sensation until Tatum came out from behind the partition. I opened my eyes and saw her in a dripping wet towel, rolling her eyes as she grabbed her plain grey dress. It had short sleeves, and flared out a little bit at the waist, but that was it. She had an orange sash to tie around her waist as her only source of colour.

Michael had finally finished with the water, and nearly dropped the pan when he caught sight of Hideto. He started laughing, bright, deep, belly laughs. The woman came out of the room with two pairs of shoes and glared at him.

"That's enough out of you, you horrid boy," the woman snapped. She paused, catching sight of a chain of golden leaves glinting in the non-sunlight. "That necklace...Mimi needs it. Give it to her."

"What? No!" Tatum shouted. "That was his mother's."

"It would look better on Mimi," the woman said. "Yes. It is exactly what she needs to push her past perfection."

"It's Michael's," I protested. "I don't feel comfortable wearing it."

"Nonsense," the woman said sweetly to me before narrowing her eyes at Michael. "If he knows what's good for him, he'll accommodate me."

"But—" I said.

"It's fine," Michael said, unhooking the necklace and placing it in my hand. "You're not going to lose it. You can wear it for the night. I don't mind. Just stop fighting."

"See," the woman said. "I knew he had to have _some_ brains in his head. Now fix me my bath."

"Isn't Michael going to need one though?" Tatum asked.

"Him?" the woman laughed. "Oh he cannot come. A wretch like _him_ cannot be seen at a ball. He will stay with the rabbit and clean the house from top to bottom in preparation for our return."

"But Michael _has_ to come," Tatum told her.

"What he needs to do is stay here and earn your keep," the woman hissed, looking only to Tatum and Lopmon. I supposed being "her children" Hideto and I were excluded from this ultimatum. "If he doesn't play his part, you'll all be in the streets tonight."

"What's my list?" Michael asked quickly. It occurred to me that he was taking her seriously. "I don't want them to be punished because of me. What do I need to do?"

"I'll leave a list by the door," the woman said with a victorious smile before disappearing behind the curtain to bathe.

"Michael," Hideto sighed. "You shouldn't have done that."

"She was going to leave us in the streets," Michael said defensively.

"I'd be more comfortable there," Lopmon said grumpily.

"We could find somewhere else to stay," I suggested.

"You're so excited about the ball. You should have a chance to go. You wanted that connection to your Mom," Hideto pointed out.

"I don't mind," Michael lied with a smile. "I wasn't all that excited anyway."

"Literally twenty minutes ago you _peed_ yourself with excitement," I said dryly. I might've been exaggerating a tiny bit, but _still_.

"You guys go," Michael said shaking his head.

The woman came out from behind the partition, complaining loudly about how cold the water was, and how Michael was going to have to do better with his chores if he doesn't want to sleep outside tonight. She was dressed in a purple and orange monstrosity, with a big bundle of material over her back side. She had a lacy, purple hat, and a bright orange fan to cover her face with in an attempt to be ladylike.

"It's time to leave," she declared.

She waltzed out of the house, and Hideto followed after, sighing all the way. Tatum hugged Lopmon and Michael before joining them. I caught Michael's eye, and placed his mother's necklace on the table. I wasn't going to wear it. It wasn't _mine_. It was his connection to his mother, and I wasn't going to take that from him. He smiled sadly, and I had to turn away, quickly catching up to the others.

We had to walk all the way back to the castle. It was a long walk, and the woman led the way. Hideto, Tatum and I lagged behind her purposefully, wanting a chance to discuss our plan. We didn't know anything about the castle layout, or any of the people in this world, so our plan was limited. In the end, we decided that someone would distract the woman, while the others searched out the Wizard. It wasn't a good plan, but it was all we had.

Arriving at the ball was more embarrassing than I'd imagined. Ball gowns of every colour surrounded us. They were all elegant, perfectly demonstrating the natural beauty of the women wearing them. Not one of these women had puffy flowers sewn onto their dresses. Not one other gown was made up of pale blue and bright pink. The colours didn't look good the way the woman had sewn them. She'd been right though, I _was_ turning heads—just not in the way she'd expected. She was proving to be more of an eyesore than I was though. She was collecting sneers and giggles wherever she went. Hideto looked far too angry for anyone to dare laugh at him, but I could see their amusement in their eyes.

Tatum, the lucky duck, wasn't catching any such attention in her plain dress.

It didn't really help that we were so late. Most of the guests were already tired of dancing, and the orchestra was slowing down. The walk had been quite long. I saw a large, ornate clock decorating the wall of the ballroom, and saw that it was eleven thirty already. I was so worried about missing our chance with the Wizard, that I barely had time to take in the elaborate ballroom, with the long drapes and shimmering chandeliers. Men were dressed to the nines and nearly all had a woman on their arms. Two guards came over to us, and one took Hideto's arm.

"What are you doing?" Hideto demanded.

"All eligible young men must dance with the Queen, sir," the guard said apologetically.

"I'm in luck then," Hideto said, rolling his eyes. "I'm actually _not_ eligible, because I've got someone back home."

"Dance with her," the woman said, her voice sweet like honey. "You never know, you could be _King_ someday."

"I have absolutely _no_ interest in that," Hideto said firmly.

"Dance with her, Hideto," Tatum urged. "Mimi and I can find _something_ to occupy our time, I'm sure." She gave him an exaggerated wink that—of course—the woman totally disregarded. Hideto sighed, but let the guard drag him away. They brought him to a woman wearing the most beautiful dress of silver. It almost looked like she was dressed in moonlight. It shimmered and moved so elegantly around her. Her long, snow white hair cascaded down around her face and she wore a large, ornate crown decorated with blue gemstones. She had a deep grey cape around her shoulders and she stood, staring at Hideto until a guard whispered in his ear and bothered to bow to her. She gave him half a curtsy in response, and then held her hand out for him to lead her in a dance.

I almost wanted to stay and see how he did, but Tatum was pulling me towards the stairs. The Wizard was more important than Hideto's potential embarrassment. We snuck up the stairs. They led to a balcony of sorts, looking down on the ballroom. There were several doors, but most led to empty rooms. I supposed I wouldn't have a use for every room in a castle either, but seriously, there were far too many empty ones. They didn't even bother to lock them. One door led to a servant staircase, and we were tempted to go down it, but figured the Wizard was probably a prominent enough figure to _not_ be considered a servant. The last door on the landing was locked. Try as we might, we couldn't get the darn thing open.

"We need Hideto," Tatum sighed.

Picking locks was one of Hideto's hidden, Alias III talents. The only problem, was that he was busy dancing with the Queen of this world, and was too busy to come and help us. With our plans foiled, we snuck back towards the stairs, slipped down them and integrating ourselves into the crowd without catching anyone's attention—a surprise considering the attention my dress garnered.

The front doors opened, and I was pleased to see we weren't the latest guests, but when the crowd all gasped I had to get a look at the newcomer. A golden crown of leaves was placed atop a head of golden curls. Knee high boots in brown leather, with bronze pants and a deep red jacket, with a brown belt too. There was a long cape of auburn leaves that were woven together, held together at the hollow of the man's throat with a gold, leaf clasp.

"Michael?" Tatum asked, just as confused as I was.

"What's he doing here?" I asked.

"Where did he get those clothes?" Tatum countered. We couldn't answer either question.

The Queen caught sight of him and pushed Hideto to the side. He seemed relieved, until he saw Michael waiting by the door. The Queen strode towards Michael and kissed him, right on the lips—no preamble or anything. Not even a "Hello". Tatum sucked in an angry breath at the sight. I was more shocked than anything. The woman came over to me, the stupid bunched up material wagging on her butt with every step she took.

"Have you ever seen him before?" she asked me. I shook my head, not wanting to get Michael in trouble. She sighed. "I suppose she won't look at my boy anymore." I wanted to inform her that Hideto wasn't "her boy", but thought better of it.

"I'll be back," Tatum said with a slight growl. She started walking towards the Queen and her boyfriend—who was trying his best to _not_ insult the Queen, but also not kiss her again. I didn't know what Tatum was planning to do, but I figured it would cause a good distraction.

I slipped away from the woman, and grabbed Hideto's hand, dragging him towards the stairs. We raced up them as quickly as we could, and I ran along the balcony to the other side. Hideto took a pin from my hair and started working away at the lock. He made quick work of it, and he'd just opened it when I heard Tatum's voice ring loud and clear through the ballroom.

"Excuse me, just _what_ do you think you're doing with my boyfriend?"

I glimpsed the clock and saw that it was getting late. We had to find the Wizard soon, because I wasn't looking forward to the long walk back to the woman's house—especially so late at night. We walked down the hallway that the door opened to. It was long and narrow, but there were no doors. At the end, we were given two choices, take the path to the right which led to a single door, or the one on the left, also in possession of only one door. Hideto and I played rock-paper-scissors to decide. I won, so we went left.

The door was locked, so Hideto needed to pick it again. When he opened the door, I was met with the sight of an enormous, soft bed with a canopy of silvery curtains. There was an elaborate, beautiful, old mirror leaning against the one wall, and a vanity table not far from it.

"This must be the Queen's room," I muttered. It didn't look like a Wizard lived there. Hideto sighed and we headed the other direction. The other door wasn't locked. It opened before Hideto even turned the knob. The room was a mess. Papers were strewn everywhere, beakers were on every flat surface. Hundreds of books lined the wall.

But no one was there.

"Damn," Hideto said.

"Why did I think this would be easy?" I whined to myself.

" _What_ do you think you're doing?"

We both whirled to the door at the sound of the yell. The Queen was staring at us with wild, wide eyes. Her hands were on her hips. "You are _trespassing_!" Hideto's eyes lit up in recognition. I didn't know why, and I didn't dare to ask. "You _dare_ to gallivant around the royal castle? I'll have your heads for this!"

"You need to be more creative," Hideto drawled. "You used that threat _last_ time."

"Shut up, Hideto," I gasped. "You don't understand, Your Majesty. We need to find the Wizard. He's the only one that can get us home. We don't come from this world."

"Oh?" the Queen said. The anger fled from her expression, and a curious sort of greed took over. "A different world, you say? How _interesting_. Unfortunately, the Wizard is gone. I know not where, nor do I know for how long. He's been gone a long time already. I do wish you luck on finding him, and pray you get home safe."

She seemed so sweet and genuine...and I absolutely didn't trust her. Hideto had the same idea. I curtsied to her, and Hideto gave a quick bow. We slipped passed her and practically ran across the balcony and down the stairs, nearly bowling the woman over in our haste.

"Where's Tatum?" I asked, glancing at the clock. Twelve-fifteen. It took longer than I'd thought it would.

"She ran off with the Queen's favourite," the woman said cheerfully. "It was the strangest thing. The man needed to leave quite suddenly, and nothing the Queen offered him could make him stay. Do you realize what this means? We have another chance! You could be King!"

"Whatever," Hideto grumbled.

I sighed, knowing the woman had no intention of leaving until Hideto got another chance to dance with the Queen. I looked back up at the balcony, and saw the Queen was looking down at us, hands clenched onto the railing. She looked powerful, and I didn't want anything to do with her.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Neo and Iori have their Eyes Opened.


	13. Eyes Open

**Y/N:** I know I said that Sidhendor is my favourite place to write in, and that's still true. But I also really like the Dark Ocean. It's weird, I know. But I think it's mostly because Iori is one of my favourites, and is consistently so throughout the entire series, to write. The words just flow onto the page—or screen.

 **U/N:** Writing Neo is just so much fun endlessly and I'm not even sure why :P Bitter Neo is fun though. A lot of fun to write as xD

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 13: Eyes Open**

 _ **Neo:**_

"Alright, listen up!" Kansui's loud voice called, silencing everyone in the room. "Dad's out, so I'm in charge."

A loud groan rippled through the crowd and toward the doorway where Kansui was now standing, his hands on his hips. The flash of disappointment in his eyes was impossible to miss, but he took it in stride and stepped into the dank, smelly room. We were now laying low, underground. That ridiculous shack had more secret passages than just the one I'd followed Evelen and Kansui through. Apparently, through the fire place, there was a staircase that led to a place where old sweaty men gathered to have fun. It was exactly what I would picture a cartoon villain's hideout to be like, too. Hardwood floors, bear skin rug, dead animal heads, stuffed and hung on the walls, a bar along one end of the room and lots of wooden furniture.

Kansui came directly toward where I was sitting at the bar and pulled a stool out from underneath to sit on. He plopped himself down and folded his legs. God he was so pompous. I slowly looked to my own legs and uncrossed them, trying to pretend to myself that I was nothing like Kansui.

He sighed and reached toward a bottle of water. He looked to me and smiled, "Good for the skin, you know?" I nodded. I did know. "Everyone is so rude around here, you know?"

"So are you." I said bluntly.

"Yes, but I'm the bosses son." He smiled, "I am allowed." He elbowed me playfully as he took a large, loud, gulp of water.

"Don't pretend like we're friends, Kansui." I said, looking to the water I had in my own hand, and not bothering to give him any attention. That was clearly what he wanted, and he certainly didn't deserve it. "You're hateful and twisted."

Kansui gasped dramatically and clutched his chest. "Just when I thought we were getting along too." He sighed and dropped his head with fake sadness as he screwed the lid back onto the bottle and spun around to face the others. "And just when I was going to give you a nice tent too."

"Tent?" I asked, dread filling my chest quickly.

"Alright everyone!" Kansui shouted, his shrill voice calling over the crowd. They all quieted instantly. No matter how annoying he could be, he was still Maugrim's son. And he wasn't the most relaxed man I'd ever met. Clearly the people here felt the same way. "Father is finished setting up camp I'm sure, and now it's our turn to follow him and pitch some tents!" He smiled happily, "Let us all now be on our way to the great outdoors! We'll be roughing it." He was very serious now, nodding and making intense eye contact with anyone who was looking. "My tent only has four different rooms and two outlets. This is going to be a difficult time for everyone, I'm sure. Let's all stick together through this." He was holding his heart again and everyone in the room was staring at him with a cold look in their eyes.

And then they were all standing up, leaving behind grimy bottles of half drunk alcohol and the sweaty butt stains they made on the old creaky chairs. I shuddered at the disgusting thought of breathing the air in this room and somehow or another it actually made my heart ache for Hideto. His foolish trips to Evelen's bar in Oimachi were always nearly unbearable with the bacteria and the putrid gasses of the sad, lonely townsfolk who's only great joy in life is getting drunk at the end of a hard day of sitting around on their urine stained couches and bossing their children around, beating them if they did not obey. And yet somehow, I missed that. I missed the time in my life when Hideto, Mari, Kiyoko, Dracomon and of course Rei were all that mattered. A time when this mess between the worlds was nothing but a distant, malicious dream forming in the back of some wheezing ambassador's mind. A time when my heart felt secure, in a little box in my chest, instead, it now felt like it had broken free and was bleeding on the floor of a cold basement.

"I'm so sorry for intruding on your brooding," Kansui said, his lips pursed, "But I was asked to ensure everyone left the house. That includes the ugly ones." Kansui smiled to himself as I pulled myself to my feet and walked across the room, ignoring the horrid feeling of my feet sticking the beer coated floor. "That means you." Kansui whispered as I passed him into the narrow stone passage and started my way up the metal stairs. "It's an insult, you see." Kansui felt the need to tell me as he followed behind me, a spring in his every step. "Because you're ugly, and I am beautiful."

"How's your nose?" I asked bluntly.

Kansui faltered and sighed, "My dear sister hit me hard, but luckily she did not do any serious damage to my beautiful schnoz."

"That's too bad." I said, "Maybe I should give it a go?"

Kansui gasped and stopped walking which gave me enough time to get out of range of his bossy voice. There were some stragglers in the mostly empty cabin, so I pushed through them, hoping to get lost in the crowd before Kansui could catch up to me and be any more annoying. I pushed my way through their bodies, trying to not touch them as much as possible, until finally I had found a familiar face.

I stood over him, my arms crossed, looking down on him. It was Puraido, he smiled awkwardly as he looked up to me. "H-hey..." he said nervously. "Kansui told us to pack our stuff." He gestured to all of the bags surrounding him and tried to laugh. "I guess I'm the only one who brought anything." I pursed my lips and reached down to pick up the blue bag by my feet. There was no way he was going to be able to carry all of this by himself. "Hey don't touch that!" Puraido gasped.

"I just thought—"

"I don't need your help." Puraido said nervously, reaching over and taking the bag from me quickly, dragging it toward him.

"Okay," I said through gritted teeth. Trying to help was apparently going to get me nowhere in a town full of hate filled digiphobic people. I was going to have to try a new tactic. Maugrim, Evelen and now Puraido had all pushed me away for trying to be of some service. Of course I had my own plans, and maybe they had all just seen right through me and found it difficult to trust someone they knew was not looking out for their best interests. The issue that arose here was that each and every one of them was looking out for _their_ best interests and they didn't seem to overlap.

Kansui's voice found its way back to my ears and I nearly groaned audibly, which, as it turned out would not have been noticeable. Everyone else had done as I'd wanted to the moment he spoke, loud enough that I, thankfully, could not hear him well. He started leading the way to wherever it was that he wanted to set up camp.

I felt my face twitch into a grimace but composed myself quickly, walking amongst my greasy companions. I'd gone camping before. Quite a few times, actually. I could vaguely remember camping with Rei as children. I found enjoyment in it then, but somehow I didn't feel it would be the same this time around.

The walking seemed to be taking longer than I wanted it to—especially with Kansui's constant updates that we were 'almost there'—and I felt the fumes from the people around me were merging with my own. I could genuinely feel the air that should have been fresh, but was not, seeping into my skin, turning me into one of them. I shuddered and forced my way back through the crowd. I wasn't a fan of tight spaces anyway.

The moment I was out of the crowd I found a tree, and I pressed my back against it, breathing in the smell of pesticides and factory fumes. Ah, the great outdoors. I noticed there was a murky leaf stuck to my shoe and I tried to kick it off, but lost my balance, and I ended up grabbing a low branch from the tree and landing my hand in a puddle of fresh bird poop.

I took a deep breath, desperate to calm myself, but couldn't. I quickly unscrewed my water bottle and used whatever was left to rinse my hand off, pouring the water to the ground where it created a puddle of mud, and then I placed the empty bottle in my bag and used some hand sanitizer.

"Well don't you just seem like a happy camper?" I looked up and saw Namida Fujimoto smiling at me.

"Outside is gross." I said flatly.

"Oh, you have no idea!" Mrs Fujimoto said brightly, coming toward me. I did though, have an idea I mean, I said nothing however. I thought I'd try to get on her good side. Someone had to like me around here, or I'd be dead by morning. Maugrim's death threat didn't seem thin, and I really thought he might follow through. She held her hand out when she got nearer and I shared some of my hand sanitizer. She looked up to the sky and sighed, "I'm not much for camping, myself."

"Could have fooled me." I said with a smile. It was unsettling how fake I felt by simply showing my teeth.

Mrs Fujimoto let out a laugh, bright and cheery. "You know," She said, taking a step in the direction of the group. I fell into stride with her. "I remember a time when you and my children made mud pies and fed them to the foolish neighbor children."

I winced. It was a horrible feeling to have someone remember as far back as I could. It was one of the many reasons I could not stand my mother. When someone becomes familiar with the way you work, and watches it progress for any number of years, that's how you know they know too much. Rei was the only person I was comfortable having know me that well. I would simply have to remind myself that this woman only knew a younger version of me, and never saw me progress through life. Hideto stopped inviting me to his house less than a year after I'd met him. Instead we pretended we were adults by drinking two sips of a cup of coffee and then deciding it tasted bad, but never telling each other we couldn't stand it.

I zoned back in and realized Mrs Fujimoto was telling some elaborate story of how Yorokobi and I used to be such enemies, throwing things at one another, and causing as much drama as we could. "I knew then that she had a little crush on you," Mrs Fujimoto said with a grin, "And you were such a good boy, clean, smart. I really wish you would have stuck around. You two would have been so good for one another."

"Ah, well..." I was startled by a new voice entering the conversation. I turned to see Hideto's father walking on my other side, his hair swept to one side, looking rather plastic today. "She's single now." Mrs Fujimoto laughed and reached behind me to push her husband's shoulder, "I'm just saying!"

"Stop!" Mrs Fujimoto laughed, "Darling, you're embarrassing him!" He wasn't. Embarrassment was not what I was feeling. It was disgust. Anger. Horror. The thought of being with Yorokobi after everything she'd said to Hideto, and to myself. That was disgusting.

"What about you, boy?" Mr Fujimoto asked, "Are you seeing anyone? Ever had a serious relationship?"

"No," I said bluntly.

"Never?" Mrs Fujimoto asked in that way old prissy ladies do when they want some gossip.

"Not at the moment, no." I replied, using as much energy as I could to sound kind. "I had a fiancé once. For about an hour. Maybe less."

"Oh, poor dear!" Mrs Fujimoto said.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked to her, forcing kindness into the way my eyes shaped themselves. "It's for the better. She was in love with someone else. Yamato Ishida—rock star extraordinaire."

"Do you _know_ him?" Mrs Fujimoto asked, appalled.

"I suppose, yes." I said as vaguely as I could muster. "He lived across the hall from my sister and I while we were growing up. We've never gotten along though, if that's what you're wondering."

"Well good." Mr Fujimoto seemed frustrated now. "That wretch hit our baby girl."

"Pardon me?" I asked, shocked. "When did this happen?"

"Earlier today." Mr Fujimoto explained. "We were out on some very personal and serious business, entrusted to us by Maugrim himself, you know. We ran into the boy. I didn't recognize him until he'd stood up, and then, out of nowhere, unprovoked..."

"He hit her." Mrs Fujimoto said bitterly. "In her face."

Finally, something Yamato had done right. That wasn't a very common occurrence. Mostly I found that he spent his time pining after a girl instead of closing the deal, complaining things never went his way and wasting all of his time. "That's awful." I lied, forcing a smile away from my lips. The thought of Yorokobi Fujimoto being hit was not something I had never necessarily been looking forward to, but having it happen was not something I was entirely against either. "He is also the cause of my sister's paralysation." The Fujimoto's gasped in horror, but I merely winced at my words. How could I regress so quickly to a state of mind in which I truly believed Yamato to be such a horrible person?

"He has to be stopped." Mrs Fujimoto said firmly. "Will you help us?"

"Of course," I immediately regretted that decision. I desperately required a topic alteration in the conversation. "So, who do you think set fire to the base?"

Mrs and Mr Fujimoto looked to each other as if they thought I, as a child, could not understand, or notice something out of my range of limited knowledge. They clearly had something to do with the fire, or at least knew something of it, but it did not matter to me. Evelen and Hideto both made it out alive, and that was all I cared about, really, so whatever purpose the fire served, it did nothing to affect me.

"Not a clue, dear," Mrs Fujimoto decided finally. "Not a clue."

"It looks like we're stopping!" Mr Fujimoto said, clearly relieved to have an out to the accusations he thought I was making on him. He and his wife bade a quick farewell and rushed off ahead to see the campsite, but I was in no particular hurry, myself. I watched for a moment as everyone began picking a tent, and finding their assigned bunk-partners. When enough of them had retreated to their tents I decided it was time to go myself.

I located a woman who was holding a thin black binder in her relatively clean fingers, looking up which tent should be hers. I took a brief moment to look around at the grey and green tents in the area. The tents were nicer than the ones that had been surrounding the base whilst we had been in the Digital World. These ones were larger, and seemed more secure, like they'd be stationary longer. I wondered if perhaps this was illegal, to set up our tents in such a random location, and yet I didn't feel we'd be getting much trouble from the so called protectors of our city. They did, after all, believe everything these people stood for.

"Neo, mother has sent me to find you." Puraido said anxiously as he stormed toward me quickly. He was holding that blue bag still. I was curious as to what he was hiding, but didn't care enough to actually find out. "She wants to tell you that you're welcome to stay with us in our motel room. It's not very nice, but it's not horrible, blah blah blah..." He trailed off, thinking, "Yeah that's all I think."

He turned quickly to leave, without a response, which was fine by me. My house was near enough for me to stay there, which was obviously the plan from the start. Did anyone actually expect me to sleep in the dirt? "Puraido," I said, "Whatever you're hiding in that bag must be really important." He froze mid stride. "If you want it to stay a secret you might consider being less obvious." He stayed in place just a moment longer and then kept walking as if I'd never said a thing.

"You want this?" The woman next to me asked, handing me the binder. I raised my eyebrows in a simple response and took the book from her, flipping it open. My name was near the back, where it told me my campsite was to be 'A-2'. But that wasn't what I was searching for. I was looking for Maugrim's place. 'A-1'. That couldn't be a coincidence. There had to be a reason he was keeping me so close. Either way, it played to my plan. I was quick to weave my way through the tents. Not a single person laid eyes on me. There was too much going on. I could get in and out, no trouble.

As it turned out, I hadn't needed the binder—that I had tossed to the ground—to inform me of Maugrim's quarters. His tent was enormous and resembled a circus tent of sorts but without the blindingly optimistic colours. Instead, his was green and grey, just as every tent in the clearing was. I stepped up to the door that had been rolled back on either side to create an archway, and I listened for movement. It seemed no one was inside, so I stepped over the threshold and untied the door, closing it behind me.

I looked around quickly to ensure I truly was alone, and saw that Maugrim's perception of camping was much different than my father's had when I was younger. He had a large bed in one half of the tent with shelves and drawers and boxes piling up around it. A large square, wooden table made up the center of the room, papers and pens littered the surface, and in the other side of the room there were more boxes, piled up in a mountain of sorts.

I was about to start looking around when I heard the canvas of the door being pulled aside. Panic shot through my body very briefly until I became aware that Evelen had been my intruder. "Where's my dad?" She asked, her arms crossed. "What are you doing in here?"

I didn't respond immediately, instead I stood over his table where he had left out whatever he'd been working with all night. The first thing I spotted was a printed picture of a monster of sorts. It was furry and round with a thin beak escaping the tufts of dark fur. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and began snapping pictures. Along the table, more monster pictures were laid out, and I wanted a picture of each one.

"Neo, if you don't tell me what's going on, I'll tell my dad." Evelen said snidely.

"Oh, you're going to run to Daddy?" I asked, "Better tell him the mean boy has been hurting your feelings." I was of course referring to the argument we had had the previous day. I had every intention to apologize to her, and yet, circumstances being as they were, I found myself more readily available to be bitter toward her even further.

"Would you stop being such an ass?" Evelen asked flatly, closing the space between us until she was standing at the opposite end of the table, "You're literally the..." She trailed off, staring down at the table and moving aside a heavy piece of parchment paper where ancient looking sketches, like Da Vinci's inventions. "What's this?"

"As if I would know," I rolled my eyes, reaching over to take the paper and snapping a picture of the drawing. It looked like a large antennae, but the information around it was very detailed. I would have to read through it later. "I just need to take inventory."

"So what side are you on?" At first I'd assumed she was asking it in a snide sarcastic way, but the way her voice reached me was on a much more personal level. I slowly looked up to her and she was holding another piece of paper, handing it to me, her face was serious.

I took the page from her and started taking more pictures before answering, "I just want to find my partner. And Rei."

"Dracomon, right." Evelen nodded, handing me more of her dad's work. "So what are you doing here, if you have a partner?"

I looked up and smirked, "I can't divulge all of my secrets so easily." I winked at her, which felt both out of character, and right at the same time.

"Well," she said, suppressing a grin, "You know about me now, so it's only fair." She looked around the tent and sighed, "Tell me something."

"Like what?" I asked, thinking it was _hardly_ fair since I only knew she had a family and that they were less than enjoyable to be around. That wasn't a great deal of personal information, so why was I required to share _my_ life with _her_?

"Tell me about your dad?" She suggested it as if it didn't matter to her, but if the way she was avoiding my eye contact was any indication, she definitely did care. "Or something. I don't know, you know about my dad. I just thought..."

"There really isn't anything to tell," I told her simply, "He left. That's all." She didn't respond. It wasn't enough. She was expecting payment, and this was my chance to get back on her good side. I set the page I was working with down and looked up to her, "When we were little, my dad would take Rei and I camping. We had a lot of fun."

"So you weren't always a bitter stick in the mud?" Evelen asked, a grin forming on her face as she held her tongue between her teeth playfully.

"Fine, I won't tell you." I said, shrugging my shoulders. "If you don't want to know."

"I'm sorry, you're right." She said, nodding, "Continue."

I looked to her with raised eyebrows and sighed, returning to my work. "Both of us could agree that camping was actually some of the better moments of our childhood. Dad would take us every now and then. He would always run off with some woman though. We never knew what he was up to at the time, but looking back, it seems fairly clear. Without him around, it was always just Rei and I. We would swim, and play, or hike. Back when—" I looked up to Evelen for a moment and then faltered in my story, looking back down again. "Back when she could walk. The last time I went camping was nearly twenty years ago. And that was also the last time I've ever seen my dad." I paused, practically begging Evelen to take over the conversation now, but she just waited. "The last thing he said to me," I added unwillingly, "He said, 'hey Neo, could you and Rei get some firewood? It's going to be cold out here all alone in the night.' And of course, I went. And when we came back, he was gone."

"Neo, I'm sorry—"

"Okay, now see?" I said, looking up to her, setting my phone down rather loudly on the table. "This is exactly the reason I neglect to tell people about my life. They tell me how sorry they are, but there's no reason to be. It happened, I handled it, and now I am over it." I picked up my phone again and she nodded. "I thought you would at least understand that."

"Neo, I'm just trying to be kind."

"You are kind." I said, annoyed, "You really don't need to try."

She was silent for a moment and then she set the pages down on the table again. "I think I'll wait outside. I'll keep watch." She walked to the door and pulled the canvass aside again. "Hurry though."

"Of course." I nodded.

I did as promised, taking as many pictures as I could, as quickly as possible. I got through everything on the table, but the boxes surrounding the tent seemed so inviting. I pondered opening one up and taking a look inside, but Evelen's voice suddenly came loud and clear."Kansui!" She shouted in mock excitement. Her voice was muffled through the thick material of the tent. "Look up in the sky! That cloud looks like you." I heard his quiet, muffled voice and knew he was saying something pretentious. I also knew it was time to leave the tent now, no matter how inviting the boxes may have been.

There was one last thing that had caught my eye however. A nightstand next to Maugrim's bed. I crept toward it and pulled on the tiny drawer, but found it to be locked. Disappointed, I moved quickly and quietly, slipping out of the tent. The first thing I saw was Evelen and Kansui standing with their backs to me, her arm across his shoulders. She was pointing to the sky with her other hand to a large and misshapen cloud and her brother's shoulders were slouched. "Is that really how you see me?"

"Oh, come on!" she insisted, "If you tilt your head?"

He groaned and spun on the spot, catching sight of me walking away from the tent I'd just been trespassing in. "Neo!" he exclaimed, apparently not at all bothered by what it looked like. "I've been looking for you everywhere, _Roomie_!"

"Pardon me?" I asked hesitantly as Evelen choked on laughter. She turned and pretended to be coughing and excused herself, apparently in desperate need of water.

"Yes, father said I'd need to share," Kansui said bitterly, "But I thought, 'hmm, who better to share with than Neo?' and now here we are!"

"Oh," I said, "I'd really rather not."

"Please?" Kansui asked, gesturing to the large tent right behind him. It was nowhere near as large as his father's tent, but it _was_ right next door.

It was at that moment I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Mrs Fujimoto beaming brightly. "So are you coming? To the motel?"

I looked awkwardly from her, to Kansui and then to Maugrim's tent. "I'm sorry, I can't." I told her, "I promised Kansui here that I'd bunk with him."

"Well I'm sure that'll be fun." Mrs Fujimoto said, wincing jokingly, "You simply must join us for dinner sometimes at the very least. It has been _too_ long. We must catch up."

"Absolutely." I promised, "Of course." She smiled, and was off a moment later.

And in that precise moment, I regretted my decision. Kansui had thrown his arm around my shoulders and was leading me to the tent. "Let me show you around, and then when the sun goes down you can talk about how you're apparently dating Yorokobi Fujimoto?"

"What?" I asked loudly.

"That's what I heard." Kansui said with an exaggerated nod, "You and Yorokobi. Neokobi. Lovers from childhood, reunited at last."

"I don't believe in love," I said automatically. Kansui looked shocked and appalled as he withdrew his arm. "Love is just a cautionary, momentary, reactionary lie." I said, as I always had. But somehow, this time, it felt like a lie itself. And I certainly did not like lying.

 _ **Iori Hida:**_

My hands were bound together with rope that was tied painfully tight. Each shift of my wrist caused the rope to cut into my already raw skin. I glared at the ground, remembering Mokumon's souvenir. The burns were an excellent pair for the rope, creating the perfect blend for optimal pain. The two crescent shaped cuts in my arm itched like crazy, but I couldn't reach them, no matter how much I wiggled. I knew it would hurt to scratch them anyway. I feared they were going to get infected.

On the plus side, I wouldn't die from that infection.

No.

I was going to die much sooner than it would take for the infection to fester and spread. I wasn't just tied to a stake for laughs. My feet were free, but they were of no help to me. The stake wasn't comfortable to lean against either, but any time I tried to lean away, it put pressure on my wrists, making the binding rub against my skin.

Any movement caused me pain at this point.

I could handle the pain, if I was able to accomplish anything whilst enduring it. But at this point, I was useless. My left eye was swollen shut. My throat ached, and I was sure it was covered in bruises. I may very well have looked like a walking bruise with the way I felt every muscle stretching with every shuffle of my feet. I knew I had a large, deep gash in my right calf. I could see it through my torn pant leg. I was fairly certain that I had dried blood all over my face. It itched too. My forehead bore a lovely gash as well, I could feel it each time I blinked. My chest, my arms, my back—everything hurt. I had no way of knowing just how many gashes and scratches were littered over my skin.

The number wasn't important anyway.

I was going to die within the next couple of hours anyway.

The shadows were surrounding my stake. They were forming an audience that would watch my demise. One shadow was holding a stick in his hand, carefully scratching out some demonic symbols into the ground in a perfect circle around me—just out of reach so that I couldn't kick him like I wanted to. It wasn't hard to make the leap between the symbols and their purpose. I was going to be the shadow's sacrifice in some insane ritual.

I didn't know what they were hoping to achieve, but I could imagine they were going to offer my life to whatever deity they could in order to open a path between the Dark Ocean and some other world so that they could escape this depressing, horrifying world. It was worrying just how practiced this shadow was at drawing the symbols. They were too precise. The circle was too perfect. They'd done this before, and I was reminded of all the times the shadows had spilled into other worlds in the past.

Did that mean sacrifice was a common practice here?

I wondered for a second who they used as their sacrifice each of the past times, and recoiled from the thought. Daemon and Dragomon wouldn't have any issue with sacrificing one of the Armadillomon that worked as their slaves. It angered me to think that Armadillomon were being killed so that these shadows could escape their hell. They were here for a reason. They ended up here because of their own decisions and actions. If they didn't want to be here, they shouldn't have acted the way that they had. It wasn't those Armadillomon's fault. It wasn't their job to free them. My partner wasn't far from my mind at any moment, and it didn't take long for my imagination to substitute him for the unknown Armadillomon, and my anger exploded from me.

"What the hell are you even doing here?" I demanded to the shadows. "You're supposed to be good little spirits in heaven now!"

My skin crawled as a voice burst into life within my own mind. The shadow stopped scratching out the symbols, and I got the distinct thought that he was sending a vicious smile my way.

 _That creature_ —which I took to mean Norn— _was only able to purify the weaker spirits. The spirits that possessed regrets. The strongest have remained behind. Regret is a weakness we do not possess. In her quest to rid this world of evil, she ensured that only the darkest, most evil spirits could rule unopposed._

It made sense. You couldn't purify something without there being _some_ goodness in it. It didn't make me feel any better about their presence though. I was still angry. My anger was actually growing stronger. His voice was so cold, and evil that I felt the need to cleanse myself from it. I needed to stand in a scalding shower for at least an hour to get rid of his presence, but it wasn't an option.

My mind wandered, and I wondered how they decided who was in charge out of the lot of them, if they were all pure evil. Was there any way I could stir up an argument that would buy me some time to figure out a way to escape? Were there lesser evil spirits here now? Norn had purified them three years ago. Was it a practice she kept up, or was there three years worth of spirits from the worlds that had built up a formidable number of minions for those of pure evil?

I couldn't possibly learn the answer to my questions. I wouldn't get a chance to actually _ask_ Norn for answers. I'd been tentatively calling to her since I'd ended up in this hateful world. Kurayami trusted Norn implicitly, she relied on her, treated her as much like a sister as I treated Meiyomon like a brother. We were alike, Kurayami and I. I accepted her confidence in Norn fully, and had been calling to her, hoping she would offer me some form of support, but none of my calls had ever been answered.

Summer wasn't able to hear me from here either.

I'd tried nine times so far.

There was nothing I was able to do to save myself, and none of the magic entities that I trusted could hear my pleas for help. I was going to be sacrificed to open a gate to another world. I found myself hoping that their "escape" from hell would lead them directly into the Digital World where they would run headfirst into the virus, which could then ironically save the world from their presence by just deleting them—probably. I grumbled to myself, wincing when I tried to escape again, and felt my skin ripping open. The bristles on the rope dug into the fresh cuts, but I gritted my teeth. I refused to make any sounds; I would not let them laugh at my weakness. They wouldn't know about it if I had anything to say about it. I would die with that dignity still intact. They had battered my body, but they would _not_ destroy my spirit.

I glared at the newest symbol, wondering what was going to happen to _my_ spirit when this ritual took place. Would I get to move on to heaven, or would I cease to be? Perhaps I would remain here forever as punishment for my stubborn nature, and my tendencies towards violence. Would I get to meet with my father again, see him for the first time since I was three years old? Maybe I'd get to see Grandpa again. I missed him still every day.

Maybe Noriko would be waiting there for me, proving my fears that the virus had deleted her spirit as well as her body false.

Those thoughts weren't enough though. No matter how much I missed Grandpa, no matter how much I wished I could know my father, I didn't want to die yet. I had to help defeat the DWD. I had to get back to Armadillomon. Natsuni was still on Earth. She was safe, and I needed to see her again. I wanted to marry her, I wanted to talk to my mother, and try to mend the rift that had grown between us, pushing us apart for so many years that we weren't on the same page anymore. I needed to see Meiyomon and tell him that it didn't matter who he called his dad—even if I silently didn't agree.

Miyako needed me too.

I'd promised her I'd babysit her child. I couldn't do that if I died now. Now that I thought about it, I'd promised Michael the exact same thing. I'd never extended the offer to Kurayami, despite our close friendship, and I wanted to have the chance to make up for it.

But I'd been stupid. I'd let my guard down, and I'd gotten captured by these damn shadows. I hadn't put up enough of a fight. I should have done better. _Could_ I have done better?

 _I'd entered the gate, closing the door behind me. I didn't look back. There was no point. There was nothing I could do to change what I'd left behind. I couldn't go back. The gate was only one-way. Hawkmon was out there, and I'd left him behind. It killed me that I'd abandoned my friend. But I couldn't find him. He was probably already gone by the time I'd started calling for him._

 _At least I wouldn't have to worry about what I'd tell Miyako. I'd never see her again either. She was behind me now. I didn't know where she was, but hoped she had made it to the Coliseum in my absence. I didn't know though, and I never would. I would never know that any of them were safe. I could imagine, I could_ hope _, but I could never know. My mother was there. We were distant, but I loved her with everything I had. Could I be certain that she was safe? No. Meiyomon, my little brother was there. I couldn't know about him either. Hikari, Kurayami, Miyako, they were all gone. Jou was there, with Armadillomon and Emiko. Could I ever be sure that they were safe?_

 _No._

 _I couldn't, and it killed me that I doubted them. They were adults—except Emiko—and were fully capable of taking care of themselves. They were smart enough to escape the virus. To stay put where it was safe. Jou would never let anything happen to Emiko. But even still I couldn't bring myself to feel confident about her survival._

 _I couldn't be confident until I could see them face to face._

 _That wasn't an option anymore. I'd sealed myself in this hell, and I was going to have to live with that decision, no matter how difficult that may prove to be._

 _I was standing in a field of flattened, tall, dead grass. It was grey all around me, and the sight of it scared all the joy I might've still held in my heart away. I hadn't realized that there was more to the Dark Ocean than an ocean. I thought that's why it was called the Dark_ Ocean _. This field had shattered my expectations of an endless, colourless beach. Each step I took caused a cracking sort of crunch as I put my weight on the dead grass._

 _There was a forest to my right, and a decrepit town on my left. If I had thought for even a second that I'd be able to hunt out some food in there, I would've headed towards the town, but as it was, I figured I'd have better luck in the forest. I needed to think ahead. An idle body and a bored mind were some of the most dangerous things that could happen when trying to survive alone._

 _I'd watched enough movies with Natsuni about survival. I knew what I needed to do. I knew what the most important things were: food, water, shelter and fire. I needed to find a way to provide myself with all of these. I could do without anything else. These were the necessities. The town may have had plenty of shelter, but someone had to live in them, meaning they would prove to be the more dangerous option._

 _Instead of risking it, I took to the woods, hunting out the perfect branches and sticks and carefully arranged them into the skeleton of my shelter. Afterwards, I collected as many dried branches that I could. I couldn't find any living branches for my shelter. Nothing was alive here. Everything was dead and silent. It was unnerving. This world wasn't_ meant _to have people survive. It was a land for the dead. I wasn't going to last long._

 _It was as I was rubbing two sticks together, trying to create a fire, knowing in the back of my mind that it was never going to work, that everything took a turn for the worse. The air around me grew colder than it already was. I could feel all of my hair stand on end, and my skin crawled. I tightened my grip on the two pieces of wood and stood up, swinging the wood towards whoever was behind me in one, swift motion. The stick slammed into the side of a shadow's head, and it fell to the ground. Another shadow was quick to take his place, and it didn't take long for it to become an all out battle. I was fighting against thirteen shadows. I'd counted them. I didn't want to make the same mistake I'd made with the baby digimon. I needed to have all of my enemies accounted for. I couldn't risk missing one. That was all it would take for me to lose this fight._

 _The stick I was wielding with my left hand snapped in two as I bashed it against a particularly stubborn shadow, and I was down a weapon. I went to grab my digivice with my newly free hand, something I hadn't dared do before, because it would take time to do, time I could've used to fight against the shadows. I had that opportunity now, but I couldn't do it. The shadows took the short moment where I'd decided my next move and all pounced at once._

 _I didn't have a chance. They clawed at my arms, my legs—anywhere they could reach. Some were more forceful than others, and I could feel blood dripping,_ gushing _, from the gashes they'd left behind. I fought against them the best I could. But there were too many. Four hands were closed around each of my arms. Two hands were wrapped tightly around my neck, pressing down on my airway, preventing me from taking a breath._

 _It didn't take long for stars to start dancing before my eyes. And once they made their appearance, it wasn't long before they took their final bow. Everything faded to black as my consciousness left me, and I passed out._

I'd woken up tied to this post, and in a hell of a lot of pain. It didn't help that I was only able to see out of the one eye. The other was swollen shut, and useless. I couldn't tell how many shadows were here. My neck was too stiff to turn my head as far as I would need to. There were dozens at least, but probably a lot more than that. They had a tendency to lurk just out of sight.

The circle of symbols was getting dangerously close to being complete. I didn't have a lot of time left to try and save myself. I gritted my teeth, and started pulling and twisting my wrists. I grunted, but that was the only sound that passed through my lips. On the _inside_ it was a different story. But I continued struggling, flailing my legs out the best I could, trying to kick the shadow that was planning to use me as a sacrifice. I couldn't reach him, but I slipped my foot out of my sneakers and kicked them, one after the other at him. Both were direct hits. It only made him angry. He signaled for a few of the audience members to come forward.

Their fists hurt nearly as much as their claws had. My lip exploded into a bloody mess, and I was pretty sure I heard my nose crack after a shadow hit it twice in quick succession. Blood poured out of my newly broken nose, filling my mouth with a salty, metallic flavour. I spit it into the nearest shadows face.

The shadows snarled at me.

One shadow got right in my face. He started speaking in my mind, but I didn't listen to him. I pulled my face away from him and slammed it forward. He howled, and the other shadows joined him, crowding around me. They were within reach now, and I used my legs to the best of my abilities.

 _Just give in!_

"No!" I growled. I wasn't going to roll over and let them sacrifice me. I wasn't going to just _let_ them use my life to open a gate so they could plague another world. I was a digidestined. I had _honour_. I wasn't going to stop fighting until all life left my body.

A blast of light flashed and crashed into the shadows that were surrounding me. Another came and blasted the shadow that was carving the symbols. I tried to blink the blood out of my one good eye. The gash on my forehead hadn't clotted, and was making it hard to see. The light continued to flash, and I thought for a second that I'd caught sight of Miyako, wielding a pair of digivices, but knew I had to be imagining things.

What would _she_ be doing in the Dark Ocean?

But when a second person—blue, with wings—cast out a warm, magical haze, knocking a dozen shadows off their feet, the light illuminated my rescuers face, and it was indeed Miyako. She'd found her own fairy queen and staged a rescue.

I was relieved for about two whole seconds.

And then the relief ran out the door, watching Miyako as she screamed out battle cries, wielding the two digivices like a pro. What the _hell_ was she doing here? Why was she fighting? She was _pregnant_. She shouldn't have to risk her child to save _me_.

I knew for a fact that her greatest fears included these very shadows—Sigma in particular—and potentially harming her baby.

Why was she doing this for me?

But the question that was plaguing me the most, was: who in the _hell_ gave Miyako the other key to the Dark Ocean? All of our friends knew she was pregnant—she hadn't hid it well at all. Who inflicted this on her little child?

"Take that!" Miyako shouted. I nearly screamed when a shadow came up behind her, claws out. But a pair of Armadillomon tackled it to the ground. The next time Winter sent out her magic, she lit the area enough for me to see a small army of Armadillomon had accompanied them.

I was used to being saved by an Armadillomon.

 _My_ Armadillomon.

My heart clenched, knowing I didn't know what happened to him. Knowing I would have a reminder every day for the rest of my life, several digimon that looked _just_ like him, but could never _be_ him was painful. I didn't want it, but I also craved it. I was too conflicted.

I was also in a lot of pain.

A pair of hands was at my wrists. Miyako, Winter and the Armadillomon were busy. I didn't want to inconvenience them. So I lashed out on my own. I kicked as far back behind the stake as I could. I wasn't going to let the shadows win. My foot landed with a satisfying amount of force.

"Why would you do that?"

Shadows didn't usually speak aloud, and I was definitely hearing it _outside_ of my head. I was confused, but I still couldn't see behind me. Who had Miyako brought with her to the Dark Ocean? It wasn't much of a relief to know she'd not been alone. I was still too caught up on the idea that she was here at all.

And that I didn't know if Hawkmon was safe or not.

"I should've stayed in the castle," the man whined. "That's not how _normal_ people treat their rescuers."

"Huh?" I asked eloquently. The man fiddled with the rope, not being overly careful. I wasn't sure if it was revenge for kicking him, or if he was just ignorant of how much pain I was in, but he was making it worse. I focused my eyes entirely on Winter, who was glowing now, creating a dome around herself that was growing in size. It shoved the shadows away; they couldn't enter her magic barrier. Finally, the ropes let go, and my arms dropped to my sides. My wrists were burning, they hurt so badly. I staggered away from the post, purposefully dragging my feet to ruin the shadow's hard work, and destroying the symbols that had nearly been my doom.

Winter's dome was covering all of us now, and I was breathing easier knowing that Miyako wasn't fighting shadows anymore. If she hadn't been pregnant, I probably would've complimented her on being such an amazing fighter. She'd been flawless really. But she _was_ pregnant, and I felt guilty about making her feel the need to come and fight for me.

The man that had untied me was now properly in my limited field of vision. He looked at me and recoiled in disgust. I supposed he didn't have the stomach for blood. It was a shame that I didn't care. I recognized him. He'd lost a lot of weight and looked haunted, but I knew who he was. He was that damn lawyer that the Goutokuji's hired to take Mari's library from her. I'd beaten him in a court of law, and he _hated_ me for it. I was just a student still, and I'd won the case.

It was my proudest moment, really.

I was having trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that my enemy of law had come to _save_ me, bringing a pregnant woman, a fairy queen and an army of digimon with him. I knew the rescue couldn't have been his idea, but it was strange, trying to fit him in with any of the others.

The others were _normal_ to me.

"We must get him to the castle, if you wish to be safe," Winter called in a powerful, clear voice.

Miyako nodded and carefully picked my shoes up from the ground, raising an eyebrow at me as she did so, probably wondering what they were doing off of my feet. I gave in to the temptation and scratched the bite marks on my arm. I'd been right. The coagulated wound ripped open painfully, and started bleeding a second time. Not that it really mattered. I had enough open wounds that no one would really notice another.

"I will not make a habit of saving you," Winter warned us. "I'll be too busy configuring a way to get you out of this world. Staying safe will be your own responsibility. The castle is safe. You may remain there the entirety of your stay, if you wish, but if you leave, and trouble finds you, you are on your own."

"Understood," I said, my voice was thick as I tried to mask my pain. I didn't want Miyako to know how much I was hurting. She didn't _need_ to know. She had firsthand experience with shadows and their claws.

"I would suggest, if you were to leave the safety of the castle, that you stay where it is dry," Winter offered. "Do _not_ touch the water—Miyako especially, unless you want the baby to end up like Kurayami."

"How are we supposed to just _not_ touch water?" the lawyer demanded. "We need to drink it to stay alive, don't you know." I got the distinct feeling he'd already drank some of it. I couldn't find it in myself to worry about him. I could barely find it in me to feel guilty over kicking him while he was untying me. He was a bit of an ass. I didn't really care for his presence.

"Obviously, the water within the castle is purified," Winter snapped. I was pleased to see she had little patience with him. I might be able to get along with her. It wasn't like Summer could hear me anymore. Norn _still_ hadn't answered.

I hoped nothing had happened to either of them.

I didn't know how the virus worked. Had it somehow gotten through the cracks between the worlds? Was my aunt nothing more than a memory now? I flinched away from the thoughts and started assessing the damage done to my wrists. They were extremely tender. I winced each time my fingers came in contact with them.

Miyako whimpered, and latched onto my hand. I tried not to let my hiss of pain be noticeable, but she wasn't being particularly gentle. I looked at her face, and found that she was legitimately terrified. I squeezed her hand tightly.

"My baby can't be like Kurayami," she whispered. She curled her arm around her stomach, since her hand was full of my shoes. "Kurayami killed a man. I watched it. And she's so prone to turning evil. I can't have my baby being like that. I can't. I _won't_."

"There's nothing wrong with Kurayami," I said firmly. She was surprised by my quick defense. She really shouldn't have. I'd been defending Kurayami long before I _knew_ her on a personal level. I'd forgiven her time and time again when she did something for Fanglongmon. I never forgave anyone at that time, and I knew it was a sign of how important she would become to me.

I liked being around her, even though she was always so scared of herself. I recognized that fear. I knew that she blamed herself for her mother's death—and for her mother's turn to darkness in the first place. I knew that she was afraid of what she could do if she were to let go.

And she lost her mother. I'd lost my father. We were both really close to our grandfathers—closer than we were to our remaining parents. We both rely very heavily on our partners to keep us in line, and to keep our crests in our hearts. Without Armadillomon, I wouldn't be nearly so forgiving. I'd be useless when the digidestined needed me. I knew that Labramon was a constant support to Kurayami in the same way. She was so afraid of her crest; she wouldn't use it at all, if it weren't for Labramon.

We'd also both adopted strange younger siblings—Norn and Meiyomon.

We were so alike, and we'd spent a lot of time together, finishing high school. Hikari and Natsuni were always with us, and we were incredibly great friends. We both adored Hikari and loved watching movies with Natsuni. There was a time not very long ago that I'd thought I couldn't connect with other people—especially people my own age. Kurayami helped to prove me wrong every day.

They were my family.

Miyako was _not_ going to insult my family. There was nothing wrong with Kurayami. She was dedicated to bettering herself, and never gave up, no matter how many times she might have wanted to. She was stubborn sometimes too, and she was a great mother.

"If she killed a man, she had a damn good reason," I said. I tried to keep the anger out of my voice. It didn't work. She looked to her feet, guiltily.

"She saved my life," Miyako admitted, peeking up at me.

"There you go," I said, shrugging my shoulders, only to wince again. I was bruised all over. Damn. "Kurayami did the right thing."

"How can you say that though," Miyako wanted to know. Her voice was small. "She _killed_ him. She took his life away from him. He deserved to live."

"You did too," I told her firmly. "And he was trying to kill not only you but your baby as well. I will always support Kurayami's actions. She _saved_ you. She saved _you_. She did what I always promised myself I would do: she took care of you. She protected you."

"So she's your kindred spirit now?" Miyako asked, sounding confused. I realized in that moment that I'd not been very vocal about my friendship with Kurayami, and vowed I would do something about it. It wasn't a secret. There was no need for it to be. I wasn't ashamed.

"Yeah," I said. "She kind of is."

"Oh," Miyako said. "If you trust her, than I shouldn't be _so_ afraid I guess. I can't get rid of all of the fear though. You know that. I can't. She did something so scary, and horrible. No matter what, I won't be able to forget that."

"She won't ever do anything to hurt you," I promised her. "I won't let _anything_ happen to you. I'll always take care of you."

"That's a rather hard promise to keep when you're tied to a post," she said, gesturing back to the sacrificial circle. I glared at her playfully. She smiled, but it wasn't big enough. She was miserable, but she was trying. I knew I had my work cut out for me. I couldn't dwell on everything I wanted. I had something now that would keep my mind busy and focused.

"I'm always going to take care of you too," Miyako said after a few minutes of silence in this endlessly grey landscape. "It's not a one way street."

"I know you will," I told her, with complete faith and honesty. She looked at me inquisitively. I smiled as best I could through the pain—it wasn't a pretty sight, but she was admirably trying to not flinch at the sight of my battered and bloody face. I was thankful, even if she was obvious about it.

"How—" she started, but I squeezed her hand again. She didn't seem to realize all she'd done for me since my father died and my mother had to start working to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. It was way back then that Miyako had become a part of my family, even though she obviously didn't know it.

"I _know_ you always will," I said simply. "You always have."

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Sora and Ken Wish You Would read it.


	14. I Wish You Would

**Y/N:** The arc is coming to a close, only one chapter left after this one. It's one of the longest arcs we've ever done, and it's kind of crazy. I don't know how else to describe it. I hope you've been enjoying it so far though! I wrote Ken's this time around, and I won't say I enjoyed it, but I will say that writing as Ken has been getting easier for me lately, which is nice. It makes the writing go a whole lot faster.

 **U/N:** Here we have Sora, which is the first real chapter of the idea of what the Earth plotline was going to be, and we realized later that there wasn't enough time to do everything, but I think we put in quite a lot and it was fun-at least for me, and that's all :D

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 14: I Wish You Would**

 _ **Ken Ichijouji:**_

I was being ridiculous, but I couldn't help it. I didn't exactly know what I was going to say to the others when I eventually met up with them. I didn't want them to know I'd run off chasing a figment of my imagination. No. It might not have been an illusion. It might have been another one of those demon monsters that preyed on our weaknesses. I was just thankful it wasn't Miyako again. I couldn't handle it. I barely pulled myself together after the last glimpse of her.

My heart constricted at the memory of the mangled fetus she'd held in her grasp.

No.

I forced the thought out of my mind. Takeru was right. I had to keep hope. If I gave up on her, I was failing her. We'd vowed to be true to one another, to _trust_ each other always. We would support each other, knowing full well that we could stand on our own two feet. She was a strong woman. I shouldn't have needed Takeru to remind me of that.

But knowing it was true didn't stop my heart from wishing for her presence. It didn't prevent me from worrying myself sick over her health, and the safety of our child. Knowing that she was strong didn't keep me from being scared of losing her. It didn't give me any actual guarantees that she was alright.

It didn't keep me from questioning everything.

Who was she with; was she alone?

What happened to her, what possessed her to run directly _at_ the virus, instead of staying by Takeru's side— _my_ side?

Where did she go? If Takeru was right—and I was hoping, _praying_ , believing he was—where was she hiding? What world did that key take her to? What world was her new home?

When would I see her again? When would I _know_ if she was okay, instead of second guessing myself in this cruel and twisted game I was playing with my own mind?

Why. Why did this happen to us? Why did she leave me? Why was my mind torturing me, why couldn't I possess Takeru's never ending fountain of hope, why couldn't Koushiro discover a way to get to her so that we didn't need to explore whatever mystery world Summer had discovered for us? There were so many questions, but I didn't dare ask them out loud.

I didn't want it to seem like I was throwing myself a pity party.

No matter how much those demon monsters toyed with my emotions or tugged at my heartstrings, discovering my weaknesses in a way that was too frightening to contemplate, I wouldn't show my weakness anymore than I already had. Not when Takeru had made his point. Not when I'd killed a tree in frustration already. I didn't imagine my wife would be pleased by that course of action. She was rather passive, hated killing _anything_ when it wasn't necessary.

And the last time I'd really seen her she'd seen Kurayami shoot my boss, and had his dead body collapse on top of her.

I really wished the two of us were together. I didn't want her to dwell on that. I didn't want her to go through that alone. I didn't even want to _think_ of what that sort of trauma could do to the baby. Did Miyako's stress automatically spread to the baby too?

No.

I just had to be trusting, in her strength and her common sense. She was built to be a mother. She was perfect for it. She would _never_ endanger our baby. No way. She had a _plan_. I just wasn't privy to what that was exactly.

The fact was, she wasn't here in the Land of Dreams with Takeru, Hikari, Koushiro and I. Whatever that demon showed me, it wasn't my wife. And it _wasn't_ my baby either. And that apparition I'd seen—the one that made me leave Takeru's side as he trudged his way through the swamp—wasn't her either. It was familiar looking though, and so I'd followed it. I thought maybe it was a young boy. I'd chased after it a good five minutes, before it even occurred to me that it could be an illusion created by demon-Hikari to lure me away from the others to make my impending death easier to deal out.

Fearing that was in fact _exactly_ what was going on, I turned heel and ran back the way I'd come, hoping I'd eventually run into Takeru, or the swamp— _anything_ to prove I wasn't alone or an easy target. I kept glancing back towards whatever it was, praying that it hadn't realized I'd turned back yet. I hoped it still thought I was following after it. It would give me more time to regroup.

It was as I was looking over my shoulder that I crashed into another body. I was sprawled out on the ground in a really uncomfortable heap, almost afraid to look at whoever I'd crashed into. I was tempted to simply stare at the trefoil that was spreading its way across the grass. It was only after I'd mustered up all of my police officer courage that I was able to look away from the short blades of grass and the bright, golden flower, and up into Koushiro's face.

Koushiro.

Or was it?

My eyes narrowed. I'd been fooled by this very trick once before. He reached out his hand, a surprised look carefully formed on his face. I wouldn't fall for it a second time. I ignored his hand, and got to my feet under my own power. I didn't look away from his face, even though I was severely tempted to look for the thing I'd been chasing after.

"What are you doing?" Koushiro asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"How do I know you're really you?" I demanded.

"Whether I was Koushiro or not, I would in fact be _me_ , every person identifies with themselves in such a way. You cannot possible _be_ anybody else. You have to be _you_ , whether you're actually Ken Ichijouji or some strange hallucination of him. I _am_ Koushiro Izumi, but I am also _me_. Does that help?"

"Yeah," I sighed. "There's enough snark and know-it-all attitude in there for me to _know_ it's you, and not some illusion."

"Didn't I just get through explaining—"

"I don't really care anymore. I just want to get the others, and get back to Summer," I said. "I'm tired of being here. I want to go home. I want to find my wife, and coo about our baby. I want to touch her stomach and talk to my child. I want to see Wormmon again, and check on Masa, because I was actually supposed to be responsible for him, but I left his care to two rookie level digimon that he could easily overpower because they'd be too afraid they'd hurt him if they retaliated."

"I _would_ appreciate seeing Tentomon again," he murmured thoughtfully. Sometimes, I forgot he had emotions. I swear, most of the time the thought just slipped my mind. I probably subconsciously thought of him as a robot or something. Hearing the quiet longing in his voice as he talked about his partner was kind of a slap in the face to wake me up. "I don't suppose Mimi..."

"She left before you, right?" I pointed out.

"Yes," he admitted. "But I don't have tangible proof that she's still alive. I don't have any actual proof that Kiyoko's barriers kept out the virus. I don't _know_ anything, and it's driving me up the wall. I don't like being in the dark like this. I don't like being afraid of the unknown. There's a reason I seek out any and all knowledge. I don't like being blind."

"Welcome to the rest of the world," I said with a dry, humourless laugh.

"I don't want be with the rest of the world," he said, frustrated. "I've haven't been on such uneven footing since I was ten years old and I'd discovered that there was more than just Earth out there. You should've heard some of the theories I came up with to explain away the Digital World. I didn't like being a fish out of water _then_ , and I've made it my mission in life to never have to experience it again."

"Some things are just out of your hand," I said. I was trying to be patient, like Takeru was with me, but I probably wasn't going to hold up much longer. He was upset because he didn't know something. I was upset because my wife and unborn child had been ripped away from me. His excuse sort of seemed petty to me by comparison, but maybe I was being selfish and lashing out at him internally.

"I don't—" he said, before stopping. "It scares me—not knowing. I'm afraid."

It seemed like a big moment to me, for him to be so open and candid in this way. I looked at him, noting the way he was nervously curling his fingers, the way he refused to meet my gaze. He was embarrassed by this weakness, and I realized in that moment I couldn't take what he was saying at face value. It wasn't simply his lack of knowledge that was bothering him. No. It was his philosophy of "seeing is believing." He only knew that Sora was safe. He was telling me that he was afraid for our friends too. All of them: our partners, our parents, our wives, girlfriends, children, brothers. He was just admitting it in the only way he could.

I was torn between feeling honoured that he thought highly of me to bestow this knowledge, and amazed at my deduction skills. Being a police officer had really honed my skills. Not too long ago, I probably would have _snapped_ at him, maybe summoned up another whip and gone at him like I'd done that tree. Okay, maybe I wouldn't have lost it _that_ bad, but I wouldn't have bothered to look beyond the surface of his words.

That patience I'd developed would've come in handy when dealing with Miyako's mood swings—not that I'd actually be around to experience them. Well, not unless Miyako also managed to find access to this mystical, magical world that Summer had discovered, which I highly doubted was the case. She didn't have the magical powers that Summer possessed. There was pretty much _just_ as slight a chance that she might also be in the Digital World, just in a safety zone.

Not for the first time did I wish we'd done better at planning. If we'd actually thought about it, we could have put up a barrier around the Looking Glass, which would have given us a way to get back to the Digital World, but since we _didn't_ , Takeru and I brought part of the virus through with us. It was stupid and reckless, but it also saved our lives.

I let Koushiro lead me back to Takeru, too lost in hindsight to bother with paying attention. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had found Hikari in my absence. She looked okay. She didn't seem overly happy, but she wasn't a sobbing mess either. She was somewhere in the middle. She seemed to be determined, which was a fresh outlook on this mess. Takeru was too optimistic, I was pessimistic and Koushiro was afraid.

"Ken!" Hikari exclaimed. Her voice was bright and sunny, but it lacked the genuine warmth that typically coloured Hikari's words. I missed the way her voice felt like a warm hug, but she had plenty of reasons to be miserable, so I couldn't be too hard on her. It would make me a hypocrite, anyway.

"Hikari," I said, in a much more subdued tone. I wasn't nearly as good at pretending as she was. I couldn't muster up even half the enthusiasm she had scrapped together. "It's good to see you," I added, trying to display a smile that seemed authentic. She winced, and I dropped the pretense. It shouldn't have been so hard. Hikari was a lovely girl. Everyone loved her. It was a part of her charm.

But she wasn't Miyako, and seeing her here, face to face, made it real. I hadn't realized what small shred of hope I'd been holding on to that I'd be able to find my wife here, within this strange world. Hearing Takeru and Koushiro _tell_ me that it was Hikari instead, wasn't as hard as _seeing_ it was true.

I cleared my throat to interrupt the awkward moment—that I was pretty sure was _only_ awkward for me—and grasped at the first thing my brain had to offer. "So," I said slowly. "Do you think this world can make dreams come true?" Seeing as that was a pretty stupid question to ask about the _Land of Dreams_ , I cut Koushiro off before he point out the obvious. "I mean _specific_ dreams. Do you think the world draws on hidden thoughts without you consciously making them a reality?"

I thought once more to the strange apparition I'd chased after. I hadn't _known_ the guy it was masquerading as, but maybe I'd met him once, and he'd just left a subconscious impression on me?

"I think it does," Hikari said softly. "I think the world is very sensitive. Whenever I stayed still long enough, I made a swamp out of the negative emotions I have bottled up inside. I didn't _mean_ to make them. I didn't _mean_ to make the monsters. They just came out of my mind without my permission."

There was a moment of silence, as we all remembered the monsters she was talking about. I wasn't sure they were all gone. I didn't want to _ask_ , in case I managed to ruin what little good mood she had, but I was keeping my eyes peeled. They all _seemed_ relaxed, but that didn't mean we couldn't get ambushed. It was actually a pretty big possibility, with the way this world seemed to work.

"Have any of you seen the Looking Glass?" Hikari asked, breaking the silence. I looked guiltily at my feet.

"Yeah," Takeru admitted awkwardly.

"Oh good," she said in relief. "I was afraid I'd have to search the whole world for it. We need to get there right away. We need to get to it, and use it to get back to my brother and the others."

"But the virus—" Koushiro said, trying to dissuade her.

"I don't care about the virus!" Hikari shouted. "I just need to _get_ to the Digital World, and then I can get to the Coliseum to see if Taichi, and Gatomon and everyone else are safe. I need to know that Taichi was able to ensure that D'Arcmon's final wish was fulfilled and that DemiDevimon made it safe and sound. I _need_ to get there."

"The Looking Glass was sealed," I told her bluntly. I could see that Takeru was hesitating. "We used the Looking Glass to get here, we brought the virus with us. Summer had to seal it, or the virus would have spread across this land too."

"But—" Hikari said, cutting herself off. Her face crumpled, and I felt like I'd been kicked in the gut. Her eyes were glistening with unshed tears. And they remained that way, unshed. She took a deep breath and clenched her fists, squeezing her eyes shut. Once she'd regained a semblance of control, she spoke without opening her eyes. "What is the plan then? I'm not going to be stuck here forever."

"Summer's cooking something up for us," Takeru said in that overly positive way of his. She finally opened her eyes, gauging how much truth was in that optimism. He was being completely honest, not just trying to fill her with hope, so she sighed.

"Let's go see her then," Hikari said, determinedly. She started stalking off, only for Takeru to catch her arm and aim her in a different direction. Her face coloured, but she didn't acknowledge her embarrassment, and none of us felt brave enough to point it out.

It was a long, awkward walk back to Summer's garden. We didn't even think to wish new bikes into existence. We just walked the entire way—even though none of us had had any sleep the night before. I was exhausted long before the fields of flowers were even a speck on the horizon. Eventually though, we'd made our way through the seemingly endless sea of flowers, and stepped out of the long grass into Summer's sanctuary.

A light, laughter drifted through the air. It was a nice change from the silence we'd been walking in for hours. It wasn't until we got closer that we realized where it was coming from. The man we'd met in the field of dreams—the Sandman, as he called himself—was seated on one of Summer's wooden benches, with his hands moving in grand gestures in front of him. Summer was sitting next to him, closer than she _needed_ to, laughing with that tinkling laugh of hers at whatever story he was telling. The smile that was on her face was quite telling really. She was looking at him with stars in her eyes, and he was completely oblivious to it as he trucked on with his story, drawing encouragement from her obvious adoration.

"And then—oh. hello again," the Sandman said, catching sight of us and dropping his story immediately. Summer turned to see us, surprised that she'd missed us. I waved awkwardly. "You've found your girlfriend! Excellent."

"Yep," Takeru said.

"She was where I suggested, right?" the Sandman said, grinning at Summer, who practically melted at his attention. I rolled my eyes. I was becoming bitter. I hadn't had Miyako by my side for only one day and I already hated Takeru and Hikari's relationship, and now I couldn't even find the beauty in Summer's affections. I had good reason to be bitter. There was a chance my wife was dead. There was a chance I'd lost my child before I'd gotten a chance to be a father. But I shouldn't be taking it out on other people.

I thought I'd gotten over that when I stopped being the Kaiser. But no, I was being petty and jealous over something that none of them could control—something _I_ couldn't control either. I was disgusted with myself, especially because I knew I wouldn't be changing any time soon, not until I laid my eyes on my wife—alive and well—again.

" _She_ wasn't, no," Takeru said, causing the Sandman to pout—literally pout—in disappointment.

"Oh, Yume," Summer said, patting his arm. "You tried to help them, and that's all that matters."

"Yume?" Koushiro asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"You _did_ introduce yourself, didn't you?" Summer asked.

"I _may_ have," the Sandman—or Yume, I supposed—said slowly.

"He called himself the Sandman," I pointed out helpfully, and got a glare from the man for my troubles.

"So silly," Summer said, letting out another tinkling laugh. "That's what he calls himself. He's plays superhero."

"I _am_ a superhero," Yume protested. "I fight for the good dreams of everyone in all the worlds. That's a pretty decent mission, if I do say so myself. I even have an arch enemy. It's the Boogeyman!"

"Now, now," Summer said. "Akumu isn't a super villain. He can't help himself. It's what he was made for, just as you were made to watch over the dreams."

"Made for...?" Koushiro said, posing the words as a confused question. He got the reaction he was looking for too. Yume—or _the Sandman_ —jumped into an explanation with no further prompting.

"We were created with the Land of Dreams," he said. "Long ago, long before any of you can remember, the rulers of the main world grew afraid. They were worried of corruption and betrayal, and as such they sent the dreams and desires of all living, sentient beings to another world of their own making. The world was born empty, but for the dreams. The power of the dreams created me, and I have stood watch over them all my days. I don't know that I was _meant_ to be created, but it's a good thing I was, because I wasn't the only one created that day. The fear and corruption remained, despite the royals' best intentions, and they formed a nightmare, my arch nemesis: the Boogeyman."

"His name is Akumu," Summer corrected. "But Yume _is_ right about him being a nightmare. He's the original nightmare. All nightmares suffered in any world are a result of his presence."

"With a few _new_ exceptions," Yume said, narrowing his eyes on Koushiro and Takeru, who had the sense to look sheepish. "I have staved off his attempts at every turn for the entirety of my life. I knew nothing else, until Summer came to reside in this world, a representative from the main world. In a way, I was the _first_ superhero, you know. It's been my job to keep the hope and desire alive throughout all the worlds. They _are_ the natural traits of this world. They were what the main world sent here."

"He's so smart," Summer gushed like a fool, smiling at him with her blindingly white teeth.

"I keep the hope alive too," Takeru said, grinning at the idea of superheroes—the comic nerd that he was. "It's my crest. Does that make me your sidekick or something?"

"I've never had a sidekick before," Yume muttered. Summer rested her hand on his arm, probably to convey the idea that she's been at his side, just like a sidekick might be, but he didn't take any notice. If I wasn't being so petty and jealous at the sight of others' happiness, I might have felt _bad_ for her. As it was, I was actually _pleased_ with the results.

I was such a despicable person.

"How have you found your stay so far?" Summer asked. "It's wonderful here, isn't it?"

"It was okay," Takeru said. "Until a demon version of Hikari tried to kill us with a demon Koushiro and Miayko as her sidekicks. Things got better when Koushiro and Miyako melted into the ground and Hikari killed the other Hikari with a sword. She just turned to smoke though. I guess she's dead. She was just an illusion, right?"

"Smoke?" Yume said, perking up instantly. Summer sighed, and let her hand drop from his arm. "It's Akumu! He's making his move, and I'm away from the field. I must be off. There are dreams to save. Sandman away!"

He stood and started _flying_ out of Summer's garden in the direction I guessed the field had to be in. Summer sighed again, watching after him with dreamy eyes.

"That's cute," Takeru said with a smile. "You're cute."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Summer said, embarrassed.

"I think you do," Takeru teased.

"Takeru," I snapped. "We don't have time for this. Summer, we've got everybody, you can send us to that mystery world now."

"No you don't," she said, looking at each of us in turn.

"Hikari and Koushiro are the only ones that came through the gate," Takeru pointed out. "And you _saw_ Ken and I arrive."

"I suppose I _could_ send you..." she said, biting her lip. "But that doesn't really seem fair."

"You promised," Takeru pointed out.

"I second that motion," Hikari said firmly. "I want to go now."

"But," Summer said. "You've forgotten Trust."

"Wait," I said. "What?"

 _ **Sora Takenouchi:**_

"I'll be right back," Katsue said, sliding her stool back against the mostly clean floor of Mimi's restaurant, "I have to pee." We'd been cleaning the place even more than Mimi had done already, and preparing it to be our new hideout. We knew we couldn't stay in Mr Ishida's workplace, it was too public and too populated, so we'd taken Mimi's restaurant as our own. I was sure she wouldn't mind if she were here, she'd even thank us for having cleaned it up a little. But she wasn't here, and she would never thank us. She was gone now.

At least I'd gotten to spend so much time with her after coming back from school. I'd seen Mimi maybe more than anyone else simply because the two of us had been sharing a room together at the Temple. She'd been so worried about everyone's safety, rightfully so, it seemed. But now she was gone, just as the others had gone. Just like Biyomon, and Koushiro and Taichi. Just like my parents. All because my hand had pressed that button. My eyes fell to Yamato who was standing in front of Mimi's blackboard with a piece of chalk in his hand, thinking. He wanted to get revenge on the one who had pressed the button and initiated the virus. It was _me_ he wanted. He just didn't know it yet. He didn't know that it had been _me_ who had taken his brother from him.

"Sora, are you alright?" I snapped my gaze away from Yamato and looked across the room to Mantarou who was washing the floors with a fancy mop he'd brought with him.

"I'm fine," I lied, forcing a smile onto my face.

"What a stupid question," Chiziru shot to her brother, "none of us are _'alright'_ , Mantarou." He looked to the floor ashamed, because what she'd said was true. It was possible that it would take a very long time for any of us to feel ourselves again. If ever. I looked toward Chiziru who was dedicating all of her time to ensure Momoe had someone with her at all times, which I was sure was just a coping mechanism of her own. I was sure Momoe wanted a moment alone, but I didn't think it was a good idea to give that to her. For all we knew her _daughter_ was now dead. And somehow it seemed so much deeper of a cut to lose a child than it did to lose a friend. It was like a connection that was meant to be forever intact but was now cut too soon. It was like losing Biyomon… but Momoe lost her daughter, her partner, her sister _and_ her husband. Her whole family was just ripped away from her. She didn't seem to show any signs of emotion anymore though. When I'd first gone to pick her up she'd been crying, but the moment we'd left the house she sort of shut down, and I wasn't sure if she was coping, or going through shock. It was just too soon to tell.

It was too soon to tell anything. It had been twenty four hours since that button had been pressed, and I was running on very little sleep, but even if I'd been fully rested I felt as though I'd be feeling the same as I did now. Broken. Sad. And like having a hideout but no plans was more of a game children would play on a schoolyard than an actual force meant to bring justice. It just seemed so senseless to watch everyone try so hard to make this place comfortable enough to live in. But we'd have to. Because we _would_ be living here, at least for a while.

"Pass me that tablecloth," Natsuni said to Jenna who did as she was asked. Natsuni then spread the burgundy cloth over the most well kept table and looked to her work with a sigh. At least it was something. And whenever Akira, Takashi and Yutaka got back with the groceries we'd all be able to eat dinner as well.

Katsue came back into the room, walking quickly and with purpose toward Yamato. I bit my bottom lip and tried to pretend it didn't bother me. It felt so selfish and meaningless to be worked up about Yamato talking to some other girl. We weren't even in a relationship, and right now my focus clearly should have been on working on making the world more suitable to live in. It was better than focusing on the death of everyone I loved. At least it was a normal everyday situation people found themselves in. It helped me feel like the world actually wasn't coming to an end, even though it surely had to be.

"So, did you think of anything?" I heard Katsue ask Yamato.

"No." He said quietly, "Well, not nothing exactly." He paused, looking back to the blackboard. "Maybe, having Neo there was the last piece of the puzzle and he'd decided it was time to close the gates." He said finally. Katsue looked confused, and I was too, but only briefly. I caught on quick enough. "Gennai."

"Hiraga?" Katsue asked, "That guy Mimi was obsessing over?"

Yamato nodded. "He selected each of us to be Digidestined. Aside from Daisuke, Miyako, Iori, Mari, Hideto and Kiyoko. They were each selected by the three fairies."

"What does that have to do with stopping Arnold?" Katsue asked.

"Nothing," Yamato admitted, "I was just thinking…"

Thinking _what_ though? Why was his mind stuck on Gennai? Not that I didn't think he deserved to be thought of every now and then, but right now was just not one of those times. He had died six years ago, and right now, we were facing a much bigger issue than why were chosen _twenty_ years ago. But then again, who was I to judge? I was worrying about my love life.

"Mari, Hideto and Kiyoko were simply failures at being the Holy Three—and that was the nicest way to put that." Yamato continued, though his words were quick and slurred, like he was mostly talking to himself. "Maybe destiny _had_ been fulfilled, and maybe we were all done there. And maybe we, arrogant and full of vigor, had crashed right through the wall that destiny had put up and broke our way back into the Digital World and back into the heart of the war?"

"You _did_ do that." Katsue assured him. "But it wasn't wrong, you helped tame the chaos that was brewing inside."

"What if we were the _cause_ of the continued chaos?" Yamato countered, setting his piece of chalk down. It was clear that everyone in the room was now listening, dropping whatever they'd been doing before. "What if everything the fairies had told us was wrong, or more specifically, inaccurate. What if we humans were not destined to defeat the Great Evils? What if it were simply our digimon, and once we'd gotten them to be strong enough to do so, we weren't needed anymore, and that was the end of our journey?" He seemed to be coming to a realization more than a theory, but it couldn't be true. Not the way he was saying anyway. Without the keys that came to _us_ the worlds would never be separated as they were at the moment. We _had_ to go back, or that continued chaos he'd mentioned would never have met an end. Not that it had—but the keys helped.

It suddenly dawned on me that Kiyoko had actually been the cause of the keys coming to our world. Or more specifically, Sigma had. And he was a great evil! Which meant, he would have needed to be killed anyway… but who was to say that Kiyoko would not, at some point, be able to trap the soul inside his own body and regain control? Maybe Yamato was right… but it was no use wondering what _could_ have happened, because we were here, in this time, and nothing could change that.

"It has to be true," Yamato said thoughtfully. "All Gennai wanted from us was our strength of heart. And when we'd powered the crests enough, we were no longer needed. And he'd chosen _us_ specifically because we fit the crests properly. He knew that since the day he saw us at Hikarigaoka, and he'd sent us home because we were _done_."

There was silence for a moment, and it became painfully clear that everyone had been listening to him. He glanced around the room embarrassed, so I looked down to the computer in front of me and opened an email that had popped up in my time eavesdropping on Yamato. "But Yggdrasil—" Natsuni tried to counter.

"—Would never have tried to destroy the worlds if Norn hadn't seen what humans were like when under the influence of the sins." Yamato argued back quickly.

"If none of you had ever gone back…" Natsuni said, "…would the Great Evils be taken care of?"

Yamato nodded, "I've been thinking it through." He turned back to the blackboard and wrote out the names of the Great Evils, then began pointing and speaking quickly, "Milleniummon was already defeated before we came around. Daemon would have eventually rotted in the Dark Ocean if Taichi and Hikari had never left the doors open, and he would never have been able to bring Lucemon back from the dead. Fanglongmon would have been defeated by our partners, surely, if they teamed up properly, Myotismon and Apocalymon were already gone. Yggdrasil would never have been a threat at all because he would never want the worlds cleared away if they were at peace, and yet he would still likely have wanted purity. We had nothing to do with that idea, so he would still have purified the Dark Ocean, and then the Evil of that world would be gone, just like that."

"That still leaves Arkadimon though," I pointed out, wincing when Yamato looked to me. I had forgotten I was pretending to not be listening.

"Neo would never have unleashed him from his prison if he couldn't go back in." Yamato pointed out. "No freedom, no problem."

"And the evil of Earth?" Jenna asked.

"As far as I can tell," Yamato said, "that's humanity, and it is happening now. And it has everything to do with the digimon. If they weren't here, that would never have been an issue." There was silence again. "We played the cards wrong. We had the chance to defeat all the Great Evils simply by doing the hard thing and saying a final goodbye to our partners. Listening to Gennai would have made the worlds find peace. Instead they're in ruins, and Gennai's dead."

"I'd never have met Goblimon." Natsuni said weakly. "Noriko would still be alive."

"So would everyone else." I said quietly. Yamato looked to me with pain in his eyes and I was forced to look away. I knew he was thinking about Takeru, and that forced me to remember that it was _my_ fault. My fault that his brother was gone and never coming back. I looked back to Yamato and our eyes stayed focused on each other's for a moment.

 _We'd never have broken up_.

A single thought shot through my mind quickly and I diverted my eyes once more.

"Everything would be different, wouldn't it?" Natsuni asked quietly. " _Everything._ "

Just then, before anyone could answer her, the door bell chimed, signaling someone coming inside. It was clear, judging by the loud voices, that it was the Teenage Wolves, returning from their shopping trip. Everyone turned their sights to the entryway when the three of them emerged, each carrying as many bags as they could carry. "Food's here!" Yutaka grinned, dropping his bags on the nearest table, which just so happened to be the one I was working at. The weight of the groceries shook the table, so I scooped my laptop into my arms and stood up, swerving away from the table giving Akira and Takashi more room to put their loads as well. "And I got something special for you, Katsue." Yutaka said, his grin keeping firm.

"Oh this should be good." Katsue said, rolling her eyes.

Yutaka pulled out a clear plastic container of small red berries, and showed them to Katsue. "Because you're so _berry_ sweet, I thought you'd fit right in."

"You're incorrigible." Katsue said, her face remaining unimpressed.

"Oh, come on," Yutaka groaned, "I'm charming, admit it."

"I'll admit that I want those berries." Katsue said, moving forward and taking them from him. "Come on, I'll help you boys in the kitchen. We'll learn how to put things away properly, and maybe your band room will thank you for cleaning it every now and then." Yutaka ran his tongue along his bottom row of teeth, smiling all the while before picking up the groceries and following her into the kitchen.

"I'm starving." Jenna said quietly, sitting down in the chair next to where Natsuni was standing.

"We should set the table." Natsuni decided. It seemed she was trying to make this place as much like a home as she could, and I thanked her for that. We needed someone who could keep their head. It seemed like I'd explode soon if I continued to focus on the guilt building up every time I looked to Yamato.

"What are you doing?" Mantarou caught my attention again, pulling me from my trance. "Dancing with your computer?" Mantarou smirked a little, and I smiled back, but shook my head.

"No," I told him, setting my computer down, "just thinking." I read the email in front of me and leaned back in my chair. "Miru is coming here."

"Who?" Mantarou asked, moving from his mop and toward my table, leaning over my shoulder to read my emails.

"My Professor from college," I explained, "He wants to talk to me about something so I told him to come meet me here. I just don't feel safe running around town at the moment." Mantarou nodded in understanding, but it was obvious that he, Chiziru and Yamato were expecting more information from me. "I'm not sure exactly what it is that he wants to talk about, but he seems to think your Dad's idea of a rebellion is a good plan."

"What rebellion?" Yamato asked.

"Us?" I told him, "We're the rebellion. Your dad and I have been emailing each other all day and he wants us to be a rebel force."

"That makes us sound a lot cooler than we are." Yamato said quietly, turning back toward the blackboard. "And more proactive."

I stood quickly, and shot Mantarou an apologetic look as I moved quickly toward Yamato, "Don't be so pessimistic," I hissed quietly so no one else could here. "Think positively. We'll think of something to do and we're going to show the whole world how cool we really are."

"We're not cool." Yamato said quietly. "Not anymore. Not without our partners or team. We're useless, Sora."

"Stop talking like that." I said weakly, but I knew I was in no state of mind to be telling him otherwise. "They may be dead, but we're still here. We can still fight."

"Dead?" Yamato said, his voice barely audible. "Now who's being pessimistic?"

Katsue shouting something to Yutaka, threatening to tell Yamato on him, filled the silence in the room as Natsuni and Jenna came back through, carrying as many dishes as they could. Yamato rolled his eyes and smirked, erasing everything from the board that he'd written.

"Are you and Katsue dating?" I asked flatly, unable to stop myself.

"What?" Yamato asked, "No? I'm not dating her. I'm not dating _anyone_." I didn't respond, instead just internally chastised myself for asking anything in the first place. "Should I be?"

"Why not?" My mind forced me to say on impulse, "You're a freethinking individual."

"Okay," He said, confused, "I'll keep that in mind. Are you dating Mantarou?"

"What?" I gasped, perhaps too loudly. What gave him the idea that I was dating Miyako's brother? Or even gave him the right to ask? At least I had a reason to assume he and Katsue were involved deeper than they were letting on. The way he was so sure she wasn't evil in the last meeting… it just seemed wrong—like something was going on between them. Not to mention their history of, well, dating! Not to say that I didn't agree with him about Katsue, it was just confusing because I had no idea where I stood with him. "I'm not dating Mantarou." Yamato raised his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders. My mouth fell open slightly, "Would you be bothered if I was?"

"Why would I?" Yamato asked snidely, "You're a freethinking individual." Before I had a chance to reply, the door bell chimed once more. "That'll be your Professor." Yamato said, setting down his eraser before turning toward the kitchen, but he stopped at the sight of his father. "Dad?"

"I need to talk to you." His eyes were very focused on Yamato, as if no one else were in the room. It was like he was soaking up the image of his son to ensure that he wouldn't forget what he looked like if he too were to fall subject to deletion.

We all turned back to the door when the bell chimed once more. This time it really was Professor Miru walking into the room. "Sorry to barge in." He said, dusting off his salmon coloured suit. "It's a public building, so I wasn't sure if should knock or just come right in. But well, you know how that turned out."

"I do," I assured him as he stepped toward me and hugged me tight, "You can come in whenever. Just try not to be too obvious about what's going on."

Professor Miru looked down to his attire momentarily, "I'll dress discretely during any future visits." I smiled at him. And he ran his hands through his dark hair that was clearly dyed. The last time I'd seen him there had been specks of grey in his hair. "In any case," He said, "I saw your painting of that angel digimon. Good idea. Sends a positive message."

"Sorry?" I asked, looking to Yamato to see if he knew what he was talking about, "What painting?"

"The one on the side of that big fancy restaurant down the street?" Professor Miru tried to remind us, "Angemon? That's his name isn't it? The boy angel?"

I nodded, "Yeah it is, but we didn't paint anything."

"Well someone's on your side then," Professor Miru winked to me. He then checked his shiny golden watch and his eyes lit up, "I'd best get right to the point, my dear. You remember your fashion show I imagine, yes?"

"Of course," I said bitterly.

"Do another one." He said, shrugging his shoulders. "Make more people see it."

"Yes, because the last one was such a wild success." I said sarcastically.

"Maybe it wasn't," Miru said softly, his eyes showing a faint softness, "but you were pushing the boundaries. Fashion is wonderful, I must admit, but there are many other ways to challenge the way the world works." He looked to me very intensely and then to Yamato to ensure at least _someone_ was paying attention to him and hearing what he meant, "See the world not as it is," Miru started.

"But as it should be," I said the last part with him. It was something he said nearly every day in class, and sure it got annoying to keep hearing, but it meant something powerful, and every time I remembered that, I remembered why I was doing what I was doing.

' _See the world not as it is, but as it should be.'_

"I would simply like you to help me challenge the minds of those in this world," Miru said, "That is all I ask of you. You are the best person for that job. I know you are."

He stared at me a moment, expecting an immediate response, but I didn't know what he wanted from me. Either way, I couldn't say no to helping someone who was fighting for my cause. It was the start of our rebel force. "Of _course_ ," I told him, "I'd love to help."

"This is a good opening for what I came here for," Mr Ishida said, stepping forward to be next to Miru. "I want the very same thing, to keep pushing the boundaries. But for our new rebellion, we're going to need something very specific."

"Matching outfits," Miru said, nodding as if there were no other possibilities as to what Mr Ishida was referring to.

"Ah, sure? But no," Mr Ishida said, "We need a face for our cause." More silence filled the room this time, but it was somehow a more positive pause, because at least we were on the right track. "A face everyone will recognize and stand behind when times get rough. A rebellion is a force, but it will need a leader."

"Well, it's obvious who it has to be," Natsuni said, stepping toward us again.

"I thought so too," Mr Ishida said.

"Who?" Yamato asked.

"You?" Natsuni and Mr Ishida said together.

"Me?" He asked, appalled, "No way."

"Yes way," I said, nodding slowly. "Everyone knows you because of your band, you're a nationwide name! You can be the face to fight for our cause." He shook his head and turned away, walking toward the kitchen now, "Yamato, all any of us want is for this to be over with."

"And all I want," he said through gritted teeth, turning back to face us, "is to know if my brother is dead or not."

"And we'll find out sooner or later," Mr Ishida promised, "Yamato. Son, I want to know just as much as you do. Do you know how hard it is for me to even _think_ about a normal life without him? Without Takeru? It's not easy. He may or may not be alive. But if he is not, it is the fault of those who fight against us. We cannot let them win simply because their hate runs stronger than ours."

Yamato looked to his dad, thinking deeply, then sighed. "Well, I did already promise Hideto's dad that I'd be his number one enemy."

"Well there you go," Mr Ishida said, "Two birds with one stone."

"So what do I have to do?" Yamato asked.

"You'll just have to look pretty." I told him with a joking smile, "Leave the rest up to us."

"So we're really doing this?" Yamato asked. "Really starting a rebellion against all hate crimes? This isn't too extreme?"

"It might be."I nodded slowly. "Who knows?"

"It's going to be messy." Yamato said nervously.

"Name one thing we've done that _wasn't_ messy." I told him. "We can do it. We _have_ to do it. We have to do it for the others. For Takeru."

"For Takeru." He agreed quickly and flatly. "For my brother."

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Taichi, Hikari, Michael and Willis narrate chapter Fifteen.


	15. Fifteen

**Y/N:** This is the final chapter, before we change things up and focus on smaller groups for each of the next arcs. They'll all tell the story of only two of the worlds, just to help keep things straight, but keep in mind all of the three arcs that follow this pattern take place at the same time. It's just for organization.

 **U/N:** Uhm. Yeah so arc one ends here, and my sister did a pretty good job at explaining what goes on next, so I think that sums that up fairly well :P We aren't sure if the next arc (which will all be posted at once) will be posted on Saturday or on Wednesday, but it'll all be at once, so there's that :D Probably Wednesday because I'm busy for the next couple days and I still have to rewrite one of the chapters...

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 15: Fifteen**

 _ **Willis Kennedy:**_

It had been two weeks since the virus.

Two weeks.

It had been so long since I had seen anyone that I cared about. Too long.

Okay, now that wasn't fair. I cared about Kiyoko, and I cared about Rei and I was even growing to care for the residents of this world. But they were not Terriermon and Lopmon. I wanted to see them so bad. All I wanted was to see them, and to hold them and to just be with them. To be home. And I wanted Michael too, I wanted to know that he was alive. That was important to me as well.

There was a part of me that knew it to be true. There was something telling me that no one could have died, and it was either because it had always been the case, or because I had some kind of psychic ability. Either way, I was confident in saying that we had all made it out alive. At least the Digidestined had. It just felt that way. And of course Rei was fine too. She was staying strong, keeping by our side through all of this.

She spent every day with Terra who seemed to enjoy the company of another woman. Rei couldn't walk here though so Terra sent her personal body guard Astamon out to carry Rei to the Garden every day. The Garden was Terra's home. It had been where we initially met her, and it was the most serene beautiful place in any of the worlds I had visited. It was simply the most peaceful and calm place I could possibly imagine, and I loved it there. I didn't spend my own time there though. Instead, I spent time with the 'Fallen Angel's'. That's what they called themselves, because everyone in this world was really creative. Obviously.

There were two main groups in this world, as far as I could tell, and although each digimon among the two groups seemed that they should be cruel and evil, they really weren't. Not here at least. There was nothing to be evil against if everyone was, well, evil. The Fallen Angels spent their time in their home base, which was small and cramped and kind of terrifying. I was sitting in a church, leaning against one of the wooden benches that filled the room staring toward the stage at the front where one of the digimon stood behind a podium. He was the leader and went by the name "Tactimon". Every time I saw him I wondered what it would be like to live every single day drowning in massive black armour, and not being able to remove it. It just seemed exhausting.

Tactimon was strict and mean though. He wasn't the most loquacious being I'd ever met, and yet when he did speak he was usually barking orders to one of the digimon who followed him in the ranks. There were many digimon in his control—he wouldn't call it control, but that was essentially the case—but there were four that he prized above all others.

NeoDevimon, who looked terrifying—and _was_ —always stood tall, looming in a corner just shrouded in enough shadows to let his eyes glisten as he watched the crowd from the front of the room. He seemed alright, but was even less of a conversationalist than Tactimon was. I had never heard NeoDevimon say a single word, but he was always around and willing to do Tactimon's bidding. NeoDevimon though... he looked like a Devimon that ran through an animated costume shop and then ran through the washing machine and was hung to dry upside down in Hell. That was the best I could do to describe him whenever Kiyoko asked at night when I recalled the events of my day.

Arukenimon and Mummymon were two of Tactimon's favourites as well. They sounded familiar to me, and after only talking to them for a couple of minutes I learned of their past with the Digidestined. They lived here now, apparently after they were killed inside the Land of Dreams, their data escaped into the Digital World, but because they wished to get as far away from their enemies as possible they washed up here. At least that was their theory. I gathered that they weren't particularly kind to my friends, but here they were able to start a new life, and while Arukenimon could get grumpy and angry fairly quickly, Mummymon was always able to calm her down. I was glad to have them around because they spent most of their time in their human forms, and it helped me feel less out of place inside the church.

And lastly, Phelesmon was Tactimon's right hand man. It was no secret that Phelesmon was selfish and needy. He wanted desperately to take Tactimon's place and to do so he was doing all he could to win Terra's affections hoping she would place him in control and kick Tactimon out of his place in charge. If only he would listen to reason. Terra had no say in who was in charge; she was simply a kind person who all could trust. She was not in control of the place at all; she was just a friend, an ally. Phelesmon sure thought she could help him out though. Tactimon never worried that Phelesmon would take his place because he was far too smart for him.

Seriously, Tactimon was _very_ smart. Many of the digimon had trouble following his speeches because of how deep and thoughtful he could easily become. Even now I could see Mummymon's attention fading as Tactimon spoke about his plans for expanding the land.

Behind Tactimon there was a broken statue of a man, and no matter how long I stared at it I could not decipher which religion it was meant to represent. There were tall, cracked pillars that lined the room, and many stained glass windows that were, I was sure, pretty at some point in their existence, but now were shattered in places, coated in dirt and defiled with words scratched into their surface. The chamber was not a pleasant one to be in at all, especially because of the bats that swarmed overhead, but I somehow found comfort here more than any other place I had found in Witchenly. There was something warm and inclusive about the cramped room.

Kiyoko couldn't handle it though, and he claimed he despised churches anyway. He had mentioned something about his parents, but never bothered to explain. I wouldn't make him, either. It was none of my business. Kiyoko chose to spend his time with the second group that made up the land. He stayed with 'The Wizards' who resided in the huts near the bonfires. They were those who we had seen upon our first arrival here in the world, before we had gone to see Terra even. Kiyoko found them to be frightening at first, but eventually befriended many of the smaller digimon and slowly worked his way up. He had been required to pass a test before he could move up to the smallest ring, and that meant he would have to walk into the forest alone. He had been horrified. I could still remember his expression.

" _I don't want to go," he had said._

" _Then don't go," Rei insisted, flipping a page of her book as she relaxed in her bed inside Masks Square. We had all set aside an hour a day to start cleaning it, because it was a mess and Kiyoko's anxiety kept getting the better of him. Everything looked much better already and all of the washing machines and driers were lined up looking like a Laundromat, the books were filed onto shelves, and the extra mattresses were piled in a corner. There were even enough racks to hang the excessive amount of clothes up._

 _Luckily, Kiyoko had solved the dying battery of his computer quickly, finding a way to bring it inside the program with us where an outlet was ready for him to recharge the laptop. It was strange to think that he was charging his computer from inside his computer, but there was very little logic involved in Masks Square, I had decided that on day one._

" _I have to go," Kiyoko insisted. "I don't want to be pathetic anymore."_

" _You're not pathetic," I assured him. "It's okay to be scared."_

" _But not all the time," he was determined, "I have to do it. I have to go." He looked dramatically away from us and toward the exit to Masks Square. "If I don't come back... you don't have to make me dinner."_

" _Would you like me to make you some dinner?" I asked, rolling my eyes._

" _Well since you brought it up..." Kiyoko trailed off._

Kiyoko then wandered off into the trees alone, and when he came back he had the biggest grin on his face because the person he had met in the trees—the reason it was so frightening was because a digimon whose name was Gravimon lived there—was actually very kind to Kiyoko, or rather _unkind_ which somehow made it all the more important for Kiyoko, because apparently Gravimon reminded him of Neo, Hideto and Mari. He was pleased and was invited to join the inner circle of 'The Wizards'.

I had to prove myself in a similar manner to be invited to the daily meetings here at the church. The 'Fallen Angels' told me that I would have to prove that I could unfalteringly trust them all, and they had asked me to jump off of the shaky, unsecure cliff that the church resided on. I could still remember looking down into the mist and how horrendously terrifying it was. I was ready to turn back, but when I saw the look on everyone's faces I could tell they wanted me to trust them, not to die. So I went for it. I had nothing to lose. And I jumped. It had been the most terrifying second of my life, falling what little I managed to. My stomach had churned and my eyes had clamped shut, but they weren't going to let me fall. NeoDevimon caught me before I could fall too far, and they all seemed impressed at my stupidity. Not one of them referred to it as trust or bravery after the fact. Just stupidity. Either way, I was part of their weird cult. It wasn't something I wanted to be proud of, but in a world where nothing else really existed, I had to make close relationships with _someone_.

I would not allow myself to live in an eternally miserable state just because my past employer was a psychopath. I wouldn't sit on the idea that I could be held partially responsible for the virus even if I _did_ feel guilty about it all. I would not allow myself to wallow in self pity, and I would not cry daily about those who I have lost. Because I had a feeling still that they were all okay. It helped, to have that feeling, when Rei or Kiyoko lost faith, because I was able to show them the other side of things. Sure our lives had been completely ruined, but that didn't mean we could not build new ones. And that's what I was determined to do. Kiyoko seemed to be on board with that as well. It was Rei who seemed to be having most trouble. She was desperate to get back it seemed, and was always talking to Terra about different theories. Terra, just like everyone else here, had been living in this land for a _long_ time, and Rei knew all that Taichi knew about the worlds. She was sure she had some crucial piece of information that could save the day.

I wasn't so sure, but I wasn't about to tell her that.

Even when she made all of her sarcastic comments about my new cult group. She wasn't particularly fond of the idea of Kiyoko and I wandering off every day to cozy up to digimon who were inherently supposed to be bad. I figured part of her reasoning had to do with her paralysation and inability to join us or do anything for herself. I felt bad for her, and I made sure I spent a sizeable portion of every day with her, helping her and communicating with her. I couldn't leave her all alone, but I also could not sit around all day in the Garden with Terra. I just wanted _more_.

Terra was pretty helpful too. The clothing that she had given me helped me fit in a lot more with the 'Fallen Angels' and Kiyoko looked like a regular old wizard in his funny hat. He was not nearly as thankful to Terra as I was, but that was because he held some kind of bitter resentment toward her for some reason or another. But I couldn't see that reason because she was always so helpful. She was not in charge, sure, but everyone always looked to her for advice because she seemed to be the wisest in the land. She was also the mediator between the two rivalling groups and gathered all information which she was still using to look for a way out of the world. And as such, to quote her, " _All new finds must be brought to my attention. No artefact is unimportant in the larger picture. We need a way out, and we must work together."_

And yeah, 'The Wizards' and the 'Fallen Angels' were feuding. Apparently it had been that way since any of them could remember, and they would literally fight about _anything_ at all. Kiyoko and I had occasionally brought home an argument because Phelesmon would tell me his biased story and Karetenmon, the gossip over in Kiyoko's group would do the same. We would argue until Rei broke it up and she henceforth ensured that we promised to leave our arguments outside the confines of Masks Square. It was a good idea. If we never brought up anything from our day, the three of us got along wonderfully and always had something interesting to talk about.

Just last night we had all lounged around and talked for hours, laying on the floor of Masks Square, watching the gaudy colours swirl above.

" _I don't understand why you won't eat these beans," Kiyoko said, in a giddy mood as he held up an open can of beans. "They're delicious." He tried to scoop some beans out of the can but because he was laying down it was too awkward and he spilled some, almost dropping them on his face. Rei and Kiyoko both began laughing, nearly soundlessly._

 _It was just that kind of night. Everyone was laughing so much that the sound of the laughter seemed to get bored and it had taken off._

" _I see no point," I told him, trying my best to not laugh along with them, "Terra has a garden filled with the most amazingly organic foods. They're so healthy feeling. I just want them."_

" _You're missing out," Kiyoko informed me, still laughing, he then used his spoon to scoop the brown beans from the floor, "Are you sure you don't want them?"_

 _I slid a little further from him, "I promise." He didn't pursue the matter because Rei was still laughing, which made it impossible for Kiyoko to stop himself from laughing just as hard._

 _After their laughing finally subsided Kiyoko and Rei started talking about school and what kinds of things Rei could go to school for. With that window to a more serious conversation things started to wind down and Rei began to theorize, bringing her to a state of mind where she needed to address my own personal issues without me asking. I didn't mind though. "You know, Willis," Rei said thoughtfully, "You're always out of the loop."_

" _I am," I agreed, smirking somewhat, "I guess it doesn't matter anymore."_

" _No, sure," Rei nodded, "Until we go home. But you should move to Japan."_

" _No, I can't," I said, shaking my head._

 _Rei hummed, thinking, "Well, if you always live in America and expect everyone to go to you, then you'll never get the news. Michael only hears the news because he forced himself into everyone's close groups. I'm glad he did, he's so much fun at parties—but I mean that you're so far away. I understand though, my friends all live on Earth and I don't. You have no idea how much drama I miss out on now that I live with Taichi."_

" _Do you miss it?" I asked quietly, diverting the conversation from me, but honestly she wasn't wrong. If I did move to Japan, accepting change for once, I would be closer to all of my friends. I was holding onto the house I was in now because of personal reasons. It was the house my mother had bought with my money, and brought a slew of horrible boyfriends to live in though, and those weren't good memories. There was one good memory though. And that was when Mari and I promised to someday live there together... but why should I ask Mari to move to a different country? Not that it mattered! We weren't even together._

" _No," Rei admitted. "Katsue usually fills me in on what everyone is doing. Apparently my one friend has been in an open relationship for a year, but hasn't told her boyfriend." Kiyoko snorted, and I rolled onto my stomach, propping myself up with my elbows. "That's the kind of drama I like to avoid."_

" _Sounds like my life story," I groaned, remembering all of the drama I had gone through with my previous girlfriends. They weren't even_ nice _girls, so I wasn't sure why I dated them at all. And then we were talking about Tiffany and Jane and Laurel and how much I never wanted to see them again._

" _What's it like?" Kiyoko asked, now laying on his stomach, the same as me._

" _What?" I asked._

" _Kissing a girl?" his face turned red and he instantly regretted asking, I could tell, but I didn't really find anything awkward. Somewhere along the line, living with Michael paid off and nothing could really phase me._

 _I shrugged, "I dunno," I admitted, "Probably pretty similar to kissing a boy. What's that like?"_

" _It's nice," Kiyoko said, still embarrassed._

" _Yeah," I agreed, "nice."_

It was then obvious that Kiyoko was thinking of Hideto and the conversation died even more. He was reminiscing and that was enough to send him off to his own little world—his own personal world that wasn't Masks Square though—and we all wandered off on our own.

Just like now. The 'Fallen Angels' were all on their feet, stretching. I hadn't paid attention at all during the meeting because I really didn't care about how they expanded their land. It wasn't going to work anyway. I had already heard the stories about trying to cut down the nearby trees. As if Gravimon was going to allow them to take down his forest just so they had more land to destroy.

Whatever their plan was, it didn't matter much to me. I noticed Phelesmon creeping up to the stage where Tactimon stood, probably up to no good. I could see some IceDevimon wandering outside into the constant and persistent moonlight. Arukenimon and Mummymon were chatting up DemiDevimon who was confused about the ideas brought up in the meeting.

But ultimately, I just felt like it was time to go home. I waved goodbye to NeoDevimon who was staring toward me, still standing tall in his corner as if he could be any more horrifying, and I hopped to my feet, stretching my lets out. It felt like I'd been sitting for years. I caught sight of Tactimon who nodded in my direction. I politely waved to him and then was heading out the door. There was no actual door, and I'd never seen one. It had been destroyed ages ago it seemed. Outside, there were small clusters of digimon interacting with one another on the hard earthy ground. I looked up to the large glowing orb in the sky and smiled. No matter how many times I looked I could never get used to the full moon being so present. The sky around it was murky today though, kind of brown and not at all pleasing to see, and it reflected down to the mist surrounding the cliff by the sketchy, crooked church.

There was nothing more to do around here so I headed back down the trail that led alongside the tree line, and I quickly found our cave. Terra had handcrafted a door for us, to keep any unwanted foes outside, but we assured her it wouldn't be necessary. She disagreed though.

I pulled open the round wooden door and saw Kiyoko sitting at the other end of the cave with his computer in hand. He looked up when I entered and he smiled, "Rei's already inside."

"You ready?" I asked and he nodded, preparing to take us back to Masks Square, to our home.

It certainly wasn't the life I would have wanted to be living, nor would I ever have predicted it. But this _was_ our life now, and it wasn't perfect... but it could have been worse.

 _ **Michael Washington:**_

Four weeks since the virus, and nothing had changed.

"If you do not get me some fresh fruits before the big clock strikes noon, I'll have you sent off with the prisoners." The woman was saying to me, leaning over me as I scrubbed her floor with a coarse brush. She dropped a red velvet bag onto the floor next to me and it clanged loudly. It had money inside. "You'll go alone. The prisoners are being moved today and they are dangerous. I can't have my babies being harmed because you were too dim witted and lazy to save them."

"I would never let harm become your sweet offspring," I said, bowing before her, "M'lady." I added it for effect. "But I will do as you wish. Your fruit shall be here before you can say 'ungrateful wretch'. For the twelfth time today."

"I think not, you ungrateful wretch." The woman spat.

I bowed my head once more. "Would you prefer me to finish the cleansing of the floor first, or retrieve the fruits."

"Do them _both_." The woman was angry now.

"Yes, of course." She had misunderstood, but whatever. I was going to do them both either way, I was giving her an option. She was a pretty horrible woman, like to the point where I almost wanted to lock her in that wooden trunk at the foot of her bed and leave her there, steal all of her stuff, burn it in the town square and start a riot, convincing everyone she is a century old witch that deserved to be thrown off a cliff, then wait at the bottom of said cliff just to laugh in her face when she hit the ground.

Now that wasn't to say I had anything against witches. I was all for whatever religion anyone wanted to partake in, but this crazy lady was getting on my nerves. I could only tell myself it was good practice so many times a day before it became unbearable. But seriously, if I ever needed to act in anything as a mistreated slave, I'd know how now.

The woman looked to me, like she wanted to complain more, but just didn't know what else to say quite yet, and then spun on her heel, leaving a cluster of mud, and then stalked off. I looked up to Lopmon who had watched the scene. Her brows were raised in disappointment, but I shrugged my shoulders. It was easier to mock her with fake sincerity and pretend I really was her servant than to do otherwise. She was cruel, and actually abusive. Not physically, well I mean she was, like she'd hit me a few times, but that wasn't what I had the problem with. She kept trying to starve me, and work me to death, but I had no intention of dying here.

"You should just let me bite her." Lopmon suggested, turning back to gaze out the open window. "I'll do it. Really I will."

"She'll just blame me for not feeding you enough," I said, rolling my eyes. "It isn't worth it." She _always_ found a way to blame me for whatever it was that had gone awry. She blamed me for Hideto falling down the hill a few weeks back, claiming that I should have given him my shoes, they may have had better grip. But that wasn't true because I was wearing brown suede boots, and Hideto was wearing hiking boots. She also blamed me because Tatum got sick last week, claiming it had been me who tried to poison her back-up maid, not wanting to be replaced, and she'd given me a whole crap load of more chores to be done. And she also blamed me because some wealthy blonde man had come into the ball and swept the Queen off her feet, keeping her from falling in love with Hideto, her son, apparently.

Okay, that one _was_ my fault. But she didn't know that _I_ was the wealthy blonde man! This was odd, because she referred to him as 'the wretch who stole her chance at happiness.' On some level she must have known it was me.

Hideto tried to help me by giving her someone else to be angry with, but that didn't work in our favour. He had been asked to sell the cow, for she was no longer producing milk, and because it upset Mimi to sell her to someone who would butcher her, he sold her to some crazy old man in the woods who wanted a friend. In return he was given magical broccoli or whatever. I don't know, it wasn't really magical and it was a vegetable. That was all I could remember, and—anyway, I was punished for my insolence. I guess because I should have read his mind and told him to be a better salesperson.

" _What_ are you still doing here?" The woman shrieked, popping back into the room, her boots even muddier than before.

"I'm cleaning the floors, Madam." I bowed once more, "I am merely doing as you have requested. There are many chores, and I only have one physical form. I cannot do all that you ask of me at one time."

"You had better learn how."

"Yes ma'am," I nodded, working faster at scrubbing the floors. I wasn't sure what she had been doing outside to make her feet so muddy, because gardening was on my list of things to do, as was trimming the hedges, fetching water, sweeping the walkway, feeding the animals, cleaning the animals and washing the outside of the house. There couldn't be anything else to do out there, and she certainly wouldn't be doing anything that I was meant to be doing if it meant she wouldn't have to.

I made sloppy work of the rest of the floor, knowing I had to get out as soon as I could, and tossed the brush back into the soapy water before getting to my feet. It hurt to stand because of the ache in my back from sleeping on the floor by the fire every night since our arrival. I winced, rushing to the door. I grabbed a straw hat and the green jacket I'd brought with me to this world. It was dirty and ripped now, but it was all I had of my own. I turned to the door, ready to go, but Lopmon had leapt onto my shoulder. "I'm coming too," she said, sounding bored, "I don't want to be here with this woman any more often than I have to be." I could understand the need to flee from the woman whose name I still did not really know. Tatum had bothered to ask once, but she gave no answer aside from "Mother" and I wasn't going to call her that. I respected the woman that my mother had been, and I was not going to pretend anyone could replace her. Mary was a lovely step-mother, but still not my mom.

"Hurry back, you horrible boy!" I heard the woman yell from somewhere behind me and when I turned to see her I spotted Tatum throwing a handful of dirt toward her, sticking her tongue out, annoyed. I smirked and turned back to the streets ahead of me, rushing toward the town.

"Terriermon sometimes puffed up his ears to be like shade for Willis," Lopmon said, "Would you like me to do that for you?"

"If you want to," I told her, "but don't go out of your way. I have a hat on already." She looked disappointed, so I grabbed the hat and tossed it aside, despite the messy look of my hair. Lopmon smiled and climbed onto my head, expanding her ears. The shade wasn't very thorough, but I didn't mind. I could deal with another sunburn if it made her feel a little more comfortable with the idea that she may never see her brother again. Even if sunburns seemed illogical since there was no source of light or heat in this world.

The market place was, as always filled with vendors everywhere you looked, and people, or whatever the inhabitants of this world indentified as, bustling around and effectively blocking everything from view. It would take me forever to find what it was the woman wanted. And I only realized just then that she had set me up in a situation where I could not win. She would yell at me no matter which fruit I brought back. I sighed, defeated and bumped into a lady.

"Would you care to buy a mouse?" she asked me, and held up a metal cage. I looked inside and saw that a snow white mouse was running into a wall again and again. "He's unintelligent."

"But cute," I noted.

"Very," the lady said, trying to persuade me into buying the rodent.

"Michael," Lopmon scolded, "We don't have money for that."

"You're right." I sighed, "Sorry." The lady looked annoyed that I'd wasted her time, so I got away from her as quickly as possible. The people in this town could be extremely temperamental. I knew to stay away from this one lady who, as the rumour went, had sent her step-children into the woods because she couldn't afford to keep them anymore, and they had yet to be found. I heard all my gossip from a chatty lady near the bookstore though, and I didn't know if she was sane or not. Not many people around here seemed to be.

I found the fruit vendor behind a group of gossiping old ladies, they were talking about the prisoners. Apparently they were being taken out of town, where they would be forced to start a new life elsewhere. And that was bad. Or something. To me it seemed like they were being let off fairly easy. Depending on their crimes, I supposed. The laws around here were confusing. It was like it depended on who you talked to what your punishment should be, rather than what crime you had committed.

I loaded all kinds of bizarre fruits into the basket. There were very few that resembled anything from Earth, but we'd been here long enough that I knew which ones tasted like filth, and which ones were decent enough to eat. I knew Mimi loved the weird purple monstrosities. They had spikes, like a rolled up porcupine, but when you managed to crack them open they weren't half bad. Tatum and Hideto both preferred an orange fruit that sort of looked like a banana, only it was a spiral, and had skin like an apple instead. My favourite was the simple green one. It was round and tasted quite sour. I liked it a lot, but I only got one because I knew that was all I could eat before getting home. Lopmon picked out all kinds of different berries because to me, they all looked poisonous, but apparently they were edible. I paid for the fruit and turned to head back but spotted a woman in a long black cloak staring at me from the shadows of her hood. There was a single curl of pure white hair falling down next to her face.

"Well isn't she just the creepiest thing?" Lopmon asked nervously.

I didn't respond because everyone was suddenly excited, moving around quickly to get a better view of something coming down the street. I couldn't see over the fancy hats and elaborate hairdos of the people around me, so I waited near the end of the road to get a better look. As it turned out, it was simply the prisoners, being dragged down the street. Not a single one looked to be fighting their restraints, but each guard was pulling sharply, angry at their prisoners. Each of them had hollow sort of eyes, lifeless and drained, like wherever they'd just been had been _horrible_. I swallowed thickly and tried to turn away, but suddenly a man had grabbed at the collar of my shirt, pulling me closer to him. It was one of the prisoners, he smelled like soot.

"Leave." He whispered hoarsely, "While you can, you should leave."

A guard was quick to pull the man away, lashing out at him, and then cracking a whip. I turned before the whip had made contact, too afraid to watch. When I opened my eyes I found a group of younger looking girls, maybe my sister's age all staring to me. They were giggling. Probably because I was dirty. I wiped my face and looked away, embarrassed.

"I think they like you," Lopmon giggled. "One just said you were like an angel."

"I'm sure," I said sarcastically, setting off to get home. I pushed around a large man who was laughing, watching the parade of prisoners and found the woman in the black cloak waiting by the exit to the town. "Of course," I groaned. I moved toward her and tried to smile politely and walk right by but a thin boney and pale arm stuck itself out from underneath the cloak and grabbed my arm. "Can I help you?" I asked as calmly as I could.

"Oh," a weak and miserable voice said from under the hood, "I w-was just wondering if y-you would like to buy something of m-mine. I d-do not have m-much, and w-would love to have enough m-money for a warm me-meal."

I felt my pocket with my free hand, knowing there wasn't much money left in the bag. I guiltily turned back to the woman, "I don't have much," I admitted. "I can give you a couple silver coins though."

"I will give you _this_ in r-return," The woman reached into the black satin bag in her arms and pulled out a very fancy corset covered with lace and ribbons.

"You know," I said awkwardly feeling the place where she had been holding to my arm tightly. She had a firm grip for someone so fragile, "That's not really my style." I reached into my pockets and pulled out the money. "Just take the coins."

"I don't w-want your m-money!"

"But you _just_ said—" Lopmon tried.

"T-take the corset!" The woman wheezed as she tilted her head back, revealing a couple of life filled eyes, glowing from the light that came from nowhere. Her eyes seemed familiar to me, though I couldn't be sure why.

"I don't want it," I said firmly, "You keep it." I took her free hand and placed the silver coins into her palm, "and keep these too. That's all I have." She looked annoyed, but that was all I had to offer her. And then I walked off before she could yell at me, like everyone else seemed to want to. "I want to go home." I muttered.

"Me too." Lopmon sighed. "Me too."

Along the path that led back to the woman's house I found the straw hat I had discarded and I picked it back up, placing it in the basket I'd gotten from the market and kept going. Lopmon's shade was keeping me cool enough, though my legs were exhausted. I couldn't even comfort myself with the knowledge that I was nearing the end of my journey because I had so many chores that needed to be completed.

I met Mimi outside the house, she had just made her way back from the woods, looking nervously over her shoulder for the wolf. She shuddered when she came near me, "I hate this place." She said dropping the hood that she wore over her head.

"Join the club," Lopmon said, deflating her ears as she slid down to rest on my shoulder. "Did you search for the Looking Glass?"

"I did," Mimi said, "Found nothing though. Again." She let out a frustrated sigh, tossing her sweaty hair behind her shoulder. "I'm going to hack it all off, I swear."

"You'll regret it," I sang out, as we walked up the path to the house.

"I know, I know." She said, annoyed, "It's just so frustrating. There is _honey_ in my hair right now."

"I thought it was sweat," I admitted.

"It's both," she groaned, "It's gross." She opened the door for me when we finally reached the house and we stepped inside.

The first thing I saw was that Hideto was stomping around the room with muddy boots, messing up the floor, and had seemingly taken all of the ashes out of the fireplace and spread them about the room. Mimi, Lopmon and I stared at him, our jaws dropped, and he grinned when we walked in. "Hey!" He said, waving.

"Oh good," Tatum said, "You're here."

" _What_ is he doing?" I gasped.

She waved it off, "Ignore him. He's being passive aggressive." She took my hand and led me to the sleeping area. Mimi and Hideto followed behind us and when I finally sat down Lopmon sat on my legs that were revelling in this small break I was giving to them. "I have something to tell you all."

"We're moving out!" Hideto said excitedly.

"What?" Mimi gasped, excited. "You're joking."

Hideto shook his head and looked around for the woman before dropping to the floor and pulled an actual bird from underneath the bed. Mimi screamed and all of us pulled our feet up onto the bed. "It lays _golden_ eggs. We're gonna be rich. We're getting out of here."

"How many times a day does it lay an egg?" I asked, irritated, if it didn't lay enough fast enough then I'd still have to clean up his mess. Hideto wagged his eyebrows as the bird squawked and he reached under the bed again, pulling out a basket overflowing with golden eggs.

"Enough," he said.

"That's not what I wanted to tell you actually," Tatum told us nervously, "Though it's a good starting point. Hideto sold a cow for magic beans and found a goose that laid golden eggs, fell down a hill and hit his head on the way to get some water and everyone calls him 'Jack'. Mimi heads into the woods every day in a red cloak to feed an old lady and is constantly chased by wolves. Michael is treated like a scullery maid even though he's the only one who belongs in this world and some birds dropped off some immaculate clothing so he could go to a ball only if he left before midnight."

"So...?" Hideto said, confused.

But I wasn't confused. It had to be a coincidence though.

"And Lopmon's new friend that she races," Tatum said, "I would bet that it's a turtle."

"He is..." Lopmon seemed nervous now. "How did you know that."

"We're not just in a fairy world." Tatum said, glancing out the window to be sure the woman was still out there, basking in the day's light. "We are in Sidhendor, and we're living actual fairy tales on a repetitive loop. It's been a theory for a while, but when Hideto told me his magical beans made a giant beanstalk in the forest it just... it's too coincidental."

"What does this even _mean_?" I asked, shocked.

"It means that the people of this world have lost their minds," Mimi said slowly coming to a full understanding of what Tatum was saying. "They've lived these lives over and over and have snapped, thinking it's normal to keep going in circles."

"So that woman is my wicked step-mother?" I asked, glancing out the window. I then turned to Hideto and Mimi, "And you're my wicked step-sisters?"

"Watch it," Hideto warned. I smirked, but he was not amused. He turned to Tatum, "What do we do? How do we make sure we don't fall into the patterns?"

"I don't know," Tatum admitted. "I don't know what happened to these people to begin with. I think we should stick together though. We shouldn't let anything get in the way of our own personalities—and watch out for crazy people. They might be living a fairy tale and assume you to be on the opposing end of their antagonistic role." She wasn't kidding. "Not all fairy tales have a happy ending."

Hideto laughed a little, "You are kidding though, right? This isn't really a thing."

"I honestly think it is." Tatum said, swallowing awkwardly. "I really think it is."

"We need to find the Wizard." Mimi said, scared. "We need to go home. We can't go insane. We can't be stuck here forever."

"But not _here_ ," Hideto said with a triumphant smirk as he walked toward the window. "Hey crazy lady!"

The woman stood from her chair and looked toward Hideto, surprised that he had called her such. She appeared in the window and Hideto gestured for me to step forward. "Would you care to do the honours?"

I stood, a smile on my face as I held the fruit up for her. "These are for you," I told her, handing them over, through the window.

"Ugh," the woman growled, "you picked these wretched fruits?"

"I did," I said with a grin, "Just for you."

"You are incompet—" She froze, looking past me and into the room that Hideto had trashed. She let out a scream of horror, "Clean that mess immediately!"

"That mess is for you," I said, "Our parting gift for all you've done for us."

"P-parting gift?" The woman asked.

"Yeah," I said firmly as Tatum, Hideto and Mimi stood tall next to me, "We're moving out."

 _ **Hikari Yagami:**_

It was like I was dead.

I had chosen to dream of nothing. Only darkness and blank space was surrounding me now. Everywhere I looked I could only see a void where there were no people, no one could be dead, and where nothing was anyone's fault. We were all together, and we were all happy, but that could only be true outside of this void of darkness, the only truth was within my head, and nothing else could counter that.

Then I was woken by a loud shout.

I startled awake and lurched forward, nearly smashing into Takeru's face as he grinned down at me. I froze and looked to the cake in his arms. "Happy birthday," he said again. I merely blinked in his direction, unsure how to react. I chose to let him have the day. If he wanted to celebrate to make this world feel like home, I would let him. I wouldn't feel okay either way.

Forty days since Summer had told us about Trust. Nearly six weeks since the virus had come in general.

We were falling into a routine already. One I was not pleased with, not because it wasn't highly functional thanks to Koushiro's well designed schedules, but because I wanted to work on going _home_ more than I wanted anything else.

I missed my mom, and Gatomon, and Taichi, and Iori, Natsuni, Armadillomon and Goblimon. I missed Patamon! I just wanted to go home, back to Earth—pretend none of this happened. But I couldn't go home and there was no way to pretend it hadn't happened. Because it had.

I had learned early on to not speak my thoughts aloud. Ken could not handle the thought of the others being dead, Takeru had him on a very loose string of optimism, but I really didn't have much faith. Takeru maybe thought I did, and I wasn't lying to him—I never said I disagreed with him—but I wasn't going to argue with him about the state of our friends lives, because it wasn't worth it. He needed his hope and that argument would only make him question himself even more than I was sure he already was. He was optimistic, but not delusional.

Takeru had led me into the kitchen of the house we all shared. We'd found it in the strange village from before and decided it was convenient since it was near all of the stores and buildings that could help us feel at home, even though they were abandoned. In the kitchen, Ken was sitting, rubbing his eyes, wanting to go back for more sleep, and Koushiro was already on his computer, in the same place he had been when I had gone to sleep the night before. Koushiro and I had stayed up talking. He was the easiest for me to talk to about my feelings at the moment. Not because I liked him more than the others. I loved Takeru. But Koushiro was a realist, and his thoughts and mine were similar in their negative nature. Neither one of us had much faith that the others were alive, even if we wished upon it. Last night I had brought up the keys again and once more we talked about the realistic nature of them all being used. According to him, the odds were not in our favour, and I sort of leaned on him for these kind of things, so I agreed. I knew Mimi, Willis, Miyako and the Coliseum all had keys, but the virus was fast, powerful, and destructive.

At best, Mimi, Palmon, Willis and Kiyoko had all gone together to one world taking two keys, Miyako had gone off after Kurayami, so if she managed to catch up, then the two of them might be okay, and only as many people that could get through the door before the virus came in the Coliseum. So, not many.

Takeru pulled out a chair next to Yume, the Sandman. He had taken to joining us every now and then, and certainly adored parties. He was a very nice man, and although having him here often reminded me that my other friends were not able to be, I was always open to making new friends, and he was one I was willing to make.

I sat in the chair Takeru had pulled out and he sat next to me, excited, "Okay, it's Hikari's birthday today," Takeru explained as if the balloons and streamers that covered the room were not enough of an indication, "so I was thinking we could take a day off of looking for Trust, just for her?"

"No," Koushiro said quickly, looking up from his computer, he looked toward me to judge my reaction before continuing, "I think it would be best to find Trust and get out as soon as we can, I'm sure we can celebrate her birthday again later, just as I'm sure Ken will do for Miyako's missed birthday." Ken looked like he was about to cry upon hearing Miyako's name. A few weeks ago had been Miyako's birthday, and Ken had never been in worse shape—at least not from what I had ever seen. He was just a mess, but Takeru and I did our best to ensure he had a good day anyway.

"I agree with Koushiro," I said, my voice still thick and underused from sleeping, "I want to find Trust."

Takeru was smiling and nodding, "That's fine, whatever you want for your birthday."

"I still just can't understand why I can't find him for you," Yume said, running his hands through his hair, "Essentially, I run this world. Summer can see all. Why can't either of us locate this person. She is not wrong though, I have felt his presence many times. There is simply no explanation as to why we cannot find him."

"This world gives you whatever you want," I explained, understanding what he meant. He nodded, and I sighed, "Maybe Trust doesn't want to be found." My words seemed to hit Yume pretty hard and he simply stared, realization washing over him. He fell into thought as the rest of us all turned to the cake in the center of the table. The icing was pink and there were little designs on them, seemingly the crest of light. It appeared that Takeru had actually made the cake from scratch instead of wishing one up, or retrieving one from the strange grocery store. It was a very sweet gesture.

Takeru grinned, picking up a knife and cutting into the cake. "Wait, we're eating it now?" Ken asked groggily, "What about breakfast?"

"This is breakfast," Takeru said, rolling his eyes jokingly. "Have you never had cake for breakfast?" Ken shook his head. "Well here you go." Takeru gently lifted the cake from the tray in the center of the table and placed it on the plate near Ken who looked down to it with a twisted face. "It's just cake Ken," Takeru laughed.

Ken lifted his fork and began eating the cake, and eventually fell into a rhythm where he wasn't feeling so strange eating something so unhealthy for a meal that was meant to give you energy for the rest of the day. We would just have to be sure to eat plenty of healthy foods for lunch instead. Takeru continued handing out pieces of cake until everyone had one.

He was a better baker than I would have thought, but I already knew that. He constantly surprised me with cookies or brownies or whatever he felt like baking at the time. I would do the same, but I had learned all of my cooking skills from my mother.

After our incredibly sweet breakfast Takeru sent us all upstairs to get changed and ready to go out for the day. If I wasn't in such a horrible mood all the time, this would be my favourite part of the day, because I could wear whatever I wanted to wear. I opened the closet and pulled out a blue sundress with white polka dots covering the whole dress. It was the middle of summer after all. I had to dress accordingly, even if the weather here was subject to change at any time. My hair had grown pretty quickly too, which might have been another side effect of being in a world where anything could happen.

Downstairs I found that Takeru was already dressed and ready to go wearing a green and black checked button down shirt and a black jacket. It reminded me of Yamato, but with Takeru's personal touch. It was how he showed that he missed his brother, without saying a word. I was sure he knew I could tell that it hurt him, but he didn't stop. He smiled when I walked in the room and held his hand out for me to take. He pulled me closer and kissed my head, hugging me.

"I know this isn't the best birthday ever," Takeru said quietly, "I just wanted to make the most of it. I want to keep all normality that I can."

I hugged him tighter, "I understand."

"I know you do," he said with a small laugh, "You're just so smart. Koushiro's right though. We'll totally have a better party later. When we're at home with everyone else."

My smile fell. "Sure thing," I said it as positively as I could, but mustering enough strength to keep as optimistic as Takeru was a difficult task. He seemed to sense the resentment in my voice but he couldn't comment on it because Ken had come back in the room wearing grey from head to toe, as always. Koushiro was soon to follow wearing clothing I was sure he actually owned at home.

"I packed us all some lunch," Takeru explained, holding up a backpack that was sure to be filled with more cake and candy. Hopefully he had at least packed some fruit, or something to keep us going. Koushiro looked like he was itching to go, which would have felt odd but he had been acting the same way for nearly two months, so I was used to it by now. Ken had his hands shoved in his pockets, looking like all of his optimism had run dry again, which meant Takeru would be cheering him up again. Hopefully anyway. Ken sometimes refused the compassion and instead chose to wallow in negativity, much like Koushiro and I, but Ken was simply more dramatic about it all. "Ready?" Takeru asked, and we all nodded.

Yume was outside and he informed us that he would be searching again today, from the skies, and wished us all luck before shooting off again. We all went together like always, never bothering to split up. With the way the world changed so frequently it was highly possible that we could be split up anyway. Yume had once explained how the world worked though, because nothing made sense at all.

We did not have to eat, we simply chose to. We would not have to sleep, or even breath, but both were so normal to us all that we fell into the patterns and craved a sense or normality, a schedule. He also explained that this world was actually a simple three dimensional world, a single continent, without all of the thoughts at least. The thoughts of the people from within were what altered the size and shape of the world. It was enormous of course, but that was simply due to everyone inside always wishing up alternative routes. The base world, however, was all that was _real_ and all that was sure. Unfortunately, we had no idea where the base world stopped and the new additions began.

Ken froze and sat on a rock without saying a word, so we all stopped and waited with him. Takeru sat down too, smiling to Ken, trying to keep positive. Eventually Ken decided it was time to go again, and pulled himself to his feet, and we were off.

But it wasn't long until he stopped again, muttering to himself. "I miss her," was all I managed to hear from his slurred words, and he sat down again, this time underneath a tree.

"We all miss them," Takeru said, throwing his arm around Ken.

"You don't understand," he said, getting to his feet again. I let my eyebrows raise, but said nothing, instead turning towards Koushiro whose teeth were very obviously clenched together. He always hated when Ken said that, and it was often too. That was the statement he fell back on. 'You don't understand' as if the rest of us hadn't also lost everyone we cared about. Takeru and I were lucky to have each other, sure, but Koushiro lost his entire family, all of his friends, his partner and his girlfriend. Sure, none of those people were pregnant, but it was still a big loss, and Ken couldn't see how we were all experiencing similar feelings. Or he didn't _want_ to.

Eventually, after a day or two of Takeru cheering him up he always perked back into a happy Ken and proved to actually be the most useful of our team. He was faster, stronger and more athletic than the rest of us, as well as being highly intelligent. He was also the one who had the crest of trust sitting in his sock drawer at home.

Takeru hopped to his feet and followed along after Ken and we set off again, Takeru taking my hand. I suppose he wanted to assure me that he hadn't forgot it was my birthday, but _I_ had already, so it wouldn't have bothered me much if he had. I was twenty-four now though, and that was a big deal. I was getting older, and I might soon be ready to have my life fall into place.

That could only ever happen if I was able to return home.

That's all I wanted. _Really_ all I wanted. I just wanted to go to a place I felt safe and comfortable, and curl up next to a fire, or sprawl out on the beach, or even play in the leaves. I just wanted to do normal things that people could do on _Earth_. And I wanted to do them all with Gatomon. I missed her so much that it felt like my heart was continually trying to physically sink inside my body.

Takeru stopped suddenly and released my hand. I turned to see him on his way toward Ken who once more was sitting down, this time his knees were curled up near his face. Then Koushiro sharply elbowed my side, "What?" I asked surprised.

"You're doing it again," he said, half amused and half unimpressed.

I sighed, looking up. Above me there was an actual physical rain cloud, preparing to start throwing water at me and my negative attitude. I closed my eyes and tried to think positive thoughts, but none came until Takeru grabbed my hand again. I opened my eyes and looked to him, and he smiled down to me, "It's gone," he assured me. I shuddered just thinking about it though.

I was trying. Really, I was, it was just so hard to keep positive when nothing was pointing the right direction. After so long being here I was able to act myself on the outside, and even smile every now and then, but the pain inside never went away, not really. The physical manifestation of my negativity may have been gone this time around, but that didn't mean it was gone forever. In fact, I could still feel the depression like a vice grip around every part of my insides. I looked away from Takeru, feeling it tightening and realizing how sad I really was.

I had never gone through an entire birthday without my mother, or without Taichi.

I bit my tongue hard to keep my eyes from watering, unwilling to cry in front of everyone because I knew it would only result in them all repeating that everything was going to be okay, and that we'd go home. But I didn't _care_ if I got home. What I cared about was that everyone else was okay—that's all I wanted. I just wanted proof that they were all okay, and then I would be able to continue without heartache.

"Oh, not again," Koushiro groaned. I looked up and found that we'd wandered toward the DigiGnome village again. Koushiro particularly disliked this place because the Gnomes seemed to enjoy his mind more than the rest of us, and so they fluttered around his head, trying to play around with him. The gnomes were glowing, like tiny light-bulb creatures, with long arms and a curled antenna falling back from their heads. Their actual proportions reminded me of a Divermon, with the way their heads were shaped and the lack of a neck, but these creatures were cuter than a typical Divermon, though also creepy because they never seemed to blink. "Please, not today," Koushiro begged the gnomes.

Takeru laughed, but I caught sight of Ken from the corner of my eye and elbowed Takeru who nodded and set off after him to cheer him up once more. With the two of them off talking to one another and Koushiro swatting at the creatures around his head it became more apparent to me that I was alone. Not just alone _here_ , but alone in general.

I just wanted her back, I wanted Gatomon.

"... she's got to be five months pregnant by now!" Ken was shouting, "I _have_ to find her!"

"...seriously, just leave me alone," Koushiro reasoned, "I can't help you do anything if you choose not to allow me to see in front of myself."

"...Ken, you have to keep positive!" Takeru beamed excitedly.

I couldn't stop their voices from filling my head so I threw my hands over my ears and shut my eyes, trying to think of happy thoughts. I thought of home, and I thought of my friends and my family. But then a small voice played in my mind, "Hikari?" It simply said my name, but it was a very clear voice. I opened my eyes and spun around, looking for who had said my name, it had been a distinctly feminine voice.

Then I spotted her, standing up on a nearby hill, just outside the gates of the DigiGnome village... and so I was running. I didn't bother looking back, because there was just so much I wanted to say to her, and so much I didn't have the right words to explain. I stopped at the bottom of the hill and stared up at her, trying to understand how odd this really was. She was looking around, confused, as though she couldn't understand what had happened. "G-Gatomon?" I asked timidly. She spun toward me suddenly and her face lit up.

"Hikari!" She shouted, leaping down the hill and into my arms. I fell to my knees hugging her, and tears fell from my eyes. "I missed you," Gatomon told me, snuggling closer to me.

"I missed you too," I whispered quietly, "H-how did you—? Never mind. I love you Gatomon."

I looked into my arm, to smile to Gatomon and my heart dropped. She was gone. She had never been there at all. It was just another one of the nasty tricks this world played. My tears did not stop, but rather shifted emotion. I fell into a heaping mess in the grass and just let myself cry. The others would find me and they would tell me it was all okay, just like they always did. But they would be wrong again, for it would not ever be okay until I was sure that she, along with everyone else, was still alive. I _needed_ to know that. I could not live without the information. Not properly in any case. I just... I wanted to go _home_. If that was the only way to find out if they were okay, then that's what I wanted.

I felt someone take my hand and pull me to my feet and I found it to be Takeru and he hugged me, and I hugged him back, and it was nice.

But it wasn't Gatomon.

 _ **Taichi Yagami:**_

Eight weeks.

It had been eight weeks, fifty-seven days, _two months_ , since the virus trapped us all in the Coliseum. It was an eternity to me, but things had started to settle around here.

I was out in the arena, watching the frenzy that was taking place in Mari's garden while I waited for Daisuke to return from his latest scouting mission. He'd gone to visit Toy Town, to check on the digimon there. Were they safe? Did they have enough food to survive this continued siege the virus had forced on us? These were the questions that needed to be answered so that I could continue to do my job. I needed to watch over and protect the entirety of the population of the Digital World. It was what they expected of me, and this was all I could manage in the current situation, so the digidestined had set up a schedule of sorts. Each week was a continuous journey out into the world travelling through the virus as we checked on all of the safe zones that were within a few days' distance. I'd been to Toy Town, and visited Pixiemon already a couple of times. I'd gone to the Dark Habitat only once, but I brought Andromon to visit his home—where all the digimon were lost without him. It was nice, to see that I was able to help the entire collection of digimon in Factorial Town calm down. Each time we set out, we took the digidestined's digimon with us. It made everything almost normal. We were always the ones protecting the world, so it made sense to bring them with us.

Daisuke was with Tapirmon, Palmon and Veemon in Toy Town. Well, hopefully he was heading _back_ , but they _had_ been in Toy Town. Agumon and Tentomon were buzzing with excitement, because they would be coming with Mari and I to Primary Village once they got back. Mari had the phones on charging, to ensure we had enough battery power to make the trip. We tried not to leave the Coliseum without at least two digidestined at any given time, but I was just _itching_ to get out of this place. It had been five days since my last trip out—the longest wait since the virus _came_.

Some towns were checked far more often than the others. Primary Village—where a bunch of our friends were staying with hundreds of babies and in-training digimon—was a once-a-week destination, as was Toy Town. Pixiemon's Oasis, the Dark Habitat and Neverland were more distant, and took longer and so only visited every-other-week. Factorial Town was nearly self-sufficient, now that Andromon had given them directive. I didn't actually know if anyone had gone to see Overdell yet. The inhabitants were Bakemon, and therefore were ghosts, but I mentally added it to the list of future locations. Shogungekomon's Castle was never a fun place to visit, and we were always drawing to find out who got the short straw.

Jou for the most part hadn't left the Coliseum since visiting Gennai's home. He'd taken a couple of trips, but mostly he dedicated himself to his daughter and the infirmary—and trying to decipher Sigma's notes, determined to figure out just _how_ Sigma forced the gates open. He was always so busy. I was sort of jealous. He could continue to do his job even now, trapped within the Coliseum walls. The Council hadn't met even once since D'Arcmon and Divermon had been taken from us. DemiDevimon was still being difficult, wanting only D'Arcmon or Amai to take care of him. Neither were an option, and he was very upset about it. The rest of D'Arcmon's collection of digimon—the abused and abandoned—had integrated themselves into life at the Coliseum nicely. Vegiemon was actually in the garden now, pulling out weeds and throwing them at a Jagamon jokingly, turning away every time Jagamon looked, pretending it wasn't him when they both knew it was. Their laughter was nice. I didn't feel _much_ like laughing myself though.

Warg and Megla were racing to see who could fill their basket with tomatoes first, not realizing it would be impossible to tell, since they were _sharing_ a basket. Dracomon was carefully inspecting pea pods with Lunamon and Monodramon, picking only the fullest ones to put in their basket. Not too far from them, Wormmon was listening to Kae with rapt attention as she showed different weeds to Kunemon, Masa and Emiko, instructing them on what was _good_ to pull, and what wasn't. Emiko's attention kept drifting, and she looked longingly at the tomatoes. Monmon had less restraint than she did, and had hopped over to the tomatoes and threw one at Bearmon's back. Coronamon immediately began scolding him, much to Monmon's surprise.

"You can't waste food!" Coronamon said firmly. "We don't know how long we'll be here, and we don't know how long the garden will continue to produce."

We didn't know how long the garden would last, that was true. It didn't seem to be slowing down any though. The garden started producing a month into our stay, mostly lettuce, spinach and other leafy greens at first. But dill and herbs followed quickly after, and now we had tomatoes, peppers, peas and beans going strong. We'd had to thin out the rows of beats and carrots, and Yoshie had boiled the beat tops and tried to feed them to us. A lot of the digimon were braver than me on that front. I wouldn't touch them. We had fresh green onions, and would soon have cooking onions too. We were anticipating potatoes, which Mari was _sure_ we could start harvesting soon. She was being very careful with everything. She didn't have a never ending supply of seeds, so she would ensure that some were held back for replanting when needed. But with the temperature remaining at a constant summer warmth—and the _talent_ of several plant digimon—most of the plants didn't show any signs of slowing down. The root vegetables would be the most important for replanting, but none of them were ready yet. But Mari's caution was appreciated. I _never_ would have thought about it. I would've ended up starving the digimon of the Coliseum. I was definitely glad to have her around.

She was inside, bringing the latest of her fresh picked vegetables to the kitchen—a bushel of tomatoes and three quarts of peas. My mouth watered at the thought of what our cooking team could make with those and was miffed that I would be eating cold sandwiches instead of whatever they cooked up, but I couldn't postpone the trip to Primary Village. I sighed. I'd just have to wait until tomorrow to taste the fresh vegetables.

"Is this one ready?" Masa asked Terriermon, poking a flat pea pod in his hands. Kae had given up any hopes that the kids would weed the garden and had allowed them to find instructors to help them pick the vegetables.

"Nope," Terriermon said. He started searching the plant, looking for a nice fat pod. "Here! See how it's all big and stuff? That means there's lots of peas inside."

"I don't like peas," Masa said, sticking out his tongue.

"Wanna know a secret?" Terriermon said, leaning close to a nodding Masa. "I don't like 'em either." They both started giggling like it was the funniest thing in the entire world. It was strange to see that Masa was having fun two months into his stay. He was surrounded mostly by strangers, yet he—and Emiko too—was staying strong. I wasn't torn between being happy that they weren't asking about their mothers quite so often, or sad that they seemed to be losing hope gradually. I knew they both wanted their mothers fiercely, but they continued to wear bright smiles every day. I hoped it wasn't a front. I didn't know if they were old enough to put up a front. I liked to think so anyway.

"Those are green still!" Wormmon said sounding incredibly upset about that fact. He was anxiously looking between Kae and Emiko, who was clutching a nice _green_ tomato in her hand.

"I like it," Emiko said defensively.

"But it's not ready until it is red, remember what Mrs Kae said?" Kunemon reminded her.

"I don't like them, I like _this_ one," Emiko huffed.

"It's alright," Kae said, rolling her eyes. "I know that they can fry green tomatoes. It might be a nice treat for breakfast."

"I can pick more?" Emiko asked, her eyes lighting up brightly.

"Not too many," Kae said with a soft smile. "We should let most of them ripen, but yes, you can pick more." Emiko cheered and stuck her tongue out at Wormmon and Kunemon, before calling to Monmon so that he could help her. Monmon jumped over the head of a Floramon, and was caught midair by Blossommon, who set him down next to Emiko. They thanked the helpful plant before racing down the rows of tomatoes. The garden was enormous, and was expanding a little with each week. It had also become more than just Mari's pet project. Several digimon dedicated entire days to weeding and hilling and watering and harvesting. Some digimon came for just a few hours. It was a public garden and it was one of the greatest attractions that we had available other than the living room and cafeteria.

"Keep it up!" Armadillomon's clear, sharp voice sailed over the general chatter of the garden. I saw him across the field. He was standing next to Meiyomon and Kotemon. The three of them were facing sixty or more digimon—a small group for them, when they usually had a hundred or more—all copying Kotemon and Meiyomon's every move. It was their morning kendo class. "One-and-two-and-three-and-four. Good, good. Now, again!"

I spotted Labramon waving around a feather duster in the front row. He was one of their most dedicated students. He spent every morning with them, only missing when he was out in the virus with one of the digidestined. Veemon was just as dedicated, though he'd chosen to attend the afternoon classes, which allowed them to split time with Haruki fairly evenly. I knew Jun had him now, while Daisuke and Veemon were out so that Labramon could go to class. Labramon needed help with him anyway, because he didn't have any hands, but sometimes they laid the baby on the bed and he encouraged him to crawl only for him to roll over instead. Labramon and Veemon were also giving him speech lessons, both convinced Haruki's first word would be _their_ name.

"Again!" Armadillomon called. "Good, Goblimon."

Goblimon looked like a true warrior swinging his club around with a grim expression on his face. He was next to Meramon, who had a metal pipe of some sort, and had to continually take breaks so he could dip the pipe in cool water, so that it didn't melt through. Meiyomon was cheering on his brothers, Shinsetsumon and Shinramon showing blatant favouritism, but no one minded. They were just happy he wasn't quite as much of a drill sergeant as he used to be. His mood improved every time we were able to tell him that we'd found another of his siblings. Only Unmeimon, Kisekimon, Yuukomon, Yuujoumon, Aimon and Chisikimon remained missing. Six out of twenty wasn't too shabby. We still had hope of finding the rest of them out there. We hadn't explored the locations we visited. It was only when they came to _us_ that we learned they were okay. We couldn't afford to spend days searching Pixiemon's Oasis, or Neverland for them.

Not that we had anything overly pressing to do at any given moment...

Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon were goofing off in the large crowd and got called out on it when Kotemon noticed. He made them come up to the front of the crowd where they could watch them. They looked properly scolded. Dorumon snickered at their misfortune to his good friend Falcomon of the fight club digimon. Starmon looked at Falcomon with disapproval. The entire fight club was out there, and they were taking these lessons seriously. They wanted something new to teach their partners when they next saw them—and on days when they weren't quite so hopeful, they mentioned using their new techniques on the DWD. They had actually started up lessons of their own that occurred between Armadillomon's morning and afternoon classes. They needed to be monitored by the Knights, so that their students didn't start fighting each other with malicious intent. In a place as populated as the Coliseum, tensions ran high, and there were several digimon that had feuds with other inhabitants. It was all inevitable, even if it _was_ annoying. The Knights liked those lessons anyway. Neo wasn't here to keep up their training, and they were determined to keep up their efforts. Andromon and Centarumon had actually joined Dorumon and Kotemon for kendo lessons each day.

Terriermon felt out of place working with the Knights without Lopmon, so we never forced him to participate. We let him do whatever he wanted. He was already on the roster of digimon that got to venture into the virus, so it wasn't like he was slacking off. Warg and Melga chose not to participate either, not wanting to do it without Hideto—since they were only a Knight when they were fused anyway. Dracomon only helped watch over the fight club's lessons, though he never participated since Neo wasn't around. Veemon missed a few lessons, since he went out into the virus, but otherwise he remained dedicated to the cause. Wormmon sometimes helped out, as did Agumon and Gabumon, whenever they felt ambitious. Wizardmon was the only other Knight that never participated, and that was because he was trapped at some undisclosed location and felt like he was needed there, and so refused every offer to change locations.

The lessons had grown so much since they'd started, taking on lives of their own. They were, like the garden, something a lot of digimon looked forward to each day. There wasn't a lot to do in the Coliseum, or there hadn't been two months ago. Since then, several activities had been developed other than the lessons, garden and Memorial Wall—which I still hadn't used. Each activity or event further developed the community we were forming within the Coliseum.

Mom and Yoshie had teamed up with Izumi and Aimi to start up cooking lessons. These were wildly popular, and they got new students each week. The students were responsible for cooking each meal. It was a _big_ job, so Mom was happy for every new student. They had three distinct classes: breakfast, lunch, dinner. Mom was head of breakfast, while Izumi covered dinner, utilizing all of her restaurant experience. Aimi and Digitamamon were in charge of lunch, and Yoshie held a forth class while the others were working on dinner, and that was for baking. Veemon sometimes volunteered to help out, with all of his noodle knowledge, and Daisuke offered his assistance when he could.

In the living room, Natsuko held story time, where she'd spend an hour every afternoon reading storybooks to the younger guests. She also read chapters of a novel each night to large crowds. She also kept a log of each day that passed, including all of the information we digidestined were able to bring back from other safety zones. Kae had an entire roster of volunteers on top of keeping the Coliseum clean. There were digimon assigned individual hallways. So many people volunteered that Kae no longer spent every day working, as not many volunteers had to clean more than twice a week. She used her new free time taking care of Masa with Wormmon, who was frankly overwhelmed at the job Ken had left him. Jou and Isao had enlisted helper for the infirmary with ease. Their volunteers were able to help the digimon that came with paper cuts, or superficial wounds. Jou and Isao were able to deal with the more serious injuries and bouts of the flu—thankfully keeping it from spreading through the entire Coliseum. They had a few digimon getting over colds being held overnight at the digimon's insistence—even though Jou and Isao _both_ said they could go.

Mr Washington missed as always looking for a way to expand his talents, and started up an acting troop in order to try his hands at directing—keeping him on his toes so that he didn't let his acting chops fall to the wayside. He went the classic route, borrowing Shakespeare's plays from Mari's library in order to getting his digimon cast prepared to prepare a literary masterpiece. The plays were never _good_ , but the actors all had fun, even without costumes or sets. There was no shortage of audience members either. Mr Washington had his stars in his own personal room now, helping them memorize their lines for the third play, which would be performed in the coming week. Tatum's parents, the Jeffersons, were toying with the idea of starting a second troop that performed more _modern_ plays, and had Mr Washington's full support. Satoe wanted to get a group together to perform a musical—she missed spending her days at the Broadway theatre she worked at. She'd been watching musical after musical in the living room, which had the interesting result of digimon singing the songs all over the Coliseum. The songs spread quickly, becoming increasingly popular, being sung by people who hadn't even seen the movie in the first place. Mr Washington's wife, Mary, had suggested that we host a talent show, so that _anyone_ could participate, even if they weren't interested in acting. Toshiko Takenouchi and Jun were working with her to schedule one and host auditions. I was pretty sure it was going to be a weekly thing.

Masami Izumi worked with Kazuya Ichijouji, Tomoki and Tomotsu as the resident handymen. They weren't the best, and none of them really had training, but things got broken in a place as crowded as this, and they were in high demand, even _if_ Kazuya was practically a zombie these days.

He, Fumiko Ishida—or Hida, I didn't know—and Okotte Higorashi were really the only parents not moving on with their life. These three didn't have any hope. Fumiko was barely functioning. It was only because of Meiyomon's gentle reminders that she even ate. Okotte didn't speak to anyone. He and Kazuya spent their evenings in each other's company, sitting in the living room, staring at the wall and brooding as Natsuko read from her novels.

Haruhiko Takenouchi and Shuu spent hours in the library educating digimon about Japanese folklore and giving literature lessons. It had become an unofficial school for older digimon, since Mr Ogremon only taught children—and there was a distinct lack of educational opportunities in the Digital World. Benjamin and his remaining brothers—Jose, Ilya and Hogan—took turns educating about the history of the Digital World as well, having decided Haruhiko and Shuu had the right idea. They sometimes had the Council in to talk to their classes. I'd sat in for a couple of their lessons, as did Mari. I spent most of the time wondering if Koushiro already knew what they were telling me, and knowing that he'd love to be here spreading his knowledge.

Mimi would have loved to be in the kitchen with Mom, and Michael would have been brilliant helping out the acting troops. Iori would have been a great instructor, and Ken probably wanted to participate. He liked exercising these days. Or he _did_. And Neo could lead the Knights in training again. Takeru would have joined his mother for story time, and Yamato probably would have started up a band to alleviate the serious need for music. Miyako and Hideto would have willingly helped him with that goal. Sora could have hosted a fashion show _without_ it ending in disaster. Hikari wanted to teach, and Mr Ogremon had a lot of students. They could have benefited from having Hikari around. Willis and Kiyoko would probably have worked with Koushiro and found a way out of this place already. I didn't know what Kurayami would do, but she would have done _something_.

My mind was always thinking these things. What if...? I couldn't handle them, and hated that I refused to let myself think of my friends—and sister. But I couldn't dwell on it. I _couldn't_. They could all be fine.

The Coliseum was moving on, functioning better than ever before. There were schedules that went smoothly each and every day. I hated it. Not the fact that everyone was dealing with it in a way that was, for the most part, positive. That was a _good_ thing. It was just that things were going _too_ smoothly. With a system as smooth and thought out as the one that we had going on, it seemed like we'd settled into the idea that we were never leaving. It stopped feeling like this was temporary.

We'd given up trying to fix everything.

"Get out of there, you're trampling the flowers!"

I could always count on Babamon's crusty, grouchy voice to interrupt my thoughts. There was just no way to ignore her. Once upon a time I hated that about her, now I depended on it. She liked attention to be on her, and I honestly didn't mind giving it to her anymore. It was better than dwelling on my continued failures.

"Are you even listening to me?" Babamon demanded. I looked over to see Spring dancing in the flower beds, holding her red and purple skirt up above her knees as she twirled in circles, stepping on top of flowers without a care in the world. She was yelling happily. She turned her face up to the sky and opened her eyes. She let out a loud scream that scared Masa, Emiko and several garden volunteers. "Oh shut up," Babamon snapped. Spring closed her eyes again, and stopped spinning. She tried to take a few steps but was so dizzy that she fell to the ground in a giggling pile. "What is she even doing here anyway?"

"She's supposed to be helping us come up with a way out of the Digital World," I said, not having much faith in her abilities as I watched her roll over in the dirt, picking several pink flowers that she then threw into the air with a squeal of delight.

"We don't need to leave the Digital World," Babamon said firmly. "And I don't think Spring is helping any, anyway."

"Yeah," I sighed. But we _needed_ to get out. We couldn't fix this mess if we couldn't find the DWD, and from what we'd seen so far, the DWD _weren't_ in the Digital World anymore.

"We should send her back where she came from," Babamon said bitterly. "She can destroy the flowers _there_ , instead of ruining all of my hard work."

I knew she didn't like Spring, but she also didn't really mind her being here. She was just worried, waiting for news from her husband, Jijimon. She'd started sending letters each week to Toy Town, and she was growing impatient—and thusly more irritable—waiting for the reply. Daisuke had set out yesterday afternoon, and was going to spend the night, giving Palmon time to look over the plant digimon that she was responsible for. It was the longest time any of us had spent there, and I could relate to her impatience. I wanted Daisuke to be back too.

"It's so heavy," Terriermon gasped. I looked to see him and Dracomon trying to live a large basket piled high with tomatoes. They couldn't even get it off the ground.

"Taichi," Dracomon whined pitifully. He looked to me with watery eyes, knowing full well I couldn't resist. He was a stinker.

"Give it to me," I sighed. They cheered, and I found my way down to the kitchen carrying an incredibly heavy load of tomatoes. I didn't know how I always ended up doing the grunt work. I ran into Mari, who was on her way back to the gardens. She laughed when she saw the tomatoes, knowing exactly what happened.

"Daisuke isn't back yet," she told me, and I sighed. Not that it really mattered. I couldn't just leave the basket of tomatoes in the middle of the hallway. I would've had to bring it down to the kitchen anyway. It was still irritating though. She walked on, back up to the garden where she would probably pick up another load of vegetables. It took a lot of food to feed the thousands of occupants. It was actually mindboggling to see the kitchen at any point during the day. It was only quiet around eleven o'clock at night, and the fluster of activity started up again at five the next morning. The cleaning crew got there around nine each night, and the dish washers couldn't possibly finish any earlier. They were constantly getting new dishes to wash.

I volunteered only once for that job.

Never again.

I was greeted by several digimon on my way, each using my name. I'd been doing so much _better_ in terms of keeping up a presence in the Coliseum, despite the numerous trips I made outside. The other digidestined were better too. We were getting involved, and the majority of the digimon were at the point where they trusted us entirely. They didn't think we'd abandoned them anymore, like they had during the first couple of days. And I tried really hard to learn their names too. It helped immensely that Warg, Melga, Pal and Pul were the only digimon with unique, individual names. The others had a tendency to acknowledge their species as their name. I didn't understand it myself, but figured it was probably a cultural thing in the Digital World, so I didn't question it too much.

It was also nice that all our hard work was paying off. There were quite a few digimon here that hated us for awhile, because we were humans, and the DWD—also humans—had been the ones that had taken away their home. They didn't think that way anymore, thankfully, now that they knew us better, and knew that we would never hurt them. It was nice really, not to get glared at randomly anymore.

Once I got to the kitchen, I set the basket of tomatoes on the counter next to the one Mari had brought. Digitamamon's Tapirmon thanked me as he prepared to wash them. I told him it wasn't a problem before setting out to find my mother. I spotted Gabumon next to Yoshie, watching a frying pan sizzle.

"I want to flip it in the air," Gabumon said shyly. Yoshie pursed her lips for a second and shook her head.

"I don't know how to do that," she admitted. Gabumon visibly deflated. Yoshie looked heartbroken at his disappointment. "Why don't you ask Izumi?" she suggested with a wink. " _She_ can do it." His face lit up and he raced over to find Izumi, only to rush back to his pan, making sure it wasn't burning. Yoshie laughed and assured him she'd watch over it, and he rushed off again.

He ran passed Digitamamon who was lecturing Jou's step-sister, Eri, about the best seasonings to put in whatever soup recipe he was whipping up today. She nodded her head eagerly, making her curls bounce. Not far from them, Gabumon also ran by Keiko who was pulling a loaf of fresh bread from the oven. Despite her despair at losing her partner due to her baking, she had decided to fight her sadness in order to find joy in baking again, choosing to bake her partner's favourite recipes in hopes that others would enjoy it as much as he had. MetallifeKuwagamon was her willing student. Gabumon continued running to Izumi, but my attention was caught by Tinkermon who was wielding a knife that was _far_ too big for her while she sliced up mushrooms with Gatomon. They were helping my mother by preparing vegetables for the morning's omelettes. Mom was next to them, chatting up a storm while she diced onions. Betamon was washing up the remaining peppers that had been picked the day before so that they'd be ready to go when someone had their hands free.

Mom looked up when she finished with one onion, reaching for another. She smiled at the sight of me. I could see the strain in her eyes, no matter how much her smile tried to hide it. She was stressed, stretching herself too thin. She was in charge of feeding so many mouths, and she'd never really had the _time_ to properly grieve for our loss of Hikari. It helped that we knew that Hikari was alive—or she _had_ been. We both missed her— _everyone_ missed her—but we had faith that she would be okay. Mom also missed Dad a whole lot. I missed him too, but I'd gotten used to going long stretches of time without seeing him when I moved into the Digital World. I'd never gone quite so long as _this_ , but it still hadn't really _hit_ me yet that I wouldn't be able to get out of the Digital World to see him again.

I knew it would hit me soon though.

I opened my mouth to say something comforting to her but stopped. She didn't _want_ to talk. If she did, she would have pulled me aside already. I'd be ready though, if she ever got to that point. Most of the time, I would seek her out, simply to feel her warm presence. She had some sort of superpower that made me feel entirely safe and at ease. I could have stayed there for hours, but a Vegiemon nearly tripped over me, and I knew I was just getting in the way. I smiled at her again, prompting another one from her. It would have to be enough until I got back from Primary Village—if Daisuke ever bothered to come back.

Weaving my way around the volunteers, I made my way, slowly, to the door. I'd just about slipped out before Yoshie shouted my name, bringing a large platter piled with cookies—oatmeal, chocolate chip, raisin and something I couldn't identify for variety.

"These are for the children in the library," she explained. "Natsuko's should be nearly finished reading by now. I can't slip away right now, so I was hoping you could bring them. They're Koushiro's favourites, marmalade and pecans. I don't know how well they'll be received, but I haven't made them for awhile..." She looked down for just a second before shaking her head and smiling at me. "Could you take them?" I found myself—for the second time today—agreeing to deliver something.

Turns out, I was a pushover.

I lugged the platter down the corridors, trying to avoid the more heavily trafficked halls, so I didn't tempt anyone with the cookies. I couldn't avoid everyone though. Masami Izumi was balancing a broken stool against the wall as he tried to glue its missing leg into place. He was definitely having trouble with it. He smiled when he saw me.

"Are those for me?" he joked.

"There's a lot," I said with a shrug. Yoshie, I knew, had a tendency to send far more than needed. There'd definitely be enough to give one or two away. He grinned and took one of those marmalade and pecan cookies, and without any hesitation stuck it in his mouth.

"Yep," he said when he swallowed. "They're still as strange as I remember. I don't know why Koushiro likes them so much. What's wrong with good old fashioned oatmeal?" He laughed, shaking his head as he did so, before trying to keep the leg of the stool balanced.

"Don't mean to be irritating," I told him, cringing. "But that's upside down..."

He looked to the leg with surprise. "So it is," he muttered. "This is why I'm an accountant and not a carpenter." He was joking again. He was so much more carefree now than he was when he'd been brought to the Coliseum. I wasn't sure Koushiro would be able to recognize him, if he ever got back from wherever that key took him.

No.

 _When_ he got back—I had to stay positive.

As per usual, the library was fairly jam-packed when I walked in. Mr Ogremon's entire class was sitting at Natsuko's feet. Mr Ogremon was near the door, allowing the other curious digimon to have the space the class left behind. Rookies of all shapes and sizes were crammed in the space. I spotted a few dedicated champions in the mix, and MarineAngemon was there too, representing the mega level digimon. Otamamon was on Natsuko's lap, fast asleep. Penguinmon, Crabmon and Gekomon were all sitting together, giggling at the naughty little puppy that Nastuko was reading about. It was very interesting to see the digimon reacting to stories I'd heard as a child. They didn't have these stories in the Digital World. If the Temple hadn't had Gennai's library, I probably would have assumed they didn't have books either. From what I'd heard, those books were rather dry and non-fiction based too. This was a fun, new experience for them.

"The end," Natsuko said finally. Cheers and clapping filled the air following her announcement, causing Otamamon to wake up. He looked grumpy, sliding onto the floor and moving over to Gekomon. Natsuko set the book on the floor, clapped her hands and stood up. "Okay!" she shouted. She'd spotted me, and pointed in my direction. "Taichi brought cookies for all of you, isn't that nice? Remember I'll be reading a new book at two o'clock tomorrow afternoon, after I help with breakfast, so just remember the time change, and I hope to see you then."

The air was filled once more with the general happiness of her audience, and then the children were all running towards me. I panicked, and shoved the tray into Mr Ogremon's hands. He laughed at me, and my face flushed. There wasn't a lot that scared me that I couldn't work through, but a mob of hungry kids was too much for me. I excused myself _just_ before the swarm hit, and headed to Natsuko, who looked amused by my tactics too.

"Good story," I said trying to change the subject.

"I read it to both my boys when they were young," she told me. It was a fact, and wasn't said with longing. I appreciated that about Natsuko. She dealt with facts, both in her work as a journalist and in life. She wasn't interested in sharing her emotions, so I never pressed. I also recognized this as a way she was connecting with her sons—neither of whom we had any idea where they were.

Takeru's and Yamato's were two of ten—possibly eleven—unknown fates. Ken had also left without any indication, and Miyako had wandered off from the Temple before we'd made our big migration. Willis and Kiyoko had been with Palmon and Mimi, but Palmon said they'd gotten separated, and she didn't know if they were okay. Kurayami was gone too; Daisuke didn't have any idea where, just that she'd been saying goodbye to him before she left, and he didn't have much hope. Neo was a mystery, leaving long before the virus was something to worry about. We hadn't heard from him since. Lopmon escaped, heading out on a quest to find Willis. My only hope for her was that she'd found him, at least, before the virus hit. Iori _might_ have gone through a door, thanks to the key Jou gave him, and I liked to think that was the case. Jou was mostly sure of it too, but he knew that Iori made no secret of his disdain for the key he'd been given.

And Rei...

Sweet, funny Rei had gone out to find _me_. She hadn't, and now she was gone. It hurt so much to know that I'd left before she could find me. I was happy to be alive, but I missed her so much. It didn't really diminish at all with the passing of time. I found that I was just getting _used_ to the feeling. I was worried it would always feel this way. It had only been two months, but it was _two months_ without her.

Because of this, I knew how horridly unfair it was that Natsuko was left in the lurch, not _knowing_ one way or the other whether Takeru or Yamato could be alive. She still had hope though. There were no solid facts to back up their deaths yet, and until then she had hope.

It was more than Kazuya Ichijouji did. He wandered around "helping" with repairs, though he was more like a zombie, convinced Ken was dead, just like Osamu, and no one knew how to help. He wouldn't take to Kae either, so we left him to his own devices. He was sitting in a chair next to Okotte in the corner. I doubted they were drawing any comfort from each others' presence. I was really worried about them—and Fumiko too—but I didn't know _how_ to help them, other than going out into the virus time and time again, hoping to find their children.

Since I was just depressing myself, standing around in a crowded library, I left. I murmured a farewell to Natsuko, and she nodded. I pushed my way out of the room, and started heading down the hall. I knew where I was headed, and I went there on autopilot. I pushed aside the curtain that blocked the room off from the hallway and stepped inside. There were boxes still piled high on one side of the room. Takeru's stuff had been put away early on, and Daisuke had put _some_ of his own stuff throughout the room, but Kurayami's stuff was still packed away. Daisuke couldn't bring himself to look through them, and he'd pushed them against a wall. There were a couple labelled with Daisuke's name though, and it was to those I headed to.

It was like I was possessed. I didn't even consciously know what I was looking for until I found them, buried at the bottom of the second box. I picked them up and sat down on Takeru's empty bed. The room was quiet, because Jun had Haruki, since Haruka was heading the cleaning committee for the day. I reveled in the silence, staring down at the pair of goggles in my hand. It was strange to think how much these goggles had seen. They were once my grandfathers, from the war, and then they'd gone through five adventures in the Digital World. They'd seen death and betrayals; they'd been worn by nearly every female digidestined, and Koushiro, Daisuke and I. (ARE THERE MORE?) We'd depended on them to lead us, as if they held some sort of power. We'd put so much faith in them over the years.

"What the hell?"

I didn't look up from the goggles when Daisuke arrived. I was still mesmerized, thinking about how much _I_ depended on them to bring me courage and hope.

"What're you doing?" Daisuke asked, finally snapping me out of my memories.

"Getting these," I said, holding the goggles up for him to see. He looked disappointed that I'd taken them. I eased his worries. "You're going to need them."

"Why?" he asked.

"We've been treating this differently than any other adventure we've ever had, just because our enemy is human, but I don't think we should," I said. "This is a fight, a battle for the digidestined, and we need a leader that can make a change. All I've gotten us is routine and repetition. I'm not getting us out of here. I _know_ that now. I've got us in a rut. We need a fresh perspective."

"And you think _I_ can provide it," Daisuke said skeptically.

"I _know_ you can," I corrected. He rolled his eyes. "There's a reason I picked you to be my successor. It's time to put the goggles back on."

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** All You Had To Do Was Stay, Kurayami and Sora narrate this in the first chapter of the middle group of arcs, and they're starting off their story of the Digital World and Earth, so that's kind of cool.


	16. All You Had To Do Was Stay

**U/N:** So I guess this is Kurayami and Sora, which is intimidating because I wrote the whole chapter. Obviously we left Kurayami in a really emotional state last time we saw her, so I guess we'll see what went on there, and with Sora we get a pretty big face full of a kind of rebellion sort of feel, but toned down to fit into the story obviously which is kind of upsetting because I think it would have been REALLY fun to explore all of that a lot more. Anyway, I hope you like the chapter :D

Also, hey so these next three arcs run at the same time as one another just in case you didn't get that,

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 16: All You Had To Do Was Stay**

 _ **Sora Takenouchi:**_

"Pass the sugar," Katsue said groggily, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"What's the magic word?" Yutaka prodded annoyingly.

"If you don't give me the sugar right now, I'll start calling you Lumps the Clown again." Katsue said bitterly.

"Yeeesh," Yutaka groaned, sliding the sugar dish down the table toward her, "Maybe it'll sweeten you up. Morning-Katsue freaks me out."

So Katsue got the sugar, and it was a small win for our little community. Sad, but true. There weren't many wins to go around. Not for us anyway. It had been eight weeks since the virus had been sent, and as it turned out, a person gets over the grief of losing a loved one a lot faster when they have no other choice. And each one of us was in that exact predicament. We had no other choice but to force ourselves to move on, at least for right now. We'd done all we could to let go and say goodbye. We had a mass memorial, though of course it was not a legitimate one, as some of us were not permitted to even be seen outside.

Mimi's restaurant had become something it was never meant to be, a home. There were beds with separation curtains, we each were living out of our own suitcases to the best of our ability. We tried to make the most out of the two bathrooms we'd been provided, but as a public restaurant there was no shower provided. We took a page from Hideto's book and used the industrial dishwasher for that use—luckily Mantarou was so good with, well, just about everything, and managed to tone down both the heat and the pressure. I knew Mimi would never approve, but it was all we had.

We felt safe enough bringing the beds in the restaurant after the police came and scoped the place out. I figured they thought we'd try to find somewhere nicer to stay, and they left, never to return. Unfortunately, they didn't feel the same about any of our _homes_.

When I'd gone back to get my clothes, I had run into some trouble.

" _Sora..." Natsuni had said as calmly as her nerves would allow. "We have a problem."_

" _Well it'll have to wait. I can't live in the same outfit anymore." I groaned, "I'm dirty and I'm sad about it."_

" _Well you might want to hurry." Natsuni said, her voice more clear and panicked now. "Because we have to get out of here, right now." I looked to her and saw her staring out of my open bedroom curtains, down to the street below. Curious, I stepped toward her and saw what she was worried about. There was a single police car parked on the street, it seemed that the accompanying police were in no particular hurry to enter the building, having no indication that we'd be here at all. They were simply waiting for the others. One even laughed, they were just here on casual business. We could escape without them knowing. It was possible._

 _I quickly fell to the floor and pulled a box out from under my bed and thrust it into Natsuni's arms. "Make that fit in the suitcase," I told her, rushing from the room and toward Biyomon's bedroom. It felt awful being inside. She had been the last one to be here, it was just as she'd left it. And it was the last time she'd ever leave it, because she was gone now. I winced again, and hurried for what I'd come for. I grabbed the stuffed chicken toy from her bed and rushed back to Natsuni. I tossed it to her and looked out the window again. "They're coming in." I whispered when I heard a slam on the front door. "Come on."_

 _Natsuni reached for my second suitcase and I hurriedly zipped up the one on the bed. "Back door?" Natsuni had questioned. I nodded my response and followed her from the room only to stop momentarily and rush back to my vanity. I pulled open the top drawer of my jewelry box and grabbed a red floral barrette._

" _Stupid Taichi." I whispered, pocketing the barrette and hurrying after Natsuni. She was already waiting at the bottom of the stairs, so when I caught up she was prepared._

" _They're in the living room," She said, her voice barely audible. She held a finger to her lips, and I listened in to the conversation they were having._

" _She doesn't have much taste does she?"_

 _I fake gasped at him, annoyed. The jerk wouldn't know fine design if it kicked him in the face. Probably. No, that wasn't fair. I didn't even know him, maybe he really was very conscious about colour and layout. I shook it off and pointed to the door to our left. Natsuni nodded and with her visibly sweating hand she turned the knob very slowly. There was the smallest of clicks, but I'd barely heard it. There was no way anyone in the other room had heard it over their talking. Natsuni pulled on the door just as slowly as I kept watch behind us for anyone to catch sight of us._

 _Natsuni stepped out the door when it was barely wide enough, too scared to wait any longer, and I hurried after her. My suitcase had been just a bit bigger though and it had hit the door. My heart dropped and I turned, without a word and began running for my life with Natsuni not far behind. Lucky for us, my neighbor was rebuilding a fence, and we were able to slip right into his property and continue running without too much trouble._

 _We'd had to stay hidden for the rest of the night until we were sure the police had gone, but eventually we had gone back to Mimi's restaurant._

So it wasn't too dramatic, but it was enough to keep us on our toes. The police were checking out the homes of the Digidestined, or at least mine. They were looking for survivors, and if they found us, well, I didn't know what they planned to do with us, but I was sure it couldn't be good. But they would never find any more than two of us, even if they searched the entire world.

Now, I wasn't under the impression that _every_ one of my friends had died. That was completely irrational, and Yamato and I had had the same discussion a hundred times at least. It seemed likely that the virus had taken their lives, and it was painful, even now, to know how easy it was to think that thought. Very little hope had escaped the place in my mind where guilt was building. It was my fault after all, my fault the virus had been sent out. I killed Biyomon. I killed my parents, and I killed Takeru. It wasn't my fault, sure, but I still did it.

It _was_ me.

I _had_ pushed that button.

And Yamato was still very clear about his goal to end the life of whoever it was who had pressed the button.

"Hey, Yamato, you're on the news again." It was Akira who had spoken, taking me from my thoughts, thankfully. Akira stretched his thin arms out in front of himself and showed us his phone which was playing a video with a woman speaking to the camera, a photograph of Yamato that Natsuni had taken was off to the side.

" _The musician known as Yamato Ishida, or more commonly 'The Digital Man' these days has struck again." The scene on the phone changed to a street view. The place looked familiar. "Ebisu has been confronted with a Dark Angel."_

"Jenna," Yamato said sharply, turning to Jenna who groaned and pushed her chair back.

"I'm on it." She groaned, hurrying to change out of her pyjamas. It was Jenna's job to locate the artist who was painting the streets with 'dark angels' as the community had begun referring to them as. Chi, Jenna's purple haired boyfriend, was quick to get to his feet and the two of them hurried to get ready themselves, prepared to go.

" _A local woman says she spotted a dark figure painting, and she called the police." The news reporter was saying, "she would like to remain off camera, but Mrs Goutokuji urges you all to keep watch for darkness in the streets."_

Yamato groaned loudly. Mrs Goutokuji, who we both assumed to be Mari's mother, with no real proof other than the way she looked and her name, was on the news more than either of the two of us. She'd gone on a talk show to talk about how her family lawyer was crushed to death by a large elephant digimon, but that just _wasn't_ true, because there were _no_ Mammothmon in the city. We definitely would have seen or heard more of that. Unless it was one who could digivolve—but that seemed unlikely. It just didn't make sense that her family lawyer was dead. 'Horitsu Bengoshi' seemed like a familiar name in any case. Mrs Itami Goutokuji had also apparently been the one who suggested the _'digi-hangouts'_ which was a trap designed to lure anyone who supported digimon into one location so they could all be questioned at once.

It wasn't limited to only Japan either, Maria and Sam from New York had been taken in for questioning about the whereabouts of the Digidestined, and they both refused to say a thing. Last I'd heard from them they were just getting out of their week of jail time for 'withholding important information from the authorities.' Whatever that meant.

" _Here we see the Dark Angel," The woman on the screen was saying, "Larger than life, up against 'The Garden Hall'."_ There he was, unfinished this time, but standing tall and bold as always. Our 'Dark Angel'. It was actually just Angemon, and we really didn't know who was painting him, but everyone assumed it was Yamato.

"I don't understand _why_ I can't just tell people it's not me," Yamato said moments later, "I can't paint."

"You heard what your dad said," I told him, "If people think it's you then they won't be looking for whoever it is that's doing it, and they'll be safe. Besides, people want to know there is one person who stands out above all the others."

"Do they?" Yamato countered, "Because what if they think I'm the _only_ person fighting this? Who would join a one man army?"

"Okay," I sighed, "I see your point. You should talk to your dad, this is all over my head. But just remember I was in the news too." He shot me an apologetic look for having forgotten. I didn't mind, it wasn't his fault. We all had so much going on in our minds, sometimes I even forgot that it had happened.

" _Sora," Yamato said awkwardly, "Katsue has something to tell you."_

 _I looked to Katsue who was staring at her cell phone as if it were about to explode. "You know how I work in the industry?" I nodded, "Well I_ did _anyway. I think I lost my job."_

" _That's horrible," I said, moving to sit with her, "What happened?"_

" _Well, I stopped showing up for work," she said, "it just isn't safe. I don't want to be caught." That was understandable. Three days from the virus and all of us were pretty much insane by this point, too scared to go outside, but too scared to sit still. "That's not the point. I still have friends over in the office, and they just sent me a message—because they knew it would interest me..."_

 _Katsue and Yamato shared an awkward, unpleasant look. For a very brief moment I'd thought that they would be informing me of their affair, but it was so much worse than that. Katsue clamped her eyes shut and handed me the phone. There was a video attached to the message that simply read, 'your friend, right?'_

 _I pressed play and watched in horror. "Twenty-Seven year old Sora Takenouchi escaped captivity earlier this week, and has yet to be recovered." A news anchor was saying, "She could be dangerous, the authorities say," then multiple videos played across the screen. There was me in the prison cell, screaming and thrashing against the holds they'd kept me in; A quick shot of my kicking Arnold's legs in my attempt to trip him; one that was outside. At first I was confused, but when I caught sight of Veronica's face, my stomach tensed up and I winced when I barrelled onto the screen, punching the girl in the face. The shot was clearly from the dashboard of the police car where a camera must have been watching. A quick cut in editing and I was on top of her on the ground, screaming and crying, "Tell me how to stop it!" I was screaming in her face, "_ Tell me _! Now!" Then the anchor man was back on the screen, "And just last month she had caused a riot in a local mall." Then there was footage of my fashion show, or the aftermath to be more specific, starting with me slamming my heel down into that horrible man's arm. They of course cut out the part where he hurt Hikari. Making me look like a violent sociopath. "Mr Fujimoto has this to say on the topic."_

" _I know that girl," His voice appeared before he did himself. Soon though the footage showed a blonde man who I knew to be Hideto's father. "She is seriously disturbed. I've known her for years. She's close with my son. I've always warned him to stay away from her, but he never listened. And now he's gone from this world. Taken because the Takenouchi girl lured him into the Digital World." Fake tears were streaming down his face, "It's her fault my son is dead, and if we don't capture her and put her back where she belongs, I'll never sleep soundly again. She belongs in prison with her kind. Scum."_

 _I was in_ shock _. How could this actually be happening to me? How could this happen_ now? _On top of everything else, this was the very last thing I needed. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, and then there was no coming back. Tears were pouring again. Mantarou was quick to comfort me, having watched along with me, but unfortunately it wasn't over._

" _In related news," the anchor man said, "the digital monstrosities have been causing even more damage to the system we humans have been crafting over the past couple thousand years. A man arrested today for robbing a bank with the help of a creature he calls 'Doumon' claims captivity will not be holding him long, as his friend will be setting him free before too long. He has been sent to a high security prison in a private location to ensure his captivity lasts his full sentence. And a man recently granted freedom has received a full pardon, a clean slate, and an official apology when footage of his attack surfaced. Let's take a look." The screen once again showed my fashion-riot but it only lasted two seconds and showed only Biyomon firing her attack down to the man who had caused so much damage. "As it seems, he was merely defending himself from the pink bird monster. So don't be fooled by their appearance, every one of them is dangerous, no matter their size."_

" _What?!" I gasped, dumbfounded. He was being set free with an apology after pushing a girl in a wheelchair off of a stage, giving my friend a concussion, trying to attack a baby, hitting me with a torch that he had previously used to_ set fire _to Mimi's restaurant? And they were blaming_ Biyomon _?_ _All she was doing was protecting an infant!_

 _Another voice sounded off this time, "Many people have been forming groups to stay protected against the digimon, will you be joining one of them Haruto?"_

" _Oh no," The first man said, "I'm a pretty laid back guy. I've chosen to stay completely unbiased until further notice."_

It was horrible, yes, but after two months of living with the title 'escaped criminal' you kind of get used to it. I was on the run, I only went out in the dead of the night, life was crappy and my friends were all dead. Mostly at least. It sucked. It really, _really_ sucked. But with so much to think about, it was sometimes hard to keep track of it all.

Luckily, we had the most convenient team fighting back with enough firepower to give the Fujimotos a run for their money. Katsue was able to do her actual job, but for us instead, talking her way to the top of the ladder. Takashi was very good with computers and was able to hack into footage that we were unable to attain, such as street cameras and we found a beautiful artistic rendering of Hideto's sister Yorokobi pushing a child to the ground because he got in her way. We also found footage of Momoe being stabbed in the leg by the Fujimoto's, and Gomamon's kidnapping. Mr Ishida was using his knowledge of broadcasting to ensure everyone was able to see exactly what we wanted them to. Every time we came up with a new video to send out he would leave with some of the others, usually Mantarou and Natsuni and he would go to a random location and send out the video so it was impossible to track. Jenna and Chi were on duty chasing 'The Artist' who we had no real clues on how to find. Natsuni's father was kindly donating to the cause with his obscene amounts of money, Chiziru, Momoe and Mantarou were in charge of finding any digimon and ensuring they were keeping safe. Momoe's previous job experience gave her enough knowledge on how to track their very data, and it was maybe the most useful part of our plan, especially so as it gave Momoe something to think about aside from her daughter. Even Yutaka came in use, though mostly just flirting for information, to help with Katsue's research.

I wasn't allowed to leave, basically ever, and neither was Yamato as both of us were wanted and easily spotted. Yamato was finding this rule harder to follow than I was, and he would constantly rush out when no one was watching to simply go for a walk to clear his mind. But after a close call last week he'd not gone out since. His role was essentially to read out what we all wrote together, be filmed, and look pretty. My job was to ensure everyone was sane, fed, healthy and sleeping well.

So basically, we were the most useless members of the team, and it really should have been the opposite. We were the Digidestined, and it was out _duty_ to fight for the rights of the digimon. We were specifically chosen to do just that. And our crests were literally about loving and being friendly to all. We were the most well suited people for this position, but we were both unable to do a thing about it.

So we were trapped.

The last time I'd been outside was when Natsuni specifically told me to stay inside, and I didn't listen because I thought she might need my help.

She did.

 _Jenna, Chi and Natsuni had come up with a nearly fool proof plan to get Natsuni's father out of the house without harm coming to anyone. And better yet, it would put Jenna back on Veronica's good side so we could get some inside information. Jenna didn't seem too pleased about having to befriend the girl she now truly hated, but she agreed to do it if we thought it would really help, and we really did._

 _Jenna and Chi went to Natsuni's house the day before the plan was to take place and informed Veronica of what was to happen. They were obviously chased off of the property by Marshall because Veronica's nose had just healed. I'd broken it when I punched her. I wasn't sorry. Okay, a little sorry._

 _Then, the next day, Natsuni rushed into action,_ alone _. So I went with her. She didn't know I was there, but I tagged along, just to be safe. Natsuni crept into the house in the dead of the night, exactly as Jenna had informed them she would do, through the second window to the right. And she was caught too. Jenna was in with Veronica for giving truthful information and Natsuni was in her house with her father._

 _That was where I lost track of everything that was going on. I was hiding in a bush in the backyard, waiting for any chance I could be of some assistance. I was pretty good at hiding and going unnoticed, I'd had a lot of practice with it. But I was there for so long, just_ waiting _for Natsuni to come out. When an hour passed and she'd still not come out, I knew the plan had gone wrong._

 _There was a large tree in the backyard that was growing underneath a balcony, and so I did what I had to do. I was quick to climb the tree, thanking past-me for all of the athletics, and slowly paced across the balcony, peering through the glass doors. It was a large bedroom that looked rather like a princess' chamber, but there was no one inside. Pushing through the door I crept toward the other end of the room as quickly as I could, to find Natsuni and get her out of the house before Marshall or anyone else did something horrible._

 _But then I heard a voice coming, so I pressed myself against the wall beside the doorway, and a grumbling lady practically flew into the room, anger seeping from her skin. "Ungrateful girl." The woman said, and I knew immediately it had to be Natsuni's mother. I slipped from the room before she turned back to me and slinked down the hallway. I pressed my ear against every door to ensure Natsuni was not in any and then made my way down the stairs where I found them both sitting in the living room. Marshall was waiting by the door, so I froze on the stairs, peering through the darkness and the railings to try to listen to what was happening._

" _Your friend betrayed you," Natsuni's father was saying. He was not confined in any way, it seemed strange to me, but it dawned on me that he was not_ captive _. Simply bait to lure Natsuni into the home. He would never have been harmed, and we had done this for nothing it seemed. But it was too late to turn back, if they wanted Natsuni for something, they simply would not be getting her._

" _He's on his way," I heard Veronica say to Marshall, only a couple feet from me, out of my sight. "He says he's proud. We've done it. We're in." A smile crept onto Marshall's face and I shuddered. Seeing someone so cruel smile with joy was disgusting. I used this opportunity to get Natsuni out of the building though. I had obviously been friends with Taichi far too long, because my next move was teetering between brave and stupid._

" _I certainly hope you're proud of yourself too," I said loudly, "Shouldn't let a man define who you are Veronica." Both Veronica and Marshall looked to me in horror and then delight. They wanted me more than they wanted Natsuni of course. And that was the idea. I didn't waste a moment, and began dashing up the stairs as quickly as I could, back to Natsuni's mother's bedroom. She screamed when I burst through the closed door and threw her hands up to cover herself. She was wearing a slip, and was not entirely indecent, she was just being a baby._

 _But it was funny to think that Marshall was about to run through the room too._

 _I ran through the balcony door and instinctively jumped from the railing and into the nearby tree. I moved with as much grace as I could, climbing down, and then I jumped when I knew it would be safe to do so. And then I was running, when I passed the front door, I knew that Natsuni had taken her moment because it was wide open. I didn't bother trying to find her, and instead headed back to the restaurant, making sure no one had followed me._

 _Natsuni later thanked me and called me a fool. It reminded me of Taichi, and it was kind of a bittersweet moment._

I found myself making my bed after breakfast, everyone was off doing their own thing, I figured it might be time to take some serious action and blow Arnold's building up and not to take 'no' for an answer. But lately, I'd been feeling like that a lot. I knew it wasn't really an option, but that didn't stop me from continually thinking how good it might feel to have him gone just like the others.

"Need any help?" Mantarou asked, popping up out of nowhere. "I just thought, I may as well. Momoe and Chiziru left without me today."

"You feeling alright?" I asked him, looking around the empty restaurant floor. They'd gone without me noticing. I knew Yamato and Katsue were in the back, working on some propaganda video and that Jenna and Chi were still out looking for The Artist, but I didn't know what had happened to the Teenage Wolves.

"I am," He admitted, "I just needed a break." I didn't answer right away. I understood needing a break, I could remember that feeling, but I was being selfish when my mind focused on how bored I was and how much I wanted to get out there. It annoyed me that he was looking for a break. "I don't mean to sound lazy, or unmotivated," He said as though he could read my mind, "I just haven't gotten much of a chance to breathe for the last couple months."

"I understand," I told him, setting down my pillow, centering it perfectly. He was pretending he was tired, but there was more to it. Just one look into his eyes told me that. "You must miss him a lot."

"I do," He said, straightening his glasses awkwardly. "You're pretty smart."

"Just observant," I told him, reaching for his hand. "He was in the Coliseum, right? He had the best chance of survival. If there really _is_ hope, it's with him." Mantarou squeezed my hand and smiled at me kindly. He even smiled a little which was nice. I didn't even think about how hard it might be to constantly be seeing partners with their digimon every day, making sure they're safe, and not knowing for a moment if yours was okay. I looked up and saw Mantarou blushing and quickly felt my own face turning red too. We both removed our hands quickly. Mantarou was about to say something, but Takashi called for me.

"Hey, Sora!" I turned quickly and saw him standing by Mimi's office door. "We have a couple questions."

I turned to Mantarou who was rubbing the back of his head, looking off to the side, "Excuse me," I said politely, hurrying toward Takashi. Takashi held up a piece of paper that had my work written on it, what I wanted Yamato to say in the propaganda video. He simply had questions about what it was saying. I'd written it fairly quickly, and ultimately my writing was never the neatest.

"You were right Yamato," Takashi said, stepping into Mimi's old storage room. It was now our studio. There was a fairly well crafted white backdrop to keep it simple, everything Mimi had kept back here fit into one half of the room, and the rest was filled with cameras, microphones, speakers, a computer, basically anything we could fit that would help make these videos better. "It does say 'spread peace'."

"I knew it had nothing to do with a piece of bread." Yamato said, shrugging his shoulders, "That just didn't make sense." He looked to me and smirked, diverting his eyes quickly. I smiled back, but he was already moving to Takashi to take a look at his lines.

"You're dressed so casual." I pointed out.

"It's supposed to be relatable," Yamato defended, shooting me another grin. "You know, like I'm one of the people. Which I'm not, because I'm not allowed to leave my prison. But they don't know that. They think I'm wandering around painting my brother's digimon on every building I can get my hands on. As if I was artistic, or even knew where to buy that much paint." I laughed, but Katsue seemed upset that we were stalling.

"We need to keep going," she said, "If we want this ready for tonight, I'm going to need time to edit it."

"Sorry, sorry!" Yamato said, throwing his hands up in surrender. He returned to the metal stool he'd been sitting on earlier and cleared his throat.

Katsue's eyebrows were raised until Yamato's smile totally faded. "Ready?" she asked. He nodded and she pointed to Akira, "Action." Akira started the camera and Yamato shot a serious look to the camera.

"Kindness is about acceptance," Yamato said, quoting what I'd written for him. I was basically in charge of what the speeches were to say, but Katsue and Mr Ishida got final say. I started with what I knew and that was the crests. Each of them showed something good and positive that the world should know about. We'd already sent out nine of them. This was our tenth main video in the series, and possibly the most important one. Kindness was really what everyone needed to understand and think the right way. "And..." Katsue motioned for Yamato to continue, but he sighed, dropping his head. "I can't remember my line."

"Well, cut," Katsue said, taking a deep breath, "your acting was off anyway. What's wrong?"

"Sora!" Yamato said quickly pointing to me, "She keeps looking at me!"

I dropped my jaw in mock horror. "Isn't that the point?" I asked him and he turned to me, grinning.

"No!" He said, "You're making me nervous! You're being judge-y!"

"I would never!" I joked as he placed his hands on my shoulder and gently walked me back to the door. "Fine, fine, I'll go. I'll just see it when it's done!"

"No you won't," Yamato joked, "I'll make sure you never see it." He had pushed me over the threshold of the room and shrugged his shoulders. He then spun around to Katsue and clapped his hands together. "Let's make magic!" He said with mock excitement.

The door closed and I turned back to the dining room, walking, smiling the whole way. Until I saw Natsuni that is. She was looking to me, her eyebrows raised high. She was sitting with her father, sipping tea and talking about something that seemed more casual than anything else around here. "Sora," Natsuni said, patting the chair next to her. I moved to sit with her and smiled to her father. "If you're so in love with that boy, why are you not dating him?"

"There are way more important things to be dealing with right now." I told her, "Love is the last thing I'm thinking about."

"Well that's not believable, or a good thing," Natsuni said, taking another sip of her tea, "You are supposed to be the Digidestined of Love. If you're not thinking about love, then how do you expect to keep the worlds at peace?" I rolled my eyes. Silly Natsuni, thinking romantic love was the only kind. But I knew what she meant, and she had a point. But I just wasn't ready. Besides, Yamato was clearly in a place where love was being blocked out. He had lost his brother, the person who had always been closest to him. Him joking just now was one of the only times I'd seen him smile since the virus had been sent out. That, and when he finally finished building that machine he was working on, hoping it would take him back to the Digital World. It didn't work, so that smile was short lived. "I'm just saying, we're fighting for peace, and that peace may never come because the crests could very well be gone along with everything else. You and Yamato may or may not be the only crest bearers still alive. You have to use the crests while you still can. There's no telling what tomorrow might bring." She was right. She was so right and it was so frustrating. I didn't want to focus on that. I didn't want to make any life decisions right now. I just wanted to cry all the time. I saved that for the dead of the night, when I was sure everyone was politely pretending to not hear me. "Just think about it." Natsuni said finally, then she turned to the books in front of her and began reading again.

Natsuni was in charge of making a case for the digimon, and to do so she was using all of Iori's text books, and even got in contact with his professor once or twice. She so far was at a loss for proof. She didn't know of any specific laws that were being broken, but she was trying. She knew Moretsuna had something to do with the virus, and that he killed Noriko, and that Jun was shot, and that many digimon were killed and chased and hate crimes were committed. But there was no _proof_. And even if there was, Moretsuna had yet to show his face, so there was no one to build a case against.

"Hey, Sora." I turned to see Mantarou again. His hands were shoved in the pockets of his jacket and he motioned with his head to the door, "Can I talk to you a moment?"

I took a look at Natsuni and then back to him, then to the door. "Of course," I said moving quickly. If he wanted to see me outside, I was all for that. I needed to see the sunshine again. I needed fresh air. And most importantly I needed to feel like I wasn't trapped, just for a moment. I didn't bother putting any shoes on, and just slipped outside in my bare feet, and held the door open for Mantarou who followed me out quickly.

The heat of the sun hit my skin and I couldn't help but smile. It felt so good to feel the breeze in my hair and to see the clouds drifting above, and to see _people_ going about their daily business in the bustling town. Jiyugoaka was always so busy. I missed being out here with the people. I almost wanted to go shopping, but knew it would be too risky. Instead I wiggled my toes and felt the warm, paved ground.

"Sorry, I know you're not allowed out here technically," Mantarou said with a smile, "I just needed a moment alone."

"I am _so_ very offended that you allowed me outside," I joked, "This better be worth it." Mantarou laughed and nodded, kicking his feet at the ground nervously, refusing to meet my eyes. I had never seen him so nervous, every time I'd seen him before he'd been so full of confidence and pride. "What's up?"

"It's just..." He stopped, looking down the street, the sunlight was reflecting off his glasses. "Okay, we're not children, Sora, and so I'm just going to ask you. We're mature adults dealing with very serious issues, and I think I'm done dancing around, waiting for some dramatic moment." I tilted my head, a little confused, but listening all the same, "I want to take you on a date."

"Oh!" I said sharply, shocked. I couldn't say I didn't see it coming, but I hadn't expected it to be so forward. I instinctively went to tell him that we couldn't, because of those serious issues he had just mentioned, but Natsuni's words flashed quickly in my mind and I looked to my bare feet. "Well, it better be to the dining room, because that's as far as I'm allowed to go."

"I think we can make it work," Mantarou said with a grin, "So... is that a yes?"

"I think so," I told him with a smile, "I mean—"

"Sora!" I groaned when I heard my name being yelled, but turned to greet the speaker. It was Mr Ishida. "What are you doing outside?" He looked nervous as he glanced over his shoulder. "You know better than that. It's not safe." I didn't bother apologizing, because really, I wasn't sorry. I was glad to have gotten even two minutes out in the sunshine. No one had seen me. It had been fine. And, I got a date with a kind, intelligent and interesting man.

 _ **Kurayami Motomiya:**_

" _Who are you?" I asked, my voice weak and small, just like me. I was so young back then. "You are not my master. If you harm me, he will destroy you."_

" _Now, now," a sly voice said in a whisper from the darkness. There was nothing around me, only shadows and trees. The whispered voice sounded close, I would get him, and I would break him. "Your master wouldn't hurt me."_

" _He would if I asked him to," I insisted._

" _I wouldn't be so sure about that," the voice said, closer still, "we share a master, you see. It was he who sent me here to you."_

" _Why would he send you?" I asked._

" _Because he knows how important it is for a Digidestined to have a partner," the voice said, right in my ear now. I spun quickly and saw a tall figure standing in the shadows, horns escaped his head. He looked like an animal. "I am your partner. I am Mephistomon."_

I shuddered at the memory, trying to block it out.

I rolled onto my side, trying to find comfort in a state of mind such as that. I had found myself wishing Fanglongmon would return from the dead, if only to lock up my memories again. It would be easier if he were in control of me now. I would feel no guilt and no pain, because I wouldn't even really exist.

I forced back a yawn as I kept my eyes wide, looking around nervously. I just couldn't feel safe here, not the way I had before. And it was too late to go back now. There was no turning away from the memories that had flooded into my mind. There were gaps still, but they were small, they felt normal. They felt insignificant. And now I knew everything I never knew I didn't want to know.

I could remember a particular moment, years ago, I was standing with Fanglongmon, his large foot was right next to me to keep me safe, he was unsure if his friends would trust me or not.

" _This is her?" Lucemon asked bitterly, bending over so his blonde hair fell over his shoulders as he stared into my eyes. I shuddered with fear as he watched, "if you kill her, we win."_

" _If we keep her," Fanglongmon countered, "We will do much more than_ win _. We will conquer."_

" _And you trust she will not turn on you?" the Dark One said, his voice sounded like icy sorrow. He stepped forward, from the shadows to reveal his handsome form, his eyes making contact with mine was worse than Lucemon. The emotion behind this man's gaze was sickeningly cruel._

" _She is meant to live in darkness," Fanglongmon whispered quietly, "she is meant to be here with us."_

" _And if she chooses to stray?" Lucemon asked._

" _She cannot," Fanglongmon hissed, "Destiny has wrapped its greedy fingers tightly around the girl. She cannot escape what the universe has planned for her."_

"Kurayami," I was startled to find Angemon standing over me. I pulled myself up quickly, leaning against the tree I essentially lived in now. Angemon looked down to me, holding his staff, careful not to squish any of the infant digimon who had piled up around his feet. There were so many sets of eyes looking toward me with compassion, as if they all felt sorry for me, and it made me feel _horrible_. I did not deserve any of what they were showing to me. "Are you alright?" Angemon was looking directly at me, somehow. Surely he couldn't see through that helmet of his, but somehow he always knew exactly where to look for me.

I forced the most realistic smile I could muster onto my face and nodded, "Oh, I'm alright."

"You must understand," Angemon said calmly, "Having spent a great deal of time with you during our past three years of living with one another, I have gotten to know you well." He paused, and I diverted my eyes from him, "I know when you are lying."

"Lying to an angel?" a Punimon said, "tut tut."

I ignored the tiny digimon and continued to stare toward the ground, trying to interest myself in the patterns that made up the supposed grass. Angemon, along with his friends stood watch over me for a while as I ignored them. I figured they wanted me to tell them the truth, but I couldn't. Not again. I'd already told him.

They did eventually walk away though.

I pressed my head back against the tree and thought to myself quietly. It had been _eight_ weeks since I had trapped myself inside these walls. Eight weeks and two days, actually. Fifty-eight days in total. Today marked Haruki's twenty-third week in this world... I was missing things. If I stayed here longer I could miss his first attempts at crawling, and his first words.

But I couldn't go back _now_! They'd been here. Daisuke had been here, and I hid from him. I could remember it well. He had come in to feed the babies, and speak with Angemon. This was before any aside from Devimon knew I was here at all. I couldn't tell them because I couldn't bear to have them know what I was going through. But Devimon lied for me, I never asked him to, but he seemed to know what it meant to me. I watched Daisuke from afar, and he even smiled a few times. Happiness was never hard for him to grasp, and I was glad to know he was both able to smile and _alive._ I had temporarily feared that he had left the safety of the Coliseum, but he did not. He was safe. That meant Haruki was safe too, and it meant he still had his father to take care of him.

But I'd waited too long to find out. It had been absent for two fifths of my son's life, and if I revealed myself to them now, it would be wrong. They would know I had been avoiding them and never understand why. I had lost all faith that anyone could ever understand my thoughts.

I had _killed_ a man. A man had lost his life because I had shot him. I didn't care the reasons why, what mattered to me was that I could still see his body fading away in the back of my mind. I could see what I had done to a human being, and I could see that I was becoming the monster I promised myself I would never become.

I closed my eyes and felt tears welling up in my closed eyes. I had cried a lot. I knew what it meant to cry now more than ever. I could not see how my life was to continue in a normal way after everything I'd learned and experienced. Not only could I remember what had happened in my past, but I had been forced to relive those moments with painfully detailed images of death and horror. I had lost the one person who had always cared for me. I took a man's life from him, and I separated myself, possibly indefinitely from the people who mattered most now.

I was a mess.

And Devimon never wasted any time in telling me that.

"You're a mess," he said, as if he had read my mind. He was walking by with an armful of cute baby digimon. "Why don't you come down and eat lunch with the rest of us. It's disgusting because Angemon thinks he knows how to cook, but you're welcome to join us."

"Thank you," I said politely. Devimon was my closest friend here in this village. He understood what it meant to have done bad things. He was different now though. He was changing, and he was growing. It was a very different atmosphere talking to him now than it had been two months ago. Before we could talk about what he wanted, and that was an escape route, but now he would admit to enjoying himself. Of course he, along with every other digimon, wanted the barriers to come down and for the virus to be entirely eliminated, but that wasn't an option just yet, and so Devimon was pleased with what he had.

"You're not going to, are you?" Devimon asked as a Poyomon tried to escape. He reached out quickly and grabbed it, pulling it back in with the others. I shook my head slowly in response. "Well, probably for the better. It looks like that loud mouthed goggle-head is back." I jumped to my feet and turned to look down on the village. Devimon was right. In, walking through the fog, past the barrier were two of my friends. Or, old friends anyway. Taichi and Mari were together, Agumon and Tentomon were with them too, coming to check up on the village. On Angemon, and Biyomon and Hawkmon. I turned sharply and set off toward the pile of colourful blocks not far from my tree. "When will you stop hiding from them?" Devimon called after me.

"When they stop showing up," I answered quickly. "I've told you before, Devimon. I can't even bear to look at _myself_. How am I supposed to look at my baby?"

"Well," Devimon said, shrugging his shoulders, "When Angemon and that squawking pink bird convinced me that what I had done in the past was wrong, I believed them. I found it hard to cope with the idea that I was a monster, but these little babies helped me think more clearly." I stopped my fleeing and turned to talk to him, a smile was creeping on his face. "I don't know, something about the innocence really got me thinking. They are each a blank canvass, and dark and light are the paint that they will use to create themselves. Everything is a choice, and everything comes down to what you are willing to give to yourself."

"If you're trying to relate these digimon to my own baby," I said bitterly, "I've already been there. Every time I manage to fall asleep I wake up when they cry, thinking it is Haruki. I miss him a _lot._ " I wiped whatever remaining tears were in my eyes away, "And I'll have you know that I'm not an infant, my canvass is not blank, it's covered with every darkness you could imagine."

Devimon set his babies down and allowed them to run off by themselves, toward where Taichi and Mari would be. "The thing about paint, is that when it dries, you can cover it with more. It will not go away, but your art will be more powerful, more diverse with your base coat. You will know more, you can know both worlds."

"When I was born my mother chose darkness for me." I said softly, "That means that anything darker than I am can harm me. If I fall into light, I will die. I am doomed to remain in the darkness."

"The colour blue is considered dark," Devimon said thoughtfully, "it represents trust and peace. It can suggest loyalty and integrity. Sure it has its flaws, but it isn't all bad. Purple is the colour of imagination, green means balance and growth. You and I both know that darkness does not equate to evil. Stop throwing yourself a pity party and accept that you've done wrong. We all make mistakes, and you're going to learn from them. But if you literally stop living because of them you'll never move forward."

It was one of the strangest sights I'd ever seen to have Devimon acting in such a manner. His arms were crossed, but one hand was on his chin as he thought, stroking his face. Fundamentally he was acting as my therapist, and judging by the growing seed of optimism in my stomach, he'd done a hell of a lot better a job than my actual therapist did. And for free to.

Because Devimon was _right_. I was throwing a pity party. If I wanted Daisuke and Haruki back, which I did, more than anything, I would have to ask for their forgiveness. I would have to show them that I wanted to move past this darkness... but... how long could this feeling last for? What if it faded the moment I was reunited by them? I could not leave them again... That would be cruel. And what if I didn't leave? What if I tried to live with the feeling of despair and ended my son's life, just as my mother had? It wasn't safe. I could not do that to Haruki and I could not do that to Daisuke.

"I-I can't." I said aloud.

"Can't _what_? Sorry?" Devimon asked.

"I can't go back!" I cried out, my eyes burning again. "I can't go back to them. I can't hurt him. I can't let myself hurt my _son_! I can't turn Daisuke into my father, and I cannot become my mother. I can't do it. I won't let that happen again."

"Then don't do it," Devimon said. "Look, it's your choice, if you want to live with the idea that you're never going to see your son again just because you think you might do wrong by him, then that's fine. He's going to resent you for that, probably his whole life, but you'll know he _could_ be alive, which you won't actually know because you aren't around. _Or_ , you can go raise him properly, _not_ become a murderer and tell him you love him."

"I am a murderer."

"No," Devimon said, annoyed, "You're not. You're a whiny baby. There is a different between murder and killing. You did what had to be done, and if you hadn't, who knows what that crazy guy might have done. I never met him, but I hear he's a total jerk." Devimon chuckled, "Coming from me..." he sighed, "Anyway, I don't like emotional beings, but for some reason I don't hate you. So stop your crying and be happy that you haven't drowned your son out of craziness yet." I didn't respond, unsure what to say to him, unsure what I actually felt. "You know, by trying to keep yourself from going crazy, you're _actually_ going crazy. Stop thinking about it and it won't happen."

"He's right you know," I nearly screamed when Hawkmon's voice sounded from next to my head. I turned to see him sitting on one of the blocks with his Yokomon friend that simply refused to stop following him around. They had been inseparable ever since Hawkmon showed up the same time I had. Just after the virus. "You become what you think about." I still didn't respond, so Hawkmon turned to Devimon, "How is Impmon?"

"Better," Devimon admitted, though not optimistically. Impmon had been going through a lot ever since his partner had died. I wondered all the time if Labramon thought I was dead too. Was he feeling the way Impmon was now? I winced, turning my head toward the ground. "I'm not trying to chase you away," Devimon said, "It's just that I think you're over reacting. Babies grow up fast, and you're going to miss it if you're scared of hurting him."

And then Devimon was off, walking away from Hawkmon and I, following the path the baby digimon had taken earlier. "Poor Impmon," Yokomon said sadly, "We should sing a song to cheer him up."

"Oh heaven's no," Hawkmon shook his head adamantly, "You must respect others wishes. He craves time alone to grieve in peace. We shall grant him that and honour his wishes."

"Woah," Yokomon said, shocked, "You're so smart." Then she went rigid for a moment, "We'd better go tell Biyomon to not sing then! She wrote a song earlier today! She's going to make him annoyed!"

"Ah, yes," Hawkmon nodded, amused, "Perhaps it would be wise if we intervened on that venture." He leapt to his feet and Yokomon hopped off of the blocks, rushing after Devimon. Hawkmon looked ready to take flight, but he stopped and turned to me, "Are you staying here any longer, or would you like to make your presence known?"

Well, that was a big question to answer in such a short space. I wanted to go. I'd wanted to go since day one, but just because I wanted to see them again did not mean it was the right thing to do. I was trying to _protect_ them by staying away. Would returning mean I was weak? Would that mean I had failed in protecting them? Would I be hurting them by returning? I was hurting myself by staying here. I looked to Hawkmon, who was still waiting for an answer and I swallowed thickly. "Would you come with me?"

"To the village?" Hawkmon inquired, and when I nodded he seemed delighted, "Of course."

He fluttered off of the blocks he was sitting on and took my hand, leading me forward. My stomach twisted the moment I stepped out into view. I could see the backs of my friends heads and I knew somewhere inside that I was doing the right thing. It just felt so wrong. It was scary to know that I might be going back now. They would never understand. They never would. But they might forgive me... would that be enough?

Hawkmon walked me down the entire hill and stopped when we reached the bottom. "Are you ready?" He asked, and I nodded. We walked forward together and I noticed Angemon looking up from where he was cooking in a large black cauldron. It was a pretty funny sight. Impmon was in the distance sitting on top of the clock tower that never worked, with the violet sky acting as his backdrop. Elecmon was in the crowd of infants, keeping them from fighting over who got the first bowl of food, and of course Devimon was there, sitting with his legs crossed amongst the babies. Biyomon was bouncing up and down with Tentomon, talking to him, her words flying out a mile a minute, both of them were ignoring Hawkmon's Yokomon friend who was pleading with her to never sing a song again, and Agumon was waiting by his partner's side. Taichi was listening to Mari's whispered words as they scanned the area, ensuring all was well. And then Hawkmon cleared his throat.

Agumon was the first to turn and look. He caught my eyes for a moment, but I looked away quickly catching sight of Devimon instead. He gave me thumbs up and I rolled my eyes. "Taichi," Agumon said, "Look!" He was pulling on Taichi's sleeve, and Taichi held up a finger to tell him to wait.

"Kura!" Biyomon shouted in shock when she noticed me. "I thought you were hiding!" Tentomon turned to see me too and then Mari and Taichi both spun around. Neither of them seemed to know what to make of me. Their expressions kept changing, trying to find a comfortable place to stay while their thoughts ran quickly. They were probably trying to figure out why I was here. Why I hadn't come to them sooner. Maybe they wanted to know what had happened to me, or maybe they really didn't care. Maybe they were just confused. But they weren't who I needed forgiveness from anyway, I just needed them to take me back home.

"Is this real life?" Taichi joked finally, a grin forming on his face, "What's up?"

"Not much," I lied, actually smiling back. "I just thought I'd stop in to say hello."

"Well _hey_!" He laughed. "Are you coming back with us?"

I nodded. "I'd like to." Taichi nodded, smiling. That was essentially the end of it and I mentally slapped myself for thinking it would be harder than that. But this was, in theory, the easy part. I still had to face Daisuke. I had to go back to him still and that was going to be much different than Taichi and Mari.

My mind was buzzing and whirling the entire duration of Taichi and Mari's visit. They attempted to speak with Impmon, but he wanted nothing to do with them, Angemon and Biyomon assured them things were going splendidly and Hawkmon and Devimon made sure to bid me farewell. It was all going smoothly. So why did I feel so worried and shaken?

Soon it was time to go. I was given an extra cell phone and I activated the application to create a barrier, and the scary thing, was that it didn't make me feel any safer as we stepped toward the virus, but my legs didn't stop walking. They kept taking me closer and closer to the wall of purple, not at all worried that it might be dangerous.

 _Might be dangerous_.

Of course it was dangerous. It was the monster that had killed Noriko, and Moretsuna. It was the virus. It had killed so many digimon, I didn't even know where to start... and yet, as I stepped out of the barrier, without looking back for a moment, I felt free.

I tried to keep up with Taichi and Mari, but they were more accustomed to travelling through the fog because they'd done it so often, and I spent my time rushing, hurrying to keep up with them. I nearly tripped a few times, but caught myself mostly. Once Mari caught me and gave me a pretty dirty look too.

"So why were you hiding?" Mari asked, trying to sound casually as she pulled me to my feet.

"It's a long story." I admitted shyly.

"Must be," she decided.

I knew they would judge me for it. But as long as I was comfortable with my decisions, then everything was going to be okay, right? Too bad I wasn't okay with any decisions I'd made in the past few months.

Soon enough we had made it back to the Coliseum, as promised, and Taichi and Mari both stepped out of the virus and into the protective barrier. I could see them, both of them were waiting for me to come along with them. But I couldn't do that. I turned back, ready to run, but I froze.

It wouldn't be fair.

Taichi let me go first after helping me push the doors open, and then I stepped inside. It was a very different, and probably a worse feeling than staying in the Primary Village. At least there everything was fun, colourful and outside, even if the virus was most of what you could see at any given moment. The Coliseum looked as bleak and unsettling as ever, but the people I saw, the digimon too, they were so... content. They looked paler, and maybe some of them were even ill, but there was a lot of energy.

So many things were going on everywhere I looked, thankfully. I didn't want to be noticed. I wanted to move on until I could find my family. I glanced back for a moment and found that I'd lost Taichi and Mari, but it didn't bother me. Not much. Soon I found myself throwing back the curtains to the room that I had once shared with Daisuke and the rest of my family.

"You _scared_ me!" Veemon gasped, before turning back to whatever paper craft he was working on. He then froze and turned back to me quickly. "Kura?" His face was blank.

"Me," I nodded, trying to smile, but failing.

"LABRAMON!" Veemon screamed, tossing his craft aside and leaping onto the bed before flying into my arms. "Labramon! Look!" I spun to the entrance, holding Veemon in my arms and my heart swelled as I fell to my knees, wrapping my arm around my partner, expanding our hug.

"Kurayami Motomiya," Labramon said, his voice thick, "Where the actual _crap_ have you been?" I snorted a laugh and held him tighter.

"C-come with m-me..." I managed to say, "I have to t-tell everyone."

"The whole family?" Veemon asked excitedly, "Including Norn?"

"N-Norn is..." my voice trailed off. I didn't know. Norn had refused to answer any of my calls for the entire duration of the two month period. I didn't know if she hated me now, because I had become her enemy—an enemy of the worlds by embracing darkness into my heart, or if she simply could not speak with me for any number of reasons. All I knew was that I had yet to gain any contact with the girl who once referred to herself as my sister. "L-let's find Daisuke..."

"He's outside," Veemon said quickly, "Come on, I'll show you!" He jumped out of my arms and threw the curtains back again. I turned to Labramon and kissed his forehead, hugging him tightly one more time as he pushed his head against my shoulder. "Come _on_!" Veemon insisted.

We started following him, doing as he said as he wove in and out of the different citizens. It wasn't until he passed the sitting area that I had officially lost track of him. Because I had had to stop. I caught sight of something horrible, and wonderful.

My son.

I stopped, staring to where Jun was sitting, rocking back and forth with the infant held in her arms. She was humming softly to him, the song Daisuke always did, it had been one his mother sang to him when he was young. I took a shaky step forward and then stopped, turning back. "Go on!" Labramon insisted, pushing my legs. And then there was no turning back. The room was empty, and as such, quiet, so Jun had heard Labramon's voice and looked up.

Jun's mouth dropped in awe, shock, horror—something. Her eyes were wide and she kept blinking, like she wanted to cry or scream but didn't know which. "How?" she managed to ask.

"I'm so sorry," I managed to say, moving toward her, stepping over the threshold into the room.

Jun shook her head softly and stood tall. "I'm not the one you need to be apologizing to," she looked sadly off to where Daisuke surely was and then back to the baby. He was suddenly screaming. His arms were flailing around and his face was beet red. I backed away quickly, turning away from him. "Stop!"

"He hates me." I muttered, barely audible over the screaming child. "He won't forgive me for leaving him."

"What are you _talking_ about?" Jun asked, striding toward me, "He's crying because he wants you back." Before I could object, Jun had thrust Haruki into my arms, gently of course, and I had been forced to wrap my arms around him. She had been right though. Immediately he had stopped crying as his little arms reached for something to hold onto. It was meant to be that one of us had to be crying it seemed, because I was unable to stop the tears from pouring down my face as I reached toward his little hands.

"I love you," I whispered.

" _Kura_!" Veemon insisted, popping back into view, "There you are! Hurry! Let's go see Daisuke!"

I looked up to Jun who nodded, a big smile on her face, and she threw her arms around me, hugging me. "No one will care what you did," Jun said quietly into my ear, "Whatever you feel you have to apologize for... he'll just be happy you're back." And then she pulled away and patted Haruki on the head, stepping away giving Veemon room to take me along with him.

I let him drag me through the residents again, with Labramon at my feet, not wanting to be left behind, until we had reached a flight of stairs. He then released me and urged me to go ahead of him, and so I did. My nerves had been building up the entire journey to Daisuke and I figured I was about to pop sooner or later.

But instead, my heart stopped.

There he was, laying in the grass, propped up by his elbows as he stared toward a wall of what appeared to be paper. He was thinking about something important, that would be the only reason for him to wander off on his own like this.

I looked back to Labramon who was nodding, urging me forward now too. I turned back to Daisuke and took a deep breath. I would have to confront him sooner or later. I strode across the grass with Haruki in my arms, making whatever sounds he felt he needed to as he tried to remember why he felt an attachment to me.

And then I had stopped near Daisuke. He looked over his shoulder when he heard Haruki whine and he groaned. "Jun, please just a little longer?"

"He wants his dad," I said softly.

Daisuke froze and then acted quickly, spinning on the spot so he was on his knees staring toward me. He stared up at me, not a single trace of emotion on his face for what seemed to be forever and then he slowly pulled himself up, and his eyebrows pressed inward, confusion and frustration on his face.

I was crying again. "Look, I'm so s-sorry," I said, unable to make eye contact. "I-I n-needed to b-be alone, but it w-was selfish. I'm sorry. I-I just—"

"Stop," Daisuke interrupted, wrapping his arms around me. Haruki cooed, glad to be in the embrace, but I just kept crying as Daisuke rubbed my back with his hand. "It's okay. Everything's fine."

"It i-isn't," I argued.

"Then we'll work at it." He whispered, and for a moment I thought maybe he was crying now too. "Just don't go. Don't leave again."

I turned my head, wiping my tears on his shoulder and I nodded, "I won't," I said, "I'll stay."

"Okay," he said, laughing a little.

"Okay." I agreed.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Neo and Natsuni would be stealing the show, If This Were A Movie!


	17. If This Were A Movie

**Y/N:** Natsuni seems to be getting intense chapters during this trilogy. It's very fun to write. She's very cinematic, because of her love of movies, so it's fun to be in her head during elaborate scenes. I hope you enjoy!

 **U/N:** So not only was I most interested in this arc to write (when we were planning it) it also has Neo in it and I love Neo a lot :P I think he only has two chapters in this arc and then none for the rest of 'Virus' which is upsetting, but that's alright. He's pretty fun though and so is everyone that he is surrounded in during this arc. Yorokobi, Kansui, Evelen, Bitoru, Aesop, Maugrim-Hideto's parents, literally all of them are so fun to write with and it's amazing.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 17: If This Were A Movie**

 _ **Natsuni Ando:**_

I growled to myself, slamming the heavy tome closed on the table in front of me. The loud thud caused Takashi to jump, and I felt guilty for scaring him, but I couldn't bring myself to apologize. The book deserved it. It was too difficult for me to understand. It was filled with words that were far too long to make any sense—even with the use of the dictionary that was quickly becoming my best friend. My brain was hurting from the weeks of strenuous use. I couldn't fathom how Iori thought law was fascinating in any way. I was ready to scream out of frustration. Iori always made it much more accessible and fun.

I was starting to think it had more to do with it being interesting to _him_ than actually interesting me. I always found something that I liked when it came to Iori's interests, even if they weren't something that appealed to me personally. Hearing his excitement about learning a new law, or listening to him vent his frustrations about an oversight, and seeing his eyes light up at the world of rules and regulations he'd chosen to dedicate his life to made everything worthwhile.

He wasn't here now to help me do this though, and his professor was a poor substitute.

The man was actually really nice; he just had a rather dry personality. I could understand how he and Iori got along so well. He was a very intelligent man, and his help had been truly invaluable, it just wasn't enough.

I picked the book up and threw it off the table, feeling a deep satisfaction when it clattered to the floor. I was so fed up with it that I didn't even care that this was Iori's favourite textbook, that it was super expensive and that he'd be really upset at my behaviour.

"Calm down dear," Dad told me gently, putting his hand on my shoulder, trying to calm me. I shook him off, abruptly getting to my feet, toppling my chair in my haste. I knew my eyes were wild and wide, and my hair was a mess, but I didn't really care what I looked like. I was going to pull all my hair out long before I ever understood this damn book anyway.

"Don't tell me to calm down," I snapped angrily. I saw Takashi gather his laptop and slip into the curtained bedroom area he shared with Yamato, trying to get away from the crazy, angry girl. "I'm never going to get this and these books aren't helping at all! I don't understand the law and it's stressing me out. Maybe if _Mother dearest_ had let me learn more things in school, but _no_. She wanted me to be a tame, docile housewife instead of something that could be useful in this situation!"

"Now, now," Dad said, foolishly thinking he could stop me once I'd gotten started. He really hadn't been around all that much when I was a kid. If he _had_ been, Mom wouldn't have gotten away with nearly as much as she had in regards to me. But since he _wasn't_ , he didn't have a lot of experience with my temper. It was slow to build, but once it was in full force, I would need to tire myself out. If the situation wasn't so stressful, I might've laughed at the weary look on his face as he held his hands out to calm me.

"Iori isn't _here_!" I shouted. "I need him to explain some of the more intricate laws, but he can't, because he's gone. He might be _dead_ , Dad! I don't know if he is. I _can't_ know, and it's killing me. I want to get this Morestuna guy, but I can't make a decent case against him if I can't _find_ him anywhere. I can't let him get away with killing Noriko. I missed her last moments, Dad. We were friends—kinda. I wish we'd had more time. He took that from her. He took _everything_ from her, and I can't even give her justice."

"It's not all on you," Dad pointed out.

"Yes it is!" I shrieked. It took all of my strength to reign in my voice into something resembling an acceptable volume. "Everyone here is neck deep in the rebellion. There's no one to spare! All of the others are in the Digital World. They could be _dead_. Goblimon is there, Daddy. Armadillomon, Meiyomon, Hikari, Gatomon, Iori—all of my friends and I can't do anything to help them except study the law, and I can't even do that right. I _hate_ the DWD, and I hate Mom for joining with them. She's an evil, vindictive bitch who had the audacity to think that I would forgive her actions because I just " _have to understand_ " that she was doing the " _right thing_ " by trying to hand my partner, and Iori's to the DWD, and using you for bait to draw me out. I hate that Iori's professor can't dedicate all of his time to helping me, because he's got a life to live and this is just a small part of his life, but it's _all_ that my life is anymore. I don't _have_ any backup plans for my future. Iori and I were supposed to get married and we can't now, and his family is almost all gone now too, so I don't have people to share my grief about him with—not that I _can_ share my grief, because everyone here already has so much of their own. I don't have _time_ to grieve anyway!

"I don't know how to handle any of this," I admitted. "I'm trying my hardest to be strong for everyone else, and to play my part without complaining, but I'm not accomplishing _anything_! I can't even find comfort in my own home, because it's being watched on the off chance that I try to hide _Sora_ there from the cops, and the DWD wants me, using you as bait proves _that_. It's not _safe_ to be anywhere except for her, but I _want_ to be at home fixing dinner for my family. I want to look around my own table and see Armadillomon waiting for me to dish him out seconds, or watch Gatomon slice up her tuna into delicate pieces with her claws. I want to see Iori, Hikari and Goblimon discussing their days with laughter filling the air, but those are just memories now." I forced ragged breaths through my lips. My temper was burning up quickly. I could feel the sadness rushing in to fill the voids my anger left behind.

"The law isn't _fair_ ," I said miserably. "There's not a lot I can work with because no one thought about the digimon when the laws were written. It's not fair!"

The last of my anger fled, and I collapsed into my father's waiting arms. I could feel his big, warm hand rubbing my back and I wanted so badly for him to make everything better for me like he did when I was a kid. I knew there was nothing he could do, but the childish part of my mind insisted that my dad was a superhero and could do _anything_.

"I'm so glad you're okay, Daddy," I whispered through the tears that had started flowing without my knowledge. I felt his lips press against the top of my head. He started whispering into my hair. I lost myself in his voice; his calm, deep tones meant safety to me.

"I'm so proud of you," he murmured. "I'm so happy you're not trapped with them. I'm so sorry that they're trapped at all. I'd fix it for you if I could."

"I know," I said just before my sadness manifested in a more physical way. My shoulders shook and my whole body shuddered with the sobs that took me over. When I next mustered the strength to speak—a few minutes later—it was a disjointed, segmented sentence, but somehow he heard me. "I—I m—m—mi—iss th-the-em."

"I know," he whispered. "I know you do. It's okay. They're okay. Don't lose your hope."

"I—i—it—t's h—ha—ard," I sobbed, knowing that all of my crying was useless. It was a waste of time. He was right too. I _needed_ to keep the hope. Everyone was depending on me to supply it for them. Sora had practically told me just that several times.

" _Every time I started losing what little hope I have, I look to you, and I remember."_

It was a lot of pressure. It was too much at times. But I bore it for her sake. She needed as much support as we could muster. She was keeping something from us, but rather than press her for the information, I had made the decision to support her unconditionally. I wouldn't be going back on my word. It was something Iori and I had in common. We kept our promises.

I _had_ to keep my promise—even if it was only to myself.

I allowed myself five minutes to cry, but once my allotted time was up, I forced my breathing to level out. The tears were harder to stop, however. "I want Goblimon," I whispered, knowing I needed to admit it out loud before I could stop dwelling on it. "I want Iori."

"I want to see your smile again," Dad added.

"I want Michael," Jenna said surprising me. It occurred to me only _then_ , that Jenna and Chi had been in the room the entire time, searching through the newspaper for any news about new "Dark Angel" sightings. "And Kudamon, and Willis. I want my Dad."

"I want the DWD to disappear," Chi added.

"But wanting things doesn't make them so," I said softly—a reminder to myself more than anything. "Actions speak louder than words. I have to keep working, or I'll never see them again."

"Right," Jenna said. I heard her get up. I could have looked to confirm it, but I was too comfortable in my father's embrace, and I wasn't ready to leave his arms just yet. I felt her hand on my shoulder and she gave me a great big squeeze. "You okay?"

"No," I whispered.

"I've been there," she admitted. "I crashed ages ago. A couple of times really. You're so strong for holding out as long as you have."

It was just what I needed to hear. It was so easy to victimize myself when I was frustrated or angry, but I wasn't the victim. I was just a bystander. The victims were still in the Digital World. I was just one of the few that were left behind. One of a _few_. I wasn't alone, no matter how I felt at times. I wasn't the only one going through these emotions. Sora's entire family was in there after all. She only had _us_. I at least had Dad. Katsue was the only one that _had_ a partner anymore. I wasn't the only one that lost mine. Chiziru and Momoe each lost a _child_. They lost a part of themselves, and I couldn't relate to that. I had it bad, but it _could_ have been worse. I needed to see the bright side, and cling to it so I could support all of the others.

"It will get better," Chi said gently. "It won't feel like it, but it _will_ , eventually."

"Hush, Chi," Jenna whispered. "You don't understand what she's going through, not really. Knowing and _feeling_ are very different."

"I might," he argued. "I've got siblings you know."

"Really?" Jenna asked, sounding genuinely surprised. "Where are they?"

"I don't know," he said. His voice broke as he spoke. I had to pull away from my father at the sound of it. He was so pained, and I'd never noticed it before. I felt like such a bad friend.

"What happened?" Jenna asked as kindly as she could, though her words still rang of pure curiosity. He didn't answer though. He shook his head sadly and walked off to the kitchen. She looked conflicted. She wanted to follow after him, but she also knew he needed space to deal with whatever he was going through. He would tell us when he was ready.

"I don't understand him sometimes," she said. She meant it as a way to lighten the mood, but I could _feel_ the worry in her voice.

"I didn't always understand Iori either," I admitted. "Guys are a mystery."

"I thought that was meant to be women," Dad teased, tugging on the end of my ponytail. I had to laugh a little. It was always so easy with him. My laughter fizzled out after only a few seconds though, and I forced my mind back to the present. Longing wasn't helping anything, but being proactive _might_.

"Have you had any luck finding The Artist?" I asked Jenna. She sighed and shook her head.

"He—or _she_ —is always long gone before we get there," she explained. "It's always a bust."

"Maybe you'll have better luck this time," Sora said, scaring the crap out of me. I hadn't heard her walk in. She was silent with her bare feet and was always popping up out of nowhere. There was a phone in her hand, and from my seat I could see she had some sort of news coverage open on the screen. "There's a new painting, this time in Hikarigaoka. From the looks of this report, it sounds like the paint is still wet."

"Chi!" Jenna called loudly. "Looks like we're off again."

"Huh?" he asked, coming out of the kitchen. His mouth was full of peanut butter and banana sandwich—he was holding the remains of his lunch in his hand still.

"Let's get rolling," Jenna insisted. "I want to catch this guy—or girl. I'm sick of chasing him—or her—around Japan. I just wanna catch 'em and bring 'em back here. Then maybe we'll get some answers or whatever. I'm tired of _not_ accomplishing anything. Get a move on!"

"Alright," Chi said, still seeming a bit confused. He was already wearing his shoes though, and he dutifully followed Jenna out of the restaurant doors as she hurried outside, down towards the nearest train station, calling their goodbyes over their shoulders as they went.

"Good luck," I whispered, even though they were long gone. I sighed and sat back down, glaring at the textbook that Dad had collected from the floor. Sora hovered in the doorway, and I thought for a second she was going to offer to help me—or have some important heart to heart—but she lost her nerve and slipped behind the privacy curtains that made up our room. It was interesting, to say the least, to have Sora as a roommate. She cried herself to sleep, and I wanted to comfort her each night, but I _knew_ that I was helping more by leaving her be, and pretending not to hear anything. She was tidy though, and never touched my stuff without asking.

She was a _good_ roommate...

She just wasn't Iori or Hikari.

I couldn't bear the idea that she was replacing either of them, but at the same time, I knew I was clinging to her, focussing all of my energy on her when I used to focus it on _them_. I took care of Sora and Dad the way I did my digimon. Gatomon, Goblimon and Armadillomon were everything to me. I dedicated all my time to them, doted on them as if they were my own children. I didn't _do_ anything else. Without them, Hikari and Iori, I was lost. I needed Sora to help me fill that void, to find a purpose.

And she was depending on me to figure this law stuff out.

With renewed vigor, I buckled down and started studying again. I looked up plenty more words, I asked Dad for his opinions. I worked tirelessly...for about an hour. I _would_ have continued. I had the drive now, I'd psyched myself up for a long afternoon, but Yutaka slammed the front door open with such gusto, that I lost my place. I looked up, trying not to glare at him. My anger fell away quickly though, when I saw the wild, excited look in his eyes. He was accompanied by the three remaining Inoue siblings—even if one was a Kido now. I knew he must've run into them on the way back. They'd spent the morning searching for digimon and ensuring they were properly hidden and cared for. Yutaka on the other hand, was standing guard outside of Director Arnold's current base of operations.

There was only one reason he wasn't there anymore.

"Arnold left," Yutaka said excitedly. My eyes strayed from him, taking in the expressions of his companions. Mantarou seemed tentatively thrilled, while Chiziru was nervous. Momoe, however, was distracting me. Her hands were shaking with her pent up anger, her eyes were shining and wild. She was far too excited. She was keyed up, and I knew she was thinking more about revenge than justice at this point.

I was understandably worried by this.

Sora had found her way back into the room while I was investigating the Inoue siblings. Yutaka's loud declaration must've drawn her out. It had certainly brought Yamato, Akira and Katsue running. Takashi had opened his separation curtain, torn between his interest in Yutaka's statement, and his wariness over my erratic behaviour. I felt kind of bad about scaring him, but tension ran high in this place daily. He needed to toughen up, really. The only person missing was Hiroaki, and he was at work, maintaining a relatively normal life, all things considered.

"Where did he go?" Katsue demanded.

"Don't know," Yutaka admitted, losing a little of his enthusiasm—but he had some to spare.

"What do we do?" Akira asked. "How do we find him?"

"You're not seeing the obvious," Yutaka complained. "He's _not_ at his base. Do you know what that means? We've got a window of opportunity here people, and we've got to take it."

"It seems like an unnecessary risk to me," Yamato said hesitantly. "We don't know when he'll be back, or what security measures he's got in place."

"We can be invisible man," Yutaka pointed out. "And we'll have surprise on our side. He's not going to expect us to go out in broad daylight. We'd be caught for sure, if we couldn't be invisible. It's perfect. He didn't even look worried when he left. He's too cocky, and we've got to bring him down a peg."

"Sounds like someone I know," Katsue muttered. I stifled a giggle. Now wasn't the time.

"He's right, Yamato," Sora concluded. "We've _got_ to do this. Who knows when we'll ever get the chance again?"

"Right, so we've got to assemble a team," Mantarou said. Sora smiled at him and he perked up. I narrowed my eyes, suspiciously, but disregarded it for now.

"Obviously, Sora's not invited," I pointed out. She shot me a betrayed look but I could only shrug my shoulders apologetically. "We can't risk her being caught. Yamato is out for the same reason." He seemed more worried now than before. He wouldn't be there to make sure Yutaka—because he was obviously going—didn't get caught.

"Momoe's out too," Chiziru said flatly. "She's too invested."

"I'm _going_ ," Momoe growled.

"You're likely to _kill_ someone right now," Chiziru argued.

"They'd deserve it," Momoe snapped. "They took my daughter! Don't take this from me!"

"They took my son too!" Chiziru shouted at her. "But I'm not losing my head. I'm not caught up in revenge. I will get my baby justice by doing this the right way."

"You're impossible!" Momoe screeched.

"And you're still not going," Chiziru said, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "You'd just jeopardize the mission." Momoe screamed, and knocked over a chair before spinning on her heel and storming out of the room. "Where do you think you're going?"

"For a walk," Momoe growled. "Or am I not allowed to do _that_ either?"

"Maybe she shouldn't go alone," Sora suggested, but Momoe had already slammed the door behind her, before I could offer my services. We were silent for a moment, but _just_ a moment. We had a limited window to work with, and we needed to get a move on. "I think I _should_ go," Sora said, half-way convincingly. "If we're caught, then it's okay, because I'm already wanted. This way no one else would have their reputations sullied."

"No."

Several of us all spoke at once. She pouted dramatically. "Oh, pooh," she muttered, crossing her arms. I knew she wanted to go outside and do something useful. It was hard to keep her locked up when she so desperately wanted to spread her wings. But we were thinking of her safety. The digidestined may not be around anymore, but we had two of them, and we were going to keep those two safe no matter what.

The crests were needed for balance.

I didn't like thinking about what was heading our way. If the rest of the crests were gone, then the worlds were going to meld with one another at some point, and I wasn't looking forward to that happening. I didn't even know if anyone else had thought about it. I was too scared to bring it up though, if that was the case. There was enough to worry about without adding to it.

"I'm going," Yutaka said. "And I'm bringing these two." He motioned to Chiziru and Mantarou. "I already promised them that. I'd like Katsue to come, because we need a beautiful, intelligent woman to be _my_ counterpart, and really, she's the only one that fits the bill." He winked at her.

"Oh joy," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. I knew she was excited about going though. She just didn't want to give Yutaka any reason to think _he_ was the reason. The guy _did_ come on awful strong. "If I'm going, so is Natsuni." My eyes widened. I wasn't planning on going. I had a date with a law textbook. "If we're going to find anything useful, we're going to need you too. You're building a case against them. We're going to need you if we have any hope of finding anything that will be useful to you."

"I suppose so," I said. It made sense too. I'd seen enough espionage movies to have a general idea of what to expect. Dad made a few noises in protest, but I ignored him. "Then let's get going. If there are too many more people, we might as well have a parade to announce our presence."

"She's right," Mantarou said. "Arnold could have just been going for lunch...we might not have a lot of time. We've got to move _now_. We didn't waste any more time. I was tempted to change into an all black attire, just to pay homage to all those movies I'd seen, but knew it would be a waste, considering the fact that I would be invisible. So I just kept my shorts and Iori's t-shirt on. I had Hikari's camera around my neck too, _just_ in case. The only thing I did before leaving was toss on a pair of running shoes—no socks, I didn't have time.

We all piled into Mantarou's junky car, and discussed strategy on the way. Chiziru had been designated as the guard. She would wait outside and alert us when Arnold—or any other suspicious figures—were nearing the premises. Once inside, we would split into teams of two. Yutaka had been pushing for him and Katsue to be a team, but Katsue put her foot down at that, and declared that the teams would be boys and girls, leaving Yutaka with Mantarou, and Katsue with me. That was as far as we could manage without knowing the layout. I was uncomfortable, crammed in the middle of the back seat. I was sitting on some crumbled up work gloves and several crinkling candy wrappers. The car also had a distinctly unpleasant smell. I was very glad to have arrived at our destination, no matter how daunting our current mission was. We walked into an alleyway immediately upon exiting the vehicle, and turned on our invisible boosters. Chiziru would wait in the car, phone at the ready, eyes alert.

"Remember," Chiziru said. "Put your phones on silent. You don't want to get caught because your phone starts ringing while you're invisible."

"Yeah," I said. "We'll remember."

"Yeah, yeah," Yutaka said. "Let's go. We've got to get in and out before Arnold gets back."

"Right," Mantarou said.

We made our way across the street, being extra careful of cars, since they literally couldn't see us, and kept our mouths shut as we walked up the steps to the big door. Someone—I couldn't see who—opened the door, and I slipped inside. Once I was inside the lobby two things became abundantly clear to me. One: Arnold really should have invested in a secretary or _something_ , because there was no one to stop us at all. And two: I was staring straight at the back of Katsue's head, and I should _not_ have been able to see it. I checked my phone, and the booster was still on, it just wasn't working within the building.

"Crap," I sighed, kicking one of the plastic palm trees that were in pots on either side of the main entrance.

"What do we do?" Mantarou asked.

"Continue as planned," Yutaka ordered. We'd all fallen in line behind him, unconsciously choosing him as our leader. "Be twice as careful, and act like you belong." It would be easy to follow his instructions if any of us were dressed like we belonged. I was starting to regret my choices. I hadn't been thinking about situations like this when I'd hastily packed my suitcases during the _one_ visit I'd had to my apartment. I'd grabbed some of Iori's shirts, to make me feel he was closer than he was, I grabbed Hikari's camera and one of her bracelets so she could be close to me too. And then I'd grabbed my t-shirts and shorts, a couple of sweaters and a pair of jogging pants. I finished off with my running shoes. I wasn't thinking that at some point I'd have to dress like a business woman, or I might have grabbed my blazer, or a pencil skirt, or a _blouse_ at least. I looked like a slob.

I really hoped no one would catch me.

Despite my internal struggle, we allowed him to boss us around. We headed to opposite stairwells. The boys' headed downwards, and we were left going up. I'd seen enough horror movies to know that going up was almost always a stupid idea. I didn't know how it would play out in real life, but I was being extra cautious, just in case.

Each step echoed through the stairwell, causing me to wince. We were making so much noise, and I couldn't step any lighter. Katsue was in front of me. She continuously looked back at me, over her shoulder, checking to see I was still there. Once we reached the next landing, she opened the door and slipped out quickly. I followed suit, and somehow, _I_ ended up leading us down the hall.

Voices filled the air. Some male, some female. One of the males was laughing a deep, stupid laugh. It made my skin crawl. The sounds were coming from an open doorway and I froze just beside it. I took a big risk by looking around the door frame to see who was inside. Mimi's old waitress was in there—Michan. She was surrounded by Jenna's "friends". I spotted Veronica quickly enough, and it was Marshall who was laughing. His friends Ricky and Tyler were nearby, and Michan's friend—Tako?—was there too. Six people that wanted us caught. I was terrified.

What was worse was that Tako had her eyes locked directly with mine.

She looked to Michan, and then back to me, slowly, deliberately, so as to _not_ draw attention to her movements. Then she winked at me just before standing up and heading towards a table of refreshments. I watched as she purposefully twisted her ankle so that she'd trip over her own feet, and saw her crashing down to the ground with a yelp.

"Ah!" she shrieked as she fell. The reaction was instantaneous. Veronica and Marshall laughed, viciously, at her clumsiness, and Michan's eyes were locked on her friend.

"Are you okay?" she demanded.

"I don't know," Tako whimpered dramatically. I'd give her maybe a two out of five for her acting, but Ricky and Tyler were a much less demanding audience than I was, because they bought it hook, line and sinker. They rushed to her sides quickly, knocking Veronica off balance in their haste. Marshall had to catch her, and then the two of them were yelling at the boys, while Michan knelt down at Tako's side.

"They're distracted," I whispered to Katsue.

"Then let's go," she told me. I nodded and dive rolled passed the door. Katsue raised an eyebrow at my antics and proceeded to walk, _normally_ , passed the door—which in hindsight would have been much less suspicious than my "spy" moves. It was too late to change my mind though.

We continued down the hallway, coming to an office. There was a large, mahogany desk in the centre of the room, with a large, leather chair behind it. The entire back wall was made up of glass, overlooking the city below us. There were filing cabinets along one wall, and a table with an elaborate flower arrangement on the opposite one. The air was filled with the pungent scent of Arnold's chosen cologne.

"Jackpot," Katsue said with a satisfied smile. "I'll start with the cabinets, you take the desk."

I followed her instructions without a word. I pulled on each drawer in his desk, growing more and more upset when none would open. He'd locked them. Finally, I got the top drawer open, and was disappointed that all it housed was a container of paper clips, a stapler and a ball of elastic bands. In desperation, I rooted around the paper clips, hoping to find a key, but didn't. I resorted to trying to find a hidden switch or button. I was fiddling with the bottom left drawer when a voice cut through the room.

"Well, well, well. _What_ have we here?"

"Arnold," Katsue growled.

"I'm afraid you have me at a bit of a disadvantage, you see _you_ know _my_ name, yet I don't know yours," he said. I didn't dare look around the desk at him. It didn't seem like he'd seen me, and until he spotted me, I was going to stay as silent as a mouse.

"My name isn't important," Katsue said. "I'm here to ask you a few questions."

"I suppose I _could_ answer them, but wouldn't it be simpler to alert the police about my intruder," Arnold said. "I think it might. You see _I_ am on the police's side. I don't know what you think you'll find by rummaging through my files, but I _assure_ you everything is legal and above board."

Katsue was backing towards the glass window. She was in my peripheral now. She was holding her phone in her hand. Her thumb was moving across the touch screen. She was turning on the video camera. She was recording the conversation. She was a very persistent reporter, I had to give her that much. In her place I would've been too scared to think of something like that.

"Are you _sure_ about that?" Katsue asked. "You see, I've heard some very troubling rumours. About you, and the people that work for you. The DWD, I believe they're called."

"That's their... _mantra_ , if you will," Arnold said. I could practically _hear_ his eyes rolling. "But I know the organisation that you speak of."

"Prove it," Katsue demanded. "What's their name?"

"EVOLVE," Arnold said. "Everyone in their right mind knows I'm involved with them. You can't be a very good reporter if you couldn't find _that_ much out. All it would take is a cursory look. I'm not ashamed of my involvement in such a prestigious and revolutionary movement."

"Revolutionary, you say?" Katsue asked. "I heard their goal was actually mass genocide. What do you say about _those_ rumours?"

"They are vastly exaggerated," Arnold dismissed. "No humans were hurt in the slightest. Our aims are to provide _protection_ for all of human kind."

"And what of the two women that were hurt by a certain officer within the EVOLVE ranks? Jun Motomiya and Noriko Kawada," Katsue pressed. "I have confirmation that Kawada at least has died from the injuries your _protection_ caused her."

"Yes, well, she would be fine if she hadn't jumped in the gun's trajectory. It was her fault, trying to protect that scum. She should have let EVOLVE save her from that monstrosity's grasp. Instead, she forfeited her life. You'll notice that there are no _other_ cases like hers," Arnold said, trying to distract her.

"Except, of course, for Jun Motomiya," Katsue said slyly.

"I don't know about that one," Arnold lied—it was so obvious. It was _perfect_ , considering his every word was being recorded. And since he was under the impression that Katsue was a reporter—which was actually the truth—he wouldn't be able to brush our evidence off the rug as ill-begotten.

Katsue was nearly flat against the window now, and I could see Arnold's leg as he moved forward towards her. Slowly, carefully, I moved around the side of the desk so that I remained hidden from sight. I checked my phone as I did so, discovering that Chiziru had sent four messages, each more urgent than the last telling us to get out, _now_ , and that Arnold was back.

I cursed myself for not realizing that silencing our phones and depending on text messages was not a good plan at all. Chiziru wasn't the only one that sent a message. Mantarou's name was staring up at me too. I pressed it, to read his message.

"You see, these rumours also state that you sent out a mass virus designed to destroy all life in its path, knowingly sending towards a mass of humans, therefore taking the lives of upwards of fifty people. What do you have to say to those allegations?"

I read Mantarou's message as quickly as I could. _Come here_. I rolled my eyes and fired off a quick message that said I was a little busy, and that getting to the basement was impossible at the moment.

"We never sent a virus to attack humans!" Arnold insisted, angrily.

"But you did send a virus intending to destroy an entire world and every living being that called it home?" Katsue pressed.

The screen of my phone lit up, and I was greeted with a picture of Mantarou's face. He was requesting a video chat—clearly he hadn't listened to his sister's advice as I had, and had left the sound _on_ his phone. I peeked around the desk, and saw that Arnold was very much focussed on Katsue. I got into a crouch and ran lightly to the open door, swinging myself around, leaning my back against the hallway door.

"Yes!" Arnold snapped. "Of course we did. Everyone that lived there was scum, monstrosities that needed to be eradicated! The world needed to be destroyed. It was in the way of our evolution!"

I accepted the call, mentally cheering at the success of Katsue's hard hitting interrogation. Mantarou's face greeted me, but I had a finger to my lips so he knew he needed to be quiet. Unfortunately whatever was growling in the background didn't seem to care that Arnold could hear them at any moment.

"What's that?" I whispered.

"Monsters," Mantarou told me.

"Like...digimon?" I asked hopeful.

"No," Yutaka's voice came. His face appeared next to Mantarou's. "These are creepy. They look like they've been assembled. They're not digital."

"Show me," I told them. Their faces left the screen and I was met with the sight of round, furry monsters, long scaly ones. There were big ones and small ones, slimy and fuzzy. They all had long, large teeth, and beady eyes that seemed to glow in the dark.

"Crazy right?" Yutaka asked when they appeared in the screen again.

"Yeah," I said in a breathy voice.

"What should we do?" Mantarou wanted to know.

"Arnold is here," I whispered. Their eyes widened. "Film whatever you can. Get evidence, _proof_. But be careful. Katsue's confronting him right now."

I hung up then, not wanting to waste another second. I peeked into the room, and saw that Arnold was upset with himself. He'd given too much away. He was closing the gap between himself and Katsue.

"Thank you for your cooperation," Katsue said, her voice only wavered a little.

"You know too much," Arnold told her. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to keep you. I have some friends in the basement that would simply _love_ your company."

I gasped. He was threatening her with those monsters.

"No thanks," Katsue said nonchalantly. "I've got places to be, people to see, _digimon_ to save."

"You seem to be under the impression you have a choice in the matter," Arnold told her, shaking his head with mock sadness.

"And you seem to think I _don't_ ," Katsue said. I rushed into the room and grabbed the trash can, lifting it above my head and crashing it down onto his back. Katsue grabbed his desk chair and rolled it towards him, bashing it into his knees before she rolled over the top of the desk in one swift movement worthy of an action star, and raced out the door. I grabbed the handle, slamming it closed behind us. My phone was in my hand, Mantarou's number already dialled before we'd even reached the room where Veronica and her friends were waiting.

"What's up?" Mantarou said as soon as he answered my call.

"Get out," I ordered. " _Now_!"

"Okay," he said, hanging up to presumably follow my orders.

My shouting alerted Veronica and the others to our presence. Katsue darted passed their door before anyone could get close, but I was too far behind her to have the same luxury. Veronica grabbed my wrist, and I twisted my arm in the air, spinning around and lifting her over my shoulder, letting her crash to the ground. I jumped over her, utilizing the surprise of her entourage to run away. I'd surprised myself more than them, I was sure. I didn't know I could _do_ that. I'd seen Iori do it a couple of times—to impress me, mostly—and it was a common staple in action movies. I suppose my instincts took over and mimicked their movements.

It didn't matter anyway, because I got away. Katsue was already out the door of the stairwell and into the lobby by the time I'd made it to the stairs. I decided _not_ to press my luck and stayed off of the railings, no matter how much time I thought I'd be able to save by sliding down them. Marshall, Ricky and Tyler crashed through the doorway behind me, and they shouted after me, telling me to stop. I actually laughed aloud at that. Who did they think they were kidding? I wasn't going to _let_ them catch me.

I burst into the lobby in time to see Katsue trip. Her phone skidded across the shining floor, landing next to the reception table—which still didn't have a secretary to work at it. Yutaka and Mantarou came flying out of the door opposite me, and Yutaka ran at Katsue, taking her arms in his hands and flinging her across his shoulder.

"My phone!" she screamed, but he was already bringing her outside. They vanished instantly upon leaving the building, thanks to the still activated invisibility boosters. I took that as my cue and raced to the phone, shouting for Mantarou to get out now. He hesitated. I reached down and grabbed the phone that carried our vital video. Ricky, Tyler and Marshall were in the lobby now. I may have screamed. Mantarou knocked over the tall, cylindrical trash can and kicked it in their direction. It rolled directly into their path and Marshall flopped over it. Ricky and Tyler split up. One headed for Mantarou, and the other for me. I tucked Katsue's phone in the pocket of my shorts and grabbed the dish of candies off the counter, throwing it at Ricky's—or Tyler's, I couldn't tell them apart—head. I missed, but he closed his eyes and lifted his hands for protection, and I used his distraction to get around him. I grabbed one of the potted, plastic palm trees by the trunk and swung the ceramic pot around until it landed on Tyler's—or Ricky's—stomach, knocking the breath out of him.

Mantarou grabbed my arm and dragged me out of the building. I watched as my hands disappeared into thin air, but I couldn't relax until Mantarou opened the back door of his car and pulled me in behind him. I closed the door with shaky fingers before turning off the invisible booster.

" _Hello_ ," Yutaka said with a smirk right into my ear. I jumped flinging my arm back and elbowing him in the face. "Watch it!" I hadn't even realized that Mantarou had shoved me over onto Yutaka's lap. My heart was still pounding from our stand off in the lobby. My legs were resting on Katsue who was holding her hand out to me expectantly. I pulled her phone from my pocket and she very carefully ensured that it wasn't damaged in any way. The unfortunately familiar sound of Arnold's voice rang out through the car.

"Thank God," Katsue said with a sigh. "I was afraid it was all for nothing."

"You've got to see what Mantarou and I found," Yutaka told her.

"How about we do this at the base," Chiziru suggested. "And maybe _next_ time, you could actually heed my warnings, and not make me feel like a completely useless member of the team. If you weren't going to listen to me, what was the point of leaving me as lookout in the first place?"

I spent the rest of the ride trying to calm my speeding heart. It was really cramped with four of us in the backseat, and it was illegal too. I didn't want to get pulled over and taken out of the fight because we weren't using _seatbelts_. That would be a lame way to go.

Yutaka, Mantarou and Katsue were buzzing with excitement as we walked through the door of the restaurant. Sora hopped up from her chair beside my father, hurried over to us as soon as she saw us. Takashi called Akira and Yamato into the room. I noticed that Hiroaki was back from work too.

"How did it go?" Sora asked.

"It was a failure," Chiziru grumbled. Sora looked disappointed.

"We found some horrible stuff," Mantarou said, and Sora's face lit up. I narrowed my eyes at the pair again, but pushed the thoughts from my mind, because the monsters the boys found in the basement were far more important at the moment.

"Yeah, check it out!" Yutaka said, holding up his phone and showing them the footage he shot of the monsters in their cages.

"I struck gold too," Katsue said, holding up her phone excitedly. "Wanna see?" she asked Yamato. He didn't answer though, because his eyes were focused on something behind me. I turned slowly, fearing that we might have been followed and sighed in relief to find that it was only Jenna and Chi. Well, not _just_ them, because they weren't alone.

"Who's that?" Yamato asked, drawing everyone's attention away from the phones. Chi and Jenna stepped aside, revealing a shy looking girl whose arms were crossed. She had a backpack hanging on one shoulder and long, deep red hair draping over one eye, falling in curls down past her shoulders. Jenna cleared her throat and motioned to the girl.

"This is the Artist."

 _ **Neo Saiba:**_

I was never so grateful to have a home than I was during these couple months. That communal shower was filthy, coated in grime and dead skin cells. Not to mention all the overweight, sweaty putrid smelling men that I would be required to share with were I to actually use the shower Maugrim provided for his fellow digiphobes.

Though, it was simply incorrect to necessarily refer to them as such. The people I was in league with did not seem to hate digimon so much as not care for their existence. They literally did not care about whether they lived or not. I would not go so far as to say 'no one' but few enough people in these parts actually had so much as an opinion about the digimon at all. This was especially true in terms of Maugrim. There were of course the Fujimoto's and whatever other likeminded people scattered through both the camp and the city that agreed with the concept of digimon being a negative topic. It was of course unwise to bring them up in conversation, even to those who did not care, for the topic was a ticking time bomb similar to the topics of religion and politics. It was simply easier to avoid a conversation on the subject.

Either way, I called them digiphobes because they were foolish and disgusting. But not me, for I was able to sneak away multiple times a day, pretending to be doing whatever duty it was I had been assigned, and relax in my own home with a cup of fresh coffee, reading whatever book I wanted from the massive selection I had building up in my library, all while being alone and _clean_. Not a single person alive knew my location. Not anymore at least.

I could hope for that to be proven false all I wanted, but I'd gone through eight long weeks of the truth staying firm. They were gone.

I brushed my hair out of my face with a gentle smile, feeling myself fall into the comfort of the cushions on my couch, and sighed. Serenity had never been so welcome.

I heard a horrible sound emit from my cell phone and my eyes narrowed in on the black device, hatred oozing from every pore of my freshly washed body. That was the sound I had assigned to Kansui, and whenever he messaged me, or called me, that horrible sound would give me a much needed preparation for the idiocy I was soon to encounter. I set my book down and pulled my phone toward me, pressing the talk button.

"Greetings, Your Highness." I had taken to referring to him as such as it made him pleased, and allowed me to subtly make sarcastic remarks at his snooty and pompous behaviour without him realizing a thing. "What may I do for you today?"

"You said you'd be back by now." Kansui said sharply though the phone, his voice giving me an instantaneous headache. "You promised you'd help me pick a material to reupholster my vintage couch with!" I dropped my head back, resting it on the back of my couch. He was genuinely the worst, most irritating person on the face of the planet. At first I'd been bothered to spend time with him for the sole purpose of gaining information and ensuring I was on well enough terms with at least a handful of people from within the ranks. As time passed however, it was quickly revealed that Kansui knew nothing of what his father's true intentions were, and I was merely wasting my time in keeping our contact. Now, I may not have been a kind person, but I was not entirely heartless. Kansui spent every moment in his father's presence begging for attention, for someone to care. And while I did not care for a moment, I felt bad for the petulant child, and vowed to keep him company at the very least.

"I must have lost track of time, I do so apologize," I told him, "I'd best be on my way."

"Kay," Kansui said, "See you soon, Roomie." I clenched my teeth together tightly at the sound of the name he refused to stop mentioning. I heard the ever pleasant sound of his phone being hung up and I took a deep relaxing breath, taking in the atmosphere of my home, and then I was off. It took me only a couple moments to do the dishes I'd just used, and to sweep the floor. Kansui could wait a little longer. I wasn't about to leave my house in this state, even if it were already cleaner than any other home I'd ever been in.

I climbed into the back seat of a taxi cab, making sure to put my white leather gloves on before the thought even entered my mind. These things were atrocious. I told the driver my destination and he set off. It did not take long for us to arrive at 'The Drop Off'. It was the place we were meant to be dropped off so no one unpermitted would wander into the campgrounds. It was such a creative name, really. I was sure whoever came up with it had been nominated for a Golden Globe or some other award. Besides, being dropped off a three minute walk from the tents was not going to keep anyone from wandering along, at least no one aside from a toddler or a halfwit, just someone who could manage to get lost in a straight line with a paved path leading the way.

Out of habit I stopped at Puraido's tent before making my way through the dense fog of whatever aroma had built up over the past two months. Honestly, I could swear Maugrim had bothered to collect every one of Japan's most grubby individuals.

Puraido jumped in surprise, making sure to conceal the creature behind him with his arms, his eyes wide with horror. He relaxed when he noticed it was me and adjusted his glasses accordingly. "Neo," He was unimpressed again it seemed as he brushed his blond hair out of his eyes. "I told you to warn me before you come in."

"And as I've told you before," I said, rolling my eyes, "I have no desire to do so. If I announce my presence before entering your tent I will only be calling attention to the very principal that you're up to something within the confines of these thin canvass walls." Puraido sighed, looking defeated and nodded. He often neglected to keep his voice down, forgetting, I imagine, that the walls were thin enough for his voice to be heard on the other side. "How is he doing?"

"You don't have to talk about me like I'm not here," a voice sounded from behind Puraido who stepped aside, revealing Gomamon. It had been weeks since I'd known of his presence. I had known Puraido was up to something since day one, but it was not until much later that the curiosity got the better of me. It was a moment I was not particularly proud of, as I usually had no interest in the affairs of another, but it seemed that whatever Puraido had been hiding would be of use to me.

It wasn't, of course, but it was still interesting to know that Jou's Gomamon was both alive and healthy. I did not know if Jou himself was alive, but at the very least, we had Gomamon if he ever returned. I did however almost _get_ him killed.

" _What do you mean you don't want to?" Yorokobi had asked loudly to her brother, "You're supposed to be on our side!"_

" _I am on your side!" Puraido insisted. "What makes you think I'm not? I just don't want to have dinner with a bunch of rich people!"_

" _You_ are _a rich people!" Yorokobi said with disgust. "It is the ambassador! He wishes to have a nice respectable dinner with the Fujimoto family, and you are a part of that family! We are to be talking of his son's future. You see he wants to marry him off and perhaps I might be the lucky girl to marry into such a rich—while a bit portly—family! You_ must _come." She reached for his arm but he pulled it away quickly. "Come, brother," She said, this time her voice was much softer and sweeter, "He wishes to discuss plans of action. Such as," Yorokobi leaned in and smiled into her brother's face. "How to rid the world of Yamato Ishida?"_

" _I'm really not interested." Puraido shrugged his shoulders._

 _Yorokobi gasped, "He is our enemy! Our_ sworn _enemy! You bring shame to our family!" Puraido looked disappointed in himself. "Now what is so important that you are willing to miss out on such a respectable evening?"_

 _Yorokobi tried to push past her brother but he slapped her hand as she reached for his tent door. "Don't!" He insisted, "Fine, I'll go." Yorokobi seemed pleased and she linked arms with her brother._

" _Oh good," She had said, "Let's get you all cleaned up." She locked eyes with me and smiled, batting her eyes, but I tried to ignore it the best I could. She, or someone, had been spreading rumours that the two of us were in love, and while I knew it could never, and would never be true, it was hard to convince others of that fact. Especially Evelen who had a jolly old time using it to poke fun at me. I wasn't much of a joker, and it annoyed me more than anything else. No, not true. The thought of dating Yorokobi was more disgusting than annoying._

 _But this did give me a prime opportunity to take a peek at whatever it was Puraido was hiding. I silently thanked Yorokobi and winced at myself, wishing I had enough will power to allow whatever this was to stay hidden. It simply was none of my business, and I should have kept my nose out of it. But when I unzipped that blue bag, unable to stop myself, Gomamon's head popped out, frightened._

" _Oh, hey Neo." He said, relaxing, "Whatcha doin' here?"_

" _I could ask you the very same thing." I had said._

"Bring me anything?" Gomamon asked, pulling me from my thoughts. "I'm starving. Puraido only brought me seeds and nuts. What am I, a bird?"

"I'm not sure what you are to be honest." I said calmly, reaching into my bag and pulling out a sandwich. "This should do."

Gomamon savagely seized the sandwich from my hands and paused before taking a bite, "I'm a seal, by the way," he said as he unwrapped the sandwich.

"I really don't care," I told him honestly. He shrugged and immediately got to work devouring his sandwich as noisily as possible. I swear, there was something about me that irked him just enough to purposely be annoying and gross. Either that or he was simply that way of his own accord. He was just sarcastic enough for me to let it slide however.

"So what are you up to?" Gomamon asked as Puraido seemingly pouted to himself, not being included in the conversation. I had no intention to help him feel included if he was going to be such a child about everything. I was giving him the benefit of the doubt for having Gomamon's best interests in mind and for being against the general idea of the Fujimoto legacy, but that did not mean I liked him at all. He had still been a part of Hideto's past, and while I didn't know all of the specifics I knew that I would not forgive him, at least not before Hideto. And it was beginning to look like he'd never get that chance, so Puraido was out of luck.

"Kansui has summoned me," I said, sounding as bored as I could. Gomamon snorted, but I ignored him. "It would be best for me to not keep him waiting. I'd best be on my way."

"Tell him I say 'hi'," Gomamon joked before inhaling the remains of his sandwich. I smirked as I turned away from the two of them and left the tent, walking toward the absurdly large tent that Kansui and I shared. We had genuine rooms within the confines of the green and grey canvass. Four rooms in fact. One room was off limits for me, as it was Kansui's 'bed chamber' and I was permitted to enter only if I promised to gossip with him about the drama around the campsite. Needless to say, I'd yet to take him up on that offer. One room was for me to sleep in, though I kept it as simple as I could, keeping anything I actually cared about back in my own apartment where Kansui would never be able to find any of it. The main room consisted of a small ornate wooden table, stained to match the curio cabinet against the wall. There was a cheap plastic chandelier plugged into the outlets that Kansui had miraculously linked to an actual electrical source that lit up the room and effectively embarrassed me every time I walked through the entrance of our tent. The last room was filled with brightly coloured cushions, where Kansui would take his frequent visitors to chat and drink tea.

Kansui had no frequent visitors. The room went unused.

I had arrived at the tent mere moments later, and the familiar feeling of dread began to bubble within my chest. It was simply exhausting to be around Kansui as he drained all of my energy and willpower by simply talking, and the worst part was that he neglected to _ever_ stop talking.

I reached my hand, still covered with my gloves, out to the draping canvass doors of the tent, but froze before I made myself noticed. I heard speaking coming from within Maugrim's tent. It was not something entirely out of the ordinary, but it did not stop me from eavesdropping. Any information I could collect was another piece I could put into my puzzle box, and soon I would have enough pieces to solve the riddle that was Maugrim's true intentions. It had to have something to do with the anti-digimon movement that was being spread across the globe, and yet I'd never heard a word about it escape from his lips.

I moved toward his tent and listened through the walls to the muffled voices. It was a female talking from within. Likely Namida Fujimoto who I luckily had unequivocally on my side, despite how often she proved to be a bad woman. She could have been worse though, for instance she could have served me no purpose, but that wasn't the case. Her and her husband's desperate need to ruin Yamato's life proved to me that he really was here, alive. He was somewhere on Earth. Though, that news would have been broken soon enough. I was among the people receiving news through his ridiculously dramatic propaganda videos. They were released at random times, and mostly consisted of nothing useful, but it was the general idea of strength, unity and hope that he was spreading, and as much as I could say I did not like Yamato, this was working well. I'd heard the people speaking, as that's what I was now. Simply a 'people'. There were so many supporters to counter all those who disagreed, and that was enough proof for me that what he was doing was worthwhile. A particular word I heard frequently was 'Rise' though I could not be sure as to the meaning.

It was not Yamato that gave me reason to continue fraternizing with Namida, but the information that Sora was alive as well. It may have been true that Sora and I had not been close ever since our engagement, but knowing she was alive was the only hope I had that any of the others had survived as well. Sora was one of my top priorities at the moment as well. If I could remain in the good books of her enemies, I could very well find a way to clear her name and prove that she was not a violent sociopath as the news continually made her out to be. That was thanks to the Fujimoto's though. I may have let slip that she had broken up with me for Yamato Ishida, and that was their last straw. They vowed to bring both her and her maniacal boyfriend to the ground.

I could not make out what was being said within the tent and so I moved closer to the entrance shamelessly. Not a single person in the camp paid any mind to anything around them. They really were idiots, completely unaware, self-imposing fools, and I knew I need not fear them for a moment, I could essentially do as I pleased within these grounds just as long as Maugrim never caught me.

"I am aware," The female voice said, "I'll see what I can do."

"Good," Maugrim said, "I promise I will not let you down either."

And then there was silence, which was unsettling. I moved from the door to ensure Maugrim had no reason to suspect me of hearing his private conversation, which wouldn't be a lie, as I really hadn't heard anything at all. I heard his large form emerge from his tent and then he stopped, and cleared his throat.

I turned to him as he spit toward the ground. I winced, repulsed, and diverted my eyes. "Neo, would you like to ask me something?" Maugrim asked, clearly suspicious.

I shook my head, "No, Sir." He eyed me up, his bushy eyebrows furrowing deeply together. He seemed satisfied, or at least bored, and was on his way a moment later, giving me free reign to check to see who he was speaking to, and while that would not give me _much_ information, it would at least be something.

It was no good however, as when I stuck my head inside I was confronted with a blank space. There was no one inside. I tentatively took a step inside and looked around, but there truly was no one inside. Nervously, I made my way toward the exit when the door was pulled open sharply and someone walked directly into me.

"Watch it!" Evelen said sharply, then she stopped, and looked at me, "Stalking me again?"

"Obviously," I said sarcastically.

Evelen smirked, "Have you seen my father?" She asked me, "Aesop is looking for him. Apparently something has come up."

"Do you know what?" I asked.

"Do you know how to answer a question without asking another question?" Evelen asked, possibly annoyed, yet mildly amused. "No idea," she said, defeated, "I can't keep up with them any better than you can."

"What makes you think I have any desire to know what your father is up to?" I asked defensively.

"You keep sneaking into his tent, going through all of his things, stalking him, infiltrating his team, asking questions about him and you write about him in your diary." Evelen said quickly.

"It is _not_ a diary," I said, rolling my eyes, "And what made you think you had any right to read it?"

"I am offended by your accusations." Evelen said, gasping dramatically.

"You told me—"

"I took a guess." Evelen said with a smile, side-stepping and granting me access to the door, "And now I know you write in a diary." She winked at me and I simply rolled my eyes, taking my leave, ignoring her. Unfortunately I walked out of one trap to fall right into another more pompously irritating one.

"Neo!" Kansui shouted excitedly, "My friend! I've been awaiting your arrival!"

"I know you have," I told him. "I was caught up with your sister. She's a lunatic. Did you know she was just seen downtown throwing rotting eggs at children?" I felt a sharp punch on my arm and I turned to see Evelen, sticking her tongue out at me. "See? She neglected to deny it."

"Oh I neglected to do nothing," Evelen rolled her eyes.

Kansui looked confused, and out of the loop and that would simply not do. "I don't know what you two are talking about, but I sure want in. Let's go get coffee or something! We can try out the new cafe downtown!"

"That sounds heinous," I said, raising my eyebrows.

"Doesn't it just?" Kansui asked excitedly, not knowing what the word meant. "Ooh! Let me get my beret! I'll be the talk of the town!" Evelen and I exchanged glances of pure horror as Kansui rushed off to get his hat.

While we waited I spotted Aesop standing further off to the side, outside the campgrounds and Maugrim was being led toward him by the wild haired Bitoru. The three of them were up to something collectively and I wanted to know what it was. "Evelen," I said blankly, "Might you follow your father and listen in on his conversation?"

Evelen rolled her eyes, "Neo, he won't say anything with me around, I can promise you that."

My eyebrows rose into the air and I sighed, I wished I had a coffee to calm my frustration at not knowing what they were up to, and I hesitated when I realized that was exactly what Kansui had offered. I ignored that thought and looked to Bitoru with a scowl, "It seems the white haired musketeer has found something." Evelen hummed her response, keeping her eyes trained in on the three of them as they met under a tree. "Not surprising, really. It seems the young one, Bitoru, while being the intelligent of the group still manages to be the most useless."

"Hey," Evelen said sharply, elbowing me. I turned to her confused and she finally took her eyes away from her father's business deal. "That's my brother." Instinctively I looked back to where Kansui had run off to. "I can have more than one sibling, Neo." Bitoru was her _brother_? That was something I had not expected to learn of. "He's _kind_ of my brother anyway. Dad didn't have anything to do with him for a while, so Aesop raised him. But he's related by blood in any case." I nodded to her and then as one we looked back to her father and brother, but they were gone.

"Where did they disappear to?" I asked sharply.

Evelen was already rushing forward and looking around wildly, and finally she pointed sharply down the street, "There!"

"What have we found?" Kansui asked in his obnoxious voice.

"We're taking a detour before our coffee break," Evelen told Kansui, looking to me for validation. I nodded. I wasn't about to distract Kansui so Evelen could go because I didn't trust her to tell me the truth and I knew she wouldn't stay behind, so that meant Kansui had to come along. He seemed pleased by this anyway, so we all rushed after Maugrim, Bitoru and Aesop.

Kansui, while being shushed by his sister, explained the story of where he purchased his beret in great detail, much to my dismay. I did of course ignore him, but together we made our way around the tents hoping that Kansui's voice would not reach his father.

Soon enough we were out of the campgrounds and Kansui ranted and raved about how he and his father had concocted a well crafted plan to keep the bathrooms more organized. It was depressing how excited Kansui was at the mere prospect of his father's attention. What was worse was that I found it increasingly difficult to give him my _own_ attention. I wanted to feel callous, and show Kansui how genuinely detached I was from him and his ridiculously exaggerated stories, for I had no real respect for him, nor did I actually like a single thing about him. I simply felt bad for him, and was unable to be as heartless as I wanted to be.

"Oh look!" Kansui squealed in delight as he came to a stop, rushing out into the streets, stopping traffic. Horns wailed away, but he did not stop for a moment, acting as though he were parting the Red Sea rather than dangerously walking out into traffic. He threw his hands in the air in front of a tall red bricked building. On the side was an elaborate painting of an Angemon. "I've never been so close to a Dark Angel!" Kansui shouted from across the street. "Come take my picture with it!"

"No," Evelen shouted to him, never taking her eyes away from our target, "Get over here _now_ or we're leaving you behind!" Kansui's face fell in a slump and he began whining as he made his way back across the street simply holding one hand out to stop the traffic.

The moment he had rejoined us we had set off once more down the street, "I promise I shall take a photograph of you and the hastily painted angel when we return to the campgrounds." Kansui seemed pleased by that, which I was thankful for. Not because I particularly enjoyed him being happy but rather that he was far more annoying when he was not.

I threw my hand out, placing in on Kansui's chest to stop him as he was blissfully unaware of our intentions. "Kansui, can you get pretzels for us all?" Evelen asked, reaching into her pocket and pulling out an excessive amount of money.

Kansui thought for a moment and my impatience was getting the better of me and finally he nodded. "Okay," he smiled, taking Evelen's money, "but I'm keeping the change."

"Fine," Evelen agreed. I watched Kansui until he was out of sight, but when I turned back to Evelen she had gone. I spun around, taking in my surroundings, but did not catch sight of her for a moment. We were by a harbor of sorts, and I knew Evelen had not gotten far in my distraction, but _where_ had she gotten to?

I thought I had caught sight of her for a moment but chills ran down my spine when I took in what I was seeing. In the shadow of the nearby bait shop was a man standing in a ragged cloak, and covering his face was a wooden mask. He stared toward me for a moment but when I took a step toward him someone caught my attention from behind me.

"N-Neo?"

I turned at the sound of shock in the voice of whomever was speaking and found myself startled at who had spoken. "Momoe!" I said, trying to show my sympathy. She looked rather unkempt, a little broken perhaps. My very first thought upon seeing her face was of Emiko, and I could never understand her pain, but at least I knew she _was,_ in fact, in pain.

"You're alive." It wasn't a question, she was simply stating what she was seeing.

"I am," I nodded, "as are you I see." I debated telling her about Gomamon, but with Kansui and Evelen in possible hearing distance I didn't see the point. "Are you doing well?"

"What the hell are you doing?" Momoe asked, "Why haven't you come to find your friends?"

"Need I remind you that my friends are in hiding?" I said, avoiding answering her directly. I could not stop myself from thinking about how reckless Momoe may have been acting, and wondering whether or not she was about to say something she would regret in front of Kansui, though I doubt she knew he was near. I had no doubts that Evelen would not be bothered by their location, but Kansui would simply love to have something actually useful to tell his father.

"Neo, stop playing games with me," Momoe said sharply, "You know _exactly_ what I want from you." It was then that I noticed how obvious it was that she had been crying. And she was right, I did know exactly what information it was she wanted from me.

"I won't be coming back to play games," I told her, avoiding the answer. It felt wrong to be withholding this from her, but it was all I could do.

"I am so sick of no one ever telling me what's going on!" Momoe yelled loudly, "I am not a pathetic mess, you know! I am capable of doing things right. Just because my daughter is dead, that doesn't mean that I am too."

"You've got that right," Kansui agreed, appearing from around the corner with some pretzels as Evelen had asked of him. "Never heard such a loud dead person." Momoe legitimately snarled at him and let her eyes linger for a moment. She did not need clarification to know which side of this war he was on and now she obviously thought that I was on his side as well. She looked to me one last time before crinkling her nose and turning to storm off, angry as ever. I felt my stomach twisting as I realized she was going to return to Sora and Yamato, informing them of my betrayal, even if it was not as she assumed it to be. "What a weird woman." Kansui said, walking off to where I was sure he saw Evelen.

I followed after him quickly, even bothering to push past him so I could round the corner. I caught sight of Evelen crouching behind a garden that was fenced in with cement in the center of the road where trees were growing. She was looking to where her father was standing by the water's edge and I saw as he wound his hand back and threw something as hard as he could. I saw a simple glint of light reflect from whatever he had been holding and then it had hit the water.

I grabbed Kansui and turned back, knowing that Maugrim and the others would be making their return to us, and I ignored everything he was telling me about how he needed to get a restraining order for the pretzel lady who was apparently obsessed with him. I moved around the building to the other side and saw Evelen creeping toward me. She jumped when she saw Kansui and I but moved quicker nonetheless.

"What was that?" I asked, nodding my head toward the water.

"No idea," Evelen admitted, realizing that Kansui was still ranting and not listening to a word we were saying. "He threw it in the water. It was white. It looked like a stick—maybe a whistle."

"Now why would a fish need a whistle?" Kansui asked, proving us both wrong. He had apparently been listening after all. "How odd."

Evelen and I looked to each other and nodded because unfortunately, Kansui was not wrong. It obviously was not a whistle. Maugrim had something going on, but it seemed that our answers had not been found at the harbour. Kansui shrugged and began ranting once more about the pretzel lady as Evelen reached for my hand. I could not feel her hand through my glove but I could imagine it felt warm, and hopefully clean. "You okay?" she asked in barely a whisper.

I looked her but did not answer, thankfully I had been saved by Evelen running directly into someone. When we took a step back we realized it was Bitoru, Maugrim's scientist. He looked to the two of us, and his eyes fell to our hands, where Evelen hastily removed her fingers from their place wrapped with mine. "Hello," Evelen said kindly as the two of us looked over his shoulder for Maugrim or Aesop, but neither of them appeared to be present.

"Does he know you're out?" Bitoru asked, obviously referring to Maugrim.

"Does he need to know everything?" I asked dryly.

"Well," Bitoru said, pursing his lips and looking to me bitterly, "He would like to have an understanding of what his children are up to."

"Well, does he know what _you're_ up to?" I asked, and Bitoru looked to me sharply, apparently shocked that I knew of his connection to Maugrim.

"Well you let him know that we're on our way to get some coffee, when you tell him whatever you're doing, and then he'll know where everyone is." Evelen said with a bright smile, "We'll be sure to not die."

"Coffee can be dangerous though," I pointed out.

"Oh very." Evelen agreed.

Bitoru looked both amused and annoyed and then shrugged his shoulders, pushing past us to walk back to the camp, "I'll let him know." He said. I looked back to him, a smile on my face, but it fell quickly when I saw Momoe staring at me from the opposite end of the last street, standing in the shadows of a tree, her arms crossed. She was watching me, tears in her eyes again, and she was simply angry. And it made me wonder if what I was doing was really worth the risk of losing everything I had left, though the simple fact of Maugrim and Evelen both being up to something was enough to keep me present in the moment instead. She did remind me of the masked man I had seen earlier though... who that had been, I did not know.

I would simply add it to my list of riddles that were in need of solving. But that didn't mean I couldn't do something kind for Momoe too. Reuniting her with Gomamon was the least I could do to show her that I was sorry for her loss. But until I could do that, until I could prove that I was not entirely on either side, I would not be able to find what it was I was looking for. The truth.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Yamato and Kurayami hear the tale of a lifetime, as some special guests tell The Story Of Us.


	18. The Story Of Us

**U/N:** So if this were a television show, there would be a few special guest star actors hired for this, and that's the best way to say that :P We didn't want to overuse these characters, but we needed them to be in it for a bit and this was an interesting way to do it because each of the three middle arcs have a chapter that is primarily told in story format, where someone has a tale to tell, and that is this chapter for this arc. It doesn't have a WHOLE lot to do with the plot for now, but it'll all come back around, I promise you :P

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 18: The Story of Us**

 _ **Yamato Ishida:**_

"Say hello for the people in the back," Jenna said with a proud smile. Her hair was askew and both she and Chi looked ragged, like they'd had a difficult journey. The shy girl with the deep red hair blushed, diverting her gaze to the floor and crossing her arms tighter around herself causing her hair to drape even further over her face. Jenna looked disappointed, "She may not talk much, but she's quick."

"I'll say," Chi said sheepishly, running his hands through his dark mohawk. "She thought we were with the cops or something, I dunno. I mean, we did chase her."

"And caught her," Jenna assured us, "Well, Chi did, and we took her here!"

We were all silent, all hoping for one crucial detail, but neither seemed to understand where the flaw was in their story until Akira spoke up, "You didn't kidnap her, did you?"

"No!" Jenna and Chi insisted, then they both laughed, "We asked her to come," Jenna assured us, "We told her we'd bring her to you, Yamato." Jenna looked to me and smiled, but I didn't understand why this girl would want to see _me_ specifically. As I looked toward her I understood though.

"Because I'm the Digital Man," I said, understanding. The girl nodded. I turned to Momoe and took her by the shoulder, stepping aside for a moment, "Could you take everyone to the kitchen, or something? She seems too shy to speak in front of everyone."

Momoe nodded quickly, "Okay, I'm making dinner and anyone who doesn't show up to help is getting nothing!" Akira and Takashi were the first to make it over the counter and into the kitchen, even before Momoe. Yutaka looked to me and I nodded, so he followed his band mates with Natsuni and Chiziru following close behind.

"Why don't we go somewhere more comfortable?" Katsue asked, trying to accommodate the girl. She turned to me, "Yamato, Jenna and Chi, come with me." Katsue had one hand on The Artist's back, leading her through the hallway, back to the office. She pushed the door open and held it open for everyone to step inside. Chi and Jenna followed The Artist in, but I paused outside the room with Katsue.

"What are we doing?" I asked her quietly.

"Getting answers?" Katsue said as though it were obvious. She seemed to still be energized from whatever dirt she'd dug up on Arnold, and was hoping to collect a few more wins before the day was up. She pushed me inside and closed the door behind herself, taking the rear. The Artist was sitting behind the desk in Mimi's chair, and had closed the laptop, while Jenna and Katsue took the two grey chairs on the side of the door. Chi stood in one corner, his arms crossed looking ridiculously menacing unintentionally, and I stood behind Katsue, resting my weight on the back of her chair. "First," Katsue said, "I'm Katsue, and this is Jenna and Chi."

"I'm Yamato," I told her awkwardly, "I'm the Digital Man."

"He's kind of our super hero," Jenna explained, "See, we do all the work and exploit his fame, while he sits around and takes the credit." The Artist cracked a smile, and Jenna looked triumphant, biting her lip. I could understand being shy, especially in such an intimidating situation, so it was good that she wasn't hating this interrogation on top of that.

"What's your name?" Katsue asked.

"Amai," the girl said quietly. Her voice was airy and nearly whimsical, and somehow it caught me off guard for a second, and then the name snapped into the front of my mind, and when I looked back up at her, I realized that I'd seen her before.

"I know you!" I said suddenly. She looked up to me revealing big brown eyes, "You were on the train, you drew an Angemon—" I froze as Katsue turned around to face me with a raised eyebrow. "Which I now realize makes a lot of sense for you to be The Artist."

"You can call me Amai," Amai said, "I don't like being called the Artist." She seemed to be more comfortable already, but her hands were still folded in her lap and she seemed rigid and nervous, "I'm _an_ artist, but the world is full of them. I'm but one of the soldiers who use art as their tool." Oh, well, I didn't expect her to be like _that_ , that's for sure.

"And I know your partner digimon too," I admitted, "You're missing a pet parrot, aren't you?" Amai looked up to me, her eyes wide with recognition. "My friend Daisuke put up those posters. He found Demidevimon a while back."

"Is he here?" Amai asked, "Is he safe?"

"He's in the Digital World," I admitted, and her face fell. Obviously she knew that the worlds were closed off. It was not only the small group of us that were suffering from this, everyone who had ever come in contact with digimon had been affected in some way or another. "He was with D'arcmon, the last I heard. She would never let harm come of him." I tried to assure her. Sora had explained that the virus struck the Temple first, but that was unimportant information. At least for now.

Amai nodded slowly, "What do you want from me?"

"We don't want anything," Jenna assured her, "We just want to talk."

"Well, I want information," Katsue said, leaning forward to intimidate Amai. "I kind of want to know why you're running around in the dead of the night painting on all of the buildings in Japan?"

"I wanted to," Amai said nervously. This wasn't a shy kind of nervous this time though, it was more of an 'I don't know how much to tell you' kind of thing. Katsue seemed to be thinking along the same lines as I was so she leaned back in her chair, amused.

"Okay," Katsue said, "Fair enough, but _I_ wanted to win the lottery last month, and every other month for that matter, and yet, I didn't."

"Katsue," I tried to reason, but Katsue was the reporter, she seemed to know what she was doing.

"Well," Amai said, gently brushing her hair out of her face, "Did you enter?"

Katsue paused, she hadn't expected someone to call her out on her sarcasm. "No."

"That would be why," Amai said kindly, "I wanted to show the world what I could do. I can paint Angemon, and I _should_ be painting Angemon. It shows them hope." It was interesting that she would use the word hope to describe Angemon. But she certainly wasn't wrong. "Is that bad? Should I be painting a Sukamon instead?"

"No," Katsue said, suppressing a smirk, "No, Angemon will do. We're not here to reprimand you for your art work, we simply want to know more about why it exists."

Amai looked nervous again and looked to Mimi's wall telephone that she insisted on having because she thought she was still in the nineties or something. "I would have to ask my sister if I'm allowed to tell you." Katsue leaned even further into her chair and gestured toward the phone. Amai pushed her own chair back and was dialling a number off the top of her head quickly. It was cool, I couldn't remember any phone numbers myself, I had my cell phone for that. It was interesting to see someone actually memorizing a phone number. She hung up the phone, defeated. "I got her machine."

"What, her answering machine picked up?" I asked.

"No," Amai said, flopping back down into her chair, "Interestingly enough, her leaf blower picked up." My face turned bright red as Katsue laughed at me. I turned away but Amai didn't seem to mean anything by the joke. "I can't tell you anything because I'm not in charge. It's not my place to say anything. I wasn't even supposed to go around painting Angemon. It started as homage to Demidevimon because I wish for him to evolve into an Angemon someday. Then my sister found that it had been me all along, and she brought me to our leader, he thought about it carefully and decided I would be permitted to continue." She shrugged, "I would have anyway."

"Because you're stubborn?" Katsue questioned, trying to get a better read on our new friend.

"No," Amai shook her head, "Because it's getting attention. People are seeing my work and wondering why someone would go though such effort to show their support of digimon to the world. You're not alone in this fight, Digital Man. We're all here standing behind you."

"Who is your leader?" Katsue asked.

"I don't know," Amai admitted, "He always wears a mask. You could all come to an event, I'm sure. The next date has yet to be decided."

Katsue looked over her shoulder to me and I nodded, so when she looked back to Amai she smiled, "We'd love to. Would you come tell us the date and location?"

"Of course," Amai said, nodding with an adorable smile. She seemed to take a liking to Katsue. They both seemed sarcastic, and I guess that was all it took to befriend Katsue. "I'd love for you to come. I've never brought newcomers before. My sister and her friends are always making fun of me for not helping the numbers grow. I know you're all fighting for the same cause already, but if I could bring the Digital Man _and_ The Director—Katsue, was it?—then they'd be sure to give me some credit."

"You like to be noticed an awful lot for someone who seems so shy," Katsue pointed out, standing up and offering Amai a hand to help her to her feet.

"Being shy is an outward interpretation of what goes on _inside_ ," Amai said intelligibly, "In my heart I can be whatever I want to be and I am fierce." Katsue's eyebrows shot up with amusement and Jenna and Chi both laughed, but not in an offensive way. Amai smiled again at being taken so lightly and she released Katsue's hand, standing by the door, "I should go, my sister is probably worried about me. It was really nice to meet you all." Amai turned her sights to Jenna and Chi, "You two are super cool by the way. Thanks for caring enough to keep looking for me, it means a lot." Jenna's mouth opened a little like she wanted to coo at how adorable Amai was. "Mr Digital Man," she bowed her head respectfully, "And of course, The Director. It was an honour to meet you both. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more use just yet." She waved politely and then turned from the room, just like that.

"Okay," Chi said quickly, "She knows our location, we're letting her leave. Is that intelligent? Should we not at least ensure she won't spill our secrets."

"It's fine," Katsue said so sure of herself, "She's The— _an_ artist, she's on our side." Chi seemed to be satisfied with her answer, but still turned to watch Amai walk back past the door having gone the wrong way.

I set off out of the office to follow her and came out into the dining area, where Amai was standing, noticing that I was coming after her. Amai smiled, realizing I was simply walking her to the door and turned, only to trip on a pair of Jenna's comically tall steampunk boots. I caught her arm though and pulled her to her feet. She blushed again and turned her head to avoid eye contact. Over her head I spotted Sora and Mantarou sitting at one of the tables eating... croissants? With candles?

If that wasn't a date, I didn't know what was. A lame date—but it was totally a date. Sora caught my eye and noticed that I was holding Amai's hand and she smiled at me. Was she _actually_ smiling? Was she _actually_ moving on to Miyako's brother? I was so confused! Why did I have to fall for _Sora_!? God! She was so confusing!

"I-I should go," Amai said, releasing my hand and walking to the door.

"Wait," I stopped her, tightening my grip on her hand as it was slipping from mine, "How old are you?"

She looked confused, "I'm twenty-five." She said, like she was asked the question a lot, "Why?"

"I just didn't know if you should be out walking all alone," I said, even to me it sounded lame. And fake. And cheesy. I nearly groaned, but Amai seemed to take it as a gesture of kindness.

"You can come along if you'd like," She suggested. I smiled and moved forward to the coat hooks and grabbed both my black sweater and my leather jacket, throwing them both on, and quickly tossing my hood up over my head. I wasn't technically allowed outside, but it had never stopped me before. A week or so ago I had been spotted by a police officer, but I'd hidden inside a bakery and no one had found me. It had been a close call, but I survived, I was still here. Which meant I could go out again. I knew it was horrible logic, but being cooped up all the time was bound to mess with the general idea of simple planning. "Ready?" Amai asked, and I nodded simply, looking back over my shoulder to ensure no one spotted me. Sora was too caught up in Mantarou's stupid eyes to even look my way, so I pushed the door open and stepped out into the cloudy day. Amai was quick to follow.

It was getting late already, so the sun was setting, not that I could see it anyway, the clouds were too thick, in their attempt to rain. The air was cool, but thick and the streets were , as always, too filled with people for anyone to notice us setting foot out into their midst. We joined the crowd quickly and made sure to keep close to one another. "So you hide in plain sight," Amai said, her face burning red again, "Smart."

"Where do you guys hide?" I tried to make conversation.

"Nice try," Amai said, shaking her finger, "Nope, can't tell you!" She skipped on ahead, so I quickened my pace to catch up. On the way to the train station we passed one of Amai's 'Dark Angels' and she snickered when I pointed it out and began to talk about how 'Dark' couldn't be further from the truth.

I decided it would be a mistake to set foot inside the train station because it was so highly populated and there were cameras and guards, but I walked Amai all the way to the gates where I stopped and bid her farewell. It had been this very train station that we'd met. She thanked me for walking her back and then was gone.

I figured I shouldn't stay out too long, so I started to make my way back, taking a different route, just in case someone had seen me before and was waiting for me to return.

And then I found a big billboard sign with my face on it. _'Public Enemy: If found, please call your local police'_ was written next to my face. It wasn't even a particularly good picture of me, but it was interesting to know that not only was I being hunted but they had also made up giant billboards to support my cause. That wasn't their intention, but that's what they were doing. They were just reminding everyone who I was and what I wanted. It may have intimidated them, but they weren't the ones that had to make everyone hate them, all they had to do was illuminate hate itself from their daily routines. They could do that without being sent to prison. And judging by what Amai had said, it seemed that many people were doing just that.

I was still looking up to the billboard of my face when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I tensed up and considered running immediately, but instead I slowly turned my head to look over my shoulder. I caught sight of a man with long dark hair, and he certainly didn't look like he wanted to beat me up or turn me in to the authorities. Slowly, I turned around.

 _ **Kurayami Motomiya:**_

Three days.

That's how long I'd been back in the Coliseum. It had been three days since I'd been reunited with Labramon, and Haruki, Daisuke and Veemon. They all seemed curious, wanting to know why I'd stayed away, but understood well enough that I wasn't ready to talk about it yet. If ever. I needed to get over what this was, and it was starting to feel an awful lot like a full on depression. But they helped. They really did, and their curiosity seemed to always be overshadowed with a happiness, knowing that I was okay, and back. They made me promise not to leave them at least twice a day so far, but I didn't plan to. Devimon had been right. There was a better chance to find happiness here, with the people I loved, than with the random infants back in the Primary Village.

My dad had been pleased to see me too. Jun told me that he'd been spending most of his days staring toward a blank wall. When I found him three days ago he hadn't said a single word, simply cried, hugging me, his arms tight around me.

It seemed that he wasn't the only one who had found comfort in the brick walls. Iori's mother was still out there somewhere, not making a sound, no matter how often Meiyomon tried to convince her to speak, she couldn't manage to say anything more than simple answers to mundane questions. I felt horrible for her. I had fled in a depressed state when the mere idea of losing my child was brought to question, but here she was, unsure if Iori would ever come back to her.

The other parents seemed to be doing better than she was, which was strange because she actually had confirmation that Iori had a key, and likely used it, whereas most of the parents had no clue what had happened to their children. Well, perhaps not most. Natsuko Takaishi spent her days busying herself, trying to remove her sons from her mind as her boyfriend Yuudai comforted her, knowing her pain well enough to understand what she wanted. Kae and Kazuya Ichijouji were handling the mystery of their son in different ways, both trying to cope, but Kae seemed more successful. After losing one son and growing from that experience, it would not hurt any less, but understanding how to move on might be made easier. Kazuya though, he was a wreck. And Mary, Willis' mother was hiding her sorrow in an attempt to keep Terriermon optimistic. It hadn't been working.

Either way, Fumiko was broken, and I wanted to help any way that I could. Apparently it was no use, I'd been told time and time again to not bother. Everyone else had already taken a crack at her, but she would not budge from her place of sadness.

That meant I would keep our conversations private, just to be on the safe side.

A couple of hours ago I had brought her a glass of warm milk, unsure what she might desire, and she took it from me, not even acknowledging my presence.

" _You know," I had said, "I know what it's like to lose someone you love." She didn't reply, or even bat an eye. "I lost my mom. Twice. And my brother. I never met him while he was alive, but I knew him after... he's gone now. He's watching over us I imagine. I lost my sanity, and myself along with it, and all of the friends I had made in the past. My grandfather is now dead, and my father is distant. Even now, I've lost the people who had put faith in me once to not be dark. I don't know if their faith was worth it, but I am grateful. I have lost so many, including your son." This caused her to look up to me._

 _Meiyomon, who was sitting on Fumiko's other side gasped a little when she did and he looked excited, his big round eyes looked to me and then back to Fumiko. "Iori?" she questioned, her voice weak._

" _Exactly," I nodded. "He helped me a lot in school. If it weren't for him I'd never have graduated. Did you know he put up a fight with the school board to get them to accept me back into classes with my own age group?" Fumiko's head slowly shook. Of course she didn't know, Iori had promised to keep it a secret, "he's a good guy. He helped me study, and I'm not ashamed to admit, I copied off of his history exam." Meiyomon grinned at me in a sly way as though he thought I was pretty cool for cheating, but that wasn't the point of the story. "I don't know exactly what you're going through. Losing a child must be difficult. But my dad knows... he lost a son a long time ago. He recently lost his father,_ and _his wife. He knows what it means to lose what you have lost." Fumiko looked down to the glass of milk in her hand and wrapped all of her fingers together, holding it tightly. "You should talk to him."_

 _I stood up then, leaving her to her sorrow, but Meiyomon had followed me. "You're good at that," he decided, "you know what you should do? Help me find my siblings."_

Apparently Meiyomon was missing the crest digimon, or some of them at least. I did not have a particularly close relationship with any of the crest digimon as there was no entity made by the power of my crest, but I didn't mind. I would do what I could to help him anyway.

In whatever spare time I had, of course.

I knew it could potentially be dangerous to spend time alone after all of those weeks in Primary Village, but I was an introvert, which basically meant I needed to be alone to feel like I could continue my day normally. Or at least left alone, since there was nowhere to really _be_ alone in the Coliseum. Daisuke, Veemon and Labramon seemed to understand better than anyone that I wanted to be alone. They knew it didn't mean that I was running off again, or that I needed to escape their presence due to any level of dislike. They knew me.

Jun seemed worried that I'd slip away again and whenever she saw me she offered to help me, or invited me to whichever room it was that she was on her way to. She never pestered me after I'd said 'no' though, so that much I didn't mind. Taichi simply wanted answers, unsure if I was giving him my entire recap of events the way they had panned out. He was right. I wasn't. I was leaving out much of my depression, but I had told him the general story.

" _Kura," Taichi had said, sitting down next to me up in the stands of the arena. I had been feeding Haruki with Labramon laying by my side when he'd shown up. "How are you?"_

" _I'm fine," I told him, "though I've been better." I had been staring up at the rain pounding down on the barrier, through the virus as though it were attempting to send water in with its deathly toxicity to trick us into dying. But the barrier was too strong and sound. "I'll_ be _fine," I amended my previous response._

" _Okay," Taichi said, thinking, "Well, can you tell me what happened?"_

" _When, sorry?" I asked._

" _How did you get to Primary Village?" Taichi asked slowly, "was there anyone else?_ Why _did you go there?"_

" _I didn't know the virus was coming so soon," I admitted. "I ran because I wanted to get away. I was scared."_

" _If you didn't know the virus was coming, then what were you afraid of?" Taichi asked._

 _I answered before I remembered that wasn't something I was going to share. "Myself." Taichi seemed to understand that I didn't want to talk about that any further. "Takeru, Ken and Miyako were together the last I'd seen them." I told him, "Hawkmon said Iori used his key, probably."_

" _Miyako?" Taichi asked, relief sounding in his voice for some reason, "You found her?" I nodded. "Do you know where the others went?" Taichi asked._

" _No," I shook my head._

" _Why did you, Ken and Takeru run from the Coliseum?" Taichi asked, "To find Miyako?"_

" _Partially," I admitted, "and partly to save her..."_

" _From the virus?" Taichi asked._

" _No," I said, I had already told him I didn't know about the virus. "From Moretsuna. We thought he was after her, so Takeru ran out to save her and came across Ken along the way. I went out and spoke with Norn, but that's all I really know."_

" _Norn?" Taichi asked, "Do you think you could ask her for some help? Maybe we could use her world to escape the Coliseum?"_

 _I shook my head and looked to Haruki, "She won't respond. I don't know what happened to her."_

 _Taichi seemed upset by this answer, but seemed to realize he wasn't getting anywhere with the questions, so he sighed, "I'm glad you're okay," he decided finally, getting to his feet. He turned to leave but stopped, "Was it him?" He asked, "Was Miyako in trouble?"_

" _Yes..." I admitted._

" _What happened to Moretsuna?" Taichi asked._

" _He died."_

And that was the end of the conversation. There was real reason to continue, and no particular importance in telling him any more of the details of Moretsuna's demise. It was enough, knowing that he was dead, he could not hurt anyone else, and whatever planning Taichi and Daisuke needed to do would not require any further detailing.

Daisuke understood that I needed to be alone, and he also spent much of his time detached from the rest of the people in the Coliseum, trying to come up with a plan. He seemed, from what he told me during the night when we shut ourselves away in our rooms, to have one plan in mind, and that was Spring. He had more faith in her than she had in herself, and otherwise, there had to be a way that the DWD had been travelling between worlds. Perhaps if we found their base we could find some way back out. Speaking with Daisuke at night was exactly what I needed, to just be slowly woven back into normal life, even if that normal life was in a haunted Coliseum.

It was my father, really, that was the issue. He would not let me be for any length of time, and I did not want to push him away, but often felt it would do me some good to do just that. I knew he would not be okay with that though, since he'd been so messed up during my absence.

But now I had found a place to hide, with Jou. It was weird because the only times we'd really spent time with one another was in terms of Jun's wedding, and to talk about our children. Even now that's what he was speaking of, whenever he bothered to speak at least. It was nice to sit in silence, even if it were the creepiest place I'd been in a long while. Something about Sigma's office was like it was meant to be horrifying, but compared to everything I'd seen it was just... normal.

Even if there were pictures in the corner all piled up that depicted my friends in horrible ways. Jou had torn up many pages featuring Miyako as the focal point, but apparently Taichi had told him to simply cover them up. He didn't want to mess around with anything in here. We did not know anything about the fairy kind, or their world.

There were basic rules for this room though, and that was that Spring, Mari and Tapirmon were to keep out, but no one was to _tell_ them that, just simply ensure they never came or heard about the room.

"Emiko wants to get to Momoe," Jou said, seemingly more to himself than to me, "I can't find a way home. I'm trying."

"I know," I told him, "I'm sorry you're going through that. I'm sure Momoe misses you too."

"If she could be here she would," Jou agreed. I hummed a quick response, turning from him and he cleared his throat, "I-I didn't mean that as a jab at you! I'm sorry, I just meant—"

"It's okay, Jou," I said nodding, "Let's keep looking for a way out of here." I didn't know how these people had been here so long with only occasional visits to other places. It was restricting and frustrating to me, only being here a couple of days, so it must have been so much worse for the others. And for Haruki, who I was having a hard time spending time with. I wanted to be alone, but not with Haruki, because I did not want to hurt him, or to let him down. I was scared he would hate me.

He could not hate me.

"Kura?"

I nearly groaned. It was my father's voice. He was calling, his voice echoing slightly down the empty hallways of the dark wing. I had assumed he would be too afraid to look for me within the darkness, using his insecurities against him in a horribly selfish way, but I had been wrong. Jou looked up to me, almost apologetically, like he knew what I was feeling, and I turned, letting him be at peace as I made my way toward my father who was still calling out to me. His face lit up when he found me and he then sighed, "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I think Haruki misses you," Dad said, reaching out to touch my arm, I guess just to make sure I was really there. "He won't stop crying. We can't find Daisuke, and Labramon is having a panic attack." I nodded, stepping around my father and moving quickly to find Haruki. I could help. I could try anyway. I wondered if he was crying because he knew the darkness was dominating.

When I found him, it wasn't because of his crying, because it seemed he had calmed down in all aspects as he stayed calm in a woman's arms. It was Mimi's friend, Izumi. She was sitting with Tomoki, her friend that she'd brought with her to the Coliseum. "Hi, Baby," Izumi cooed, moving her head forward and grinning at my son. "Hey! What's up? I'm glad you stopped crying!"

Tomoki looked up and spotted me, elbowing Izumi, "Want your son?" He asked. I shook my head, smiling gently to Izumi, watching her take care of him.

"I want a baby," Izumi laughed nervously, glancing up at me. "I really do."

"Why don't you tell him a story?" I suggested, sitting in a chair nearby. "He loves when people talk to him, and Natsuko's not around." A few digimon were already interested, hearing the word 'story', gathering around to listen.

"Oh, I don't know," Izumi sighed, "I don't know what to tell!"

"Tell him our adventures," Tomoki grinned, leaning in further. He was resting on his knees next to Izumi to get a closer look of Haruki. "I'm sure he'll hear about his parents a lot, but we came first!" He looked to me and winked, "He'll need to know the background stories first."

"I guess I could," Izumi said, unsure, but more and more digimon were already preparing for a story and it seemed Izumi wasn't going to get out of this one, not this time. Her face turned red when she noticed all of her attention and she laughed, "Oh alright. Okay..." She repositioned herself and propped Haruki up so he was sitting in her lap weakly.

"Go on," Tomoki urged her on.

"Okay," She said with a nod, "So I received this message..."

 _ **Yamato Ishida:**_

"Yamato!" Natsuni hissed the moment I stepped through the door. She was the nearest to me, and she had caused everyone to catch sight of me. It seemed they were all eating dinner, or at least preparing for it. Momoe's meal was prepared and most of the others were seated around the tables now, Sora and Mantarou were still in the center of the room, sharing a small table with one another, but their candles were gone now. "Where have you _been_?"

I caught sight of Katsue raising her eyebrows in a disapproving way. Akira, Takashi and Yutaka all seemed uninterested, which I was pleased with. Why was it anyone else's business what I did with my body? I just wanted to go outside and see the world every now and then. They didn't understand because they weren't stuck in here. In fact, each and every one of them—aside from Sora—had been out _today_. Why wasn't I granted the same luxury?

"I walked Amai to the train station." I admitted. And then the door was being opened again. "And I brought these guys to visit."

"What?" Sora said, shocked, jumping to her feet as four strange men made their way into the dining room. "Yamato!" She gasped and grabbed my arm, pulling me aside, "You can't just bring random strangers into our—" she looked toward them, "—back-up base that we hardly ever use."

I laughed at her pathetic attempt at lying, and shook my head, "It's okay, Sora."

"Oh is it?" She asked skeptically. "We've already shown one person where we are today, if people showed up we would know who it was we couldn't trust. Now you've just brought more people along. Strangers, I might add." She turned to them, "Who are you?"

"We're on your side," the leader of the group assured her. He was wearing a worn baseball cap over his short, but messy brown hair. "I promise, we're not here to betray you."

"Yeah," the larger man said, his hands shoved into his blue windbreaker, "We just thought we saw Yamato Ishida, hiding tremendously well in front of a giant picture of his own face." Sora looked to me, not amused, one eyebrow raised and I smiled sheepishly. "We just wanted a chance to meet with his team. We want to know what's going on."

"We're on the digimon's team," the boy with the long dark hair assured us all. He had a striped bandana folded up and wrapped around his neck like a collar of sorts. The last man seemed to be the quietest of the lot and had actually yet to say a thing, but looked identical to the dark haired boy, like they were twins. "Really, we are."

Sora looked to the others, and got only a single thumb in the air from Mantarou as assistance. She nervously turned back to the newcomers, "Then prove it," she said, not sounding as confident as her stance would imply she felt.

The men looked to one another and shrugged, then the leader stepped forward, "Well, we're the original Digidestined," he said with a grin. Sora and I turned to one another, shocked. I hadn't known _that_ when I'd invited them to the restaurant, that's for sure. I was just pleased to find more people who were on our side. We could use more help, but this hadn't been what I was expecting at all. "Four of them anyway," he added.

Sora took a step forward and eyed each of them up individually. They all appeared to be around the right age. Somewhere in their mid-thirties, that's what we'd always been told and they matched up with Izumi's age too. They seemed mildly familiar with their surroundings, and Izumi worked here so that made sense too. But we'd never met them before, so how could we be sure they _were_ who they said they were. "Prove _that_ ," Sora dared.

"Okay," The leader said, "Well I'm Takuya Kanbara," he said awkwardly.

"And I'm Junpei Shibayama," the larger of the four said with a wide grin.

The long haired dark one spoke up then, "I'm Kouji Minamoto, and this is my twin-brother Koichi Kimura." He gestured to the quiet one wearing green.

"That's all well and good," Sora said, nodding, "But I didn't ask your names. I want you to tell me the story of the original Digidestined. My father's partner journeyed with them in his younger days, I know the story well. I'll know if you're lying."

The four boys looked to each other each of them shared the same expression that clearly read 'Ugh, we didn't sign up for this,' but the leader eventually grabbed a nearby chair and pulled it toward him where he straddled it and sighed, leaning forward into his crossed arms that rested on the back of the chair. "Where to start?" he sighed.

"Try the _start_ , eh Takie?" Junpei joked, only to receive an elbow in the gut by Kouji.

"Okay," Takuya said, his grin fading, "so we were summoned up by Ophanimon, one of the three holy digimon that originally protected the land—"

"As usual you're wrong," Kouji interrupted, " _Originally_ it had been the ten spirits in their corporeal forms that protected the world of total darkness. Then, when the world was created under their rule by that Gennai fellow, they each took a place in the world to watch over. That was when Ophanimon, Seraphimon and Cherubimon took control. They were joined by Lucemon who turned corrupt. The ten spirits used their energy to banish him and conceal him in a prison, but used all of their energy and thus were forced to find a place to hide and recharge. They left Ophanimon and the others in cha—"

"Hey now!" Takuya barked, "You're telling the whole story!" Kouji threw his hands up in defense and took a step back to allow Takuya his chance to continue. So far Sora seemed to find that their story held enough ground to be considered accurate as she hadn't interrupted. Katsue, Natsuni and the others were all listening as well, though most of them were helping themselves to Momoe's newly cooked dinner. "Okay, so a bunch of kids were chosen, and I guess we were just the best because we were the ones that found all of the spirits, or at least six of them. The other four had formed beings of their own, following Koichi's advice and waking before their energy had fully returned to try and pull one over on the other spirits. Koichi was evil," Takuya cupped his hands and whispered the last bit.

"Well there you have it," Natsuni joked, "They had one evil guy, they _must_ be Digidestined." Sora and I both shot her an annoyed look and she smiled awkwardly before sitting down again.

"Well, yeah," Takuya said awkwardly, "Anyway, it turned out that Lucemon was a jerk and wasn't actually as well concealed as the spirits thought he was. He had minions roaming the world, absorbing the fractal code and keeping it for themselves. Lucemon wanted to get to the real world too, and he even destroyed the Digital World's moons. We stopped him though."

"And once we had a burger making contest?" Junpei added, "I seem to recall."

"We did a lot of random things along the way," Takuya admitted.

"At that point the world was mostly destroyed," Junpei explained with a shrug, "We had to leave so it could rebuild itself."

"I know how that feels," I muttered, remembering when Gennai forced us to leave so the world had enough time to rebuild itself. "Where are your partners?"

"Don't have 'em," Junpei said proudly, "We embraced the powers of the spirits and _became_ digimon."

"Is that an option?" Akira asked from the dining room.

"Not anymore," Kouji admitted. "When we defeated Lucemon it had been the last time we'd seen the spirits at all."

Something didn't add up though, "That doesn't sound like the story Gennai told us though," I admitted, confused.

"It probably isn't," Koichi said, speaking up for the first time. "We may not have seen the spirits again, but we certainly didn't stay away from the Digital World forever."

 _ **Kurayami Motomiya:**_

"When we went back to the Digital World everything was different!" Izumi said dramatically, engaging with her audience as much as she could, "It was much more like how it is today, but not the _same_ because the world had to go through one more major change to get to where we are today." The digimon around Izumi had multiplied by three at least during her story. They were all excited and fascinated by what she was telling them. It wasn't very often they heard stories from before Milleniummon's defeat where time resumed to normal speed.

"We wanted to find our spirits," Tomoki admitted, "We didn't know where to look, or why we had been called back to the Digital World, but we knew that if we didn't find them we wouldn't be much help."

"But we couldn't find them," Izumi continued without missing a beat. She looked toward Taichi and waved her hands around, careful to not disturb Haruki who was still in her arms. Taichi, Mari and Jou had joined early on in the story, having heard Izumi's loud voice, but it hadn't been until just recently that Daisuke had sat at my side on the arm of my chair. His hand was linked with mine as we listened, and my head was rested on his arm. "Instead, we found only trouble in every city we came to. If we were meant to only see trouble, then why had we been summoned once more?"

"We did what we could," Tomoki explained, "We helped the digimon, and they all thanked us and claimed that they owed us something, but we assured them it wasn't so. Even Junpei who, maybe during our first adventure would have assumed that he could take advantage of their offers. We had grown so much between our two trips. It had been two full years. I was ten then, and I thought I was wise and mature, but really I still laughed whenever someone said 'fart'." Emiko and Masa roared with laughter heard above all of the laughter from the digimon. Even Daisuke snorted into his water bottle. "But even then I knew that we had to help these poor, defenceless digimon."

"We had to face against four strong ultimate digimon," Izumi explained, "but without any help from digimon, and without any help from our spirits. We didn't win and actually faced a lot of trouble. Junpei had been taken and captured by a Cherrymon and Takuya, Kouji and Koichi were too busy hunting down someone named 'Gennai' because Bokomon assured us that he would know what was going on. The other boys didn't have a clue that Junpei was taken, so Tomoki and I had to go get him. We almost _died_!" Many gasps could be heard throughout the crowd.

"Did you?" A small Pagumon asked timidly, "Did you _die_?"

"We did not," Tomoki assured him, "We got out, and managed to trap the Cherrymon in his own forest prison. We knew it wouldn't hold him forever, but we all escaped anyway. Junpei was pretty upset though."

Izumi laughed, "Being saved by the two of us." She turned to the crowd, "He fancied himself a big hero." A few of the digimon laughed again, "Anyway, so we met up with Kouji and Koichi again, but guess who went and got himself _blown_ up?" There were more gasps here, "Takuya. We thought he was dead! We didn't know what to do without our leader, but Kouji assured us that they had taken care of MetalTyrannomon. He had found his fate in an ocean near where we had left the boys."

"Without Takuya," Tomoki jumped in, "We knew we would need to find Gennai. We did, find him that is, but it wasn't before a Phantomon tried to do away with us! We escaped him, but he was too tricky for us to capture like we had Cherrymon."

"We couldn't use any advantages against him either," Izumi explained, "He was a ghost." Masa shrieked in fright a little. Izumi took note of this and skimmed over Phantomon's attack. "As it turns out, after we escaped, we found that Takuya was in fact alive, and had been taken into the water with MetalTyrannomon and saved by a mysterious and attractive man!"

"It was Gennai," Tomoki said, eyeing up Izumi for her description of Gennai. "Gennai had ensured that MegaSeadramon would stay out of our way, at least for the time being, and he finally explained to us all the reason he had called upon us. There was a great evil brewing, being crafted by the negativity of the evil digimon who we had been facing, and the data of the digimon they destroyed."

"But how could we fight without our spirits?" Izumi asked dramatically. "We would have to learn to. For we had none."

"They had been reborn," Tomoki explained. "No longer were they simple spirits, but they in fact had begun forming actual eggs, each of them was growing stronger, nearing a time where they might be ready to hatch and live lives on their own. But that meant we were on our own."

"Or so we thought," Izumi explained. "Those digimon we had helped earlier were quick to help us on our journey, and we learned lot's about ourselves. Takuya learned to not put the entire burden on himself and stop considering himself to be a big hotshot. Kouji learned that it was not only okay to show his emotions, but actually beneficial to his survival, and helped him keep a closer bond with those around him. Junpei learned that true strength could only be measured by your heart, and Koichi learned that keeping secrets about the darkness could only lead to more heartache."

She _had_ to have known she had stabbed me right in the heart. She was speaking directly with me. She had to be. There was no other alternative... was there? Was I not alone in feeling the way that I did?

"I learned to stand up for what I believe in," Tomoki explained, "Even if it made me look like a fool, it was all I could do to fight for what I saw as right."

"And of course I learned to put some faith in others," Izumi explained, "and that when others believed in me it didn't mean I was not allowed to fail, because they would forgive me if I had." She sighed, remembering something very specific it seemed, "And anyway!" She shouted, jumping back to the story, "What we had secretly been learning with the help of these digimon, was that the attributes that made up our hearts, were not only within ourselves, but within every living being."

"Gennai explained to us that there were specific, abstract forces that strung all of the worlds together," Tomoki explained, "And they had found a home in our hearts, trusting us to use them for good, to stop the evil that was brewing out of pure negativity."

"And so we put forth our energy," Izumi said, "And the once omnipresent forces were now tangible, and understandable. We had not created these crests, but merely gave them a form."

"Koichi created Kindness, Honesty and Darkness," Tomoki said, looking toward me with a smile, "The traits that mark the path to the light."

"Junpei made the Strength, Trust and Pride crests, obviously," Izumi rolled her eyes at the creation's of Junpei's heart, "The attributes perceived by the holder."

"Kouji got Light, Friendship and Desire," Tomoki said next, "The symbols of a triumph over darkness."

"I made up Forgiveness," Izumi said, "And Knowledge and Faith."

"That's my dad's," Emiko pointed out helpfully, getting into the excitement of the story that was really coming to a close at this point it seemed.

"That's right," Izumi nodded, "Those traits were the properties natural to the mind. Though there was nothing natural about my insane hat!" More laughter.

"My traits were Purity, Honour and Tenacity," Tomoki looked over to Mari who looked embarrassed to be being called out, "The aspects to show the conquest of the heart. Which leads us to love, which was a common trait known by all. The crest of love formed itself because of the bonds our team possessed and those traits, all together, sealed that negativity away."

"But not for long," Jou pointed out, "Since it escaped and became Apocalymon." Oh. How had I not guessed that? It made sense. The story that these Digidestined were telling was not only real, but directly connected to the stories that I'd heard from my friends for years. And directly connected to my _own_ story. Apocalymon was then defeated, and reborn by Fanglongmon in the form of his negativity, Mephistomon. With the help of me he managed to evolve once more and we attempted to destroy the Digidestined again. We lost, thankfully. That was back when I was able to use the darkness inside of me to its full potential without falling prey to its control.

"Then what happened?" Emiko asked.

"Well," Taichi decided, sounding like he was guessing more than anything else, "MetalTyrannomon, Cherrymon, MegaSeadramon and Phantomon digivolved into the Dark Masters, and sought out the crests, but Gennai was smart and hid them, but knowing that these enemies were too powerful now he set out in search of children who would be able to use the crests to channel them into power for digimon to use to grow."

"He picked you," Agumon added helpfully.

"He did," Taichi grinned, "And the others too. Then we beat the crap out of Apocalymon. Twice."

"After he broke our handcrafted crests," Izumi said with mock annoyance.

"You said yourself that they never really mattered," Jou said, "They were in your hearts all along. Just like we learned too." And that was where the silence kicked in. Izumi hopped to her feet and handed Haruki to Daisuke who held him close and thanked her.

Izumi turned to all the children and clapped her hands together, "Bedtime!"

She was met with a groan.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Jun and Taichi are busy trying to find A Place in This World.


	19. A Place In This World

**Y/N:** This is one of the few chapters that I had to write on my own. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I got to explore a little bit more of the Digital World this time around, which was nice. The other worlds are fun, but Earth and The Digital World don't get a lot of exploration, since the Digidestined are too busy dealing with the main plot. Being trapped really helped develop and visit more of the world, so that's been a great experience.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 19: A Place in This World**

 _ **Jun Motomiya:**_

"You sure you're okay with all of that?" Yoshie asked ExVeemon anxiously. He was pulling a wooden wagon behind him. It had brought several digimon to the Coliseum, along with plenty of precious Temple documents and the digimentals and a bunch of other stuff I couldn't identify because I wasn't really in the loop. It had just been taking up space at the Coliseum until now. During the last excursion that Mari and Daisuke had made to ShogunGekomon's palace, it was discovered that their food supply was diminishing alarmingly quickly.

They weren't gorging themselves every night or anything—even the extravagant king, ShogunGekomon, knew things were serious and wasn't taking more than his share. There were simply just too many mouths to feed. They hadn't had any warning that the virus was coming really. When Koushiro and whoever else had put up the barrier they'd gotten an inkling and started foraging accordingly, but the virus hit earlier than they were expecting. Not every one of their foraging force had been able to make it back in time. They'd lost nine total: four Gekomon and five Otamamon.

It made my heart ache to think about it.

The point was, they didn't gather enough, and were running low. Daisuke had brought it to Yoshie's attention, asking if there was anything we could spare, despite the thousands of mouths we needed to feed. Yoshie, the absolute dear that she was, had quickly gathered provisions. She'd baked twenty dozen cookies, and nine dozen loaves of bread. She'd also made a couple hundred buns, and carted out large bags of rice, and a ton of pasta. She tossed in several baskets of garden produce for good measure, as well as a bunch of the preserved she'd made with the fruits that Alias III had stolen— _liberated_ —from the grocery stores. There'd been far too much of it, and something needed to be done before they could go bad. There was probably more in the cart. Yoshie had a big heart, but I knew she'd also sent most of what she _could_ send without it negatively affecting the Coliseum. We still had plenty, but again, there were literally _thousands_ of mouths being fed every day. I only ate two meals as it was, trying to do my part to ensure the food stretched as far as it could. I knew a lot of others were doing the same.

We didn't know how long we'd need it.

Of course, as soon as they learned where the food was going, Otamamon and Gekomon volunteered their services. I couldn't bring myself to crush their spirit by saying they wouldn't actually be any help, so I agreed to let them come, so long as they stayed in the cart the entire time. I felt a bit guilty for making ExVeemon carry even more weight, but I also couldn't risk losing them in the fog that was the virus. I was clinging to Shuu so that I couldn't get lost—and I _knew_ both he and Yoshie were holding on to the sides of the cart, letting ExVeemon guide us in the right direction.

The only one braving the virus without any sort of guide was Meiyomon. He'd been antsy since the siege had started, and was driving everyone up the wall. He needed to get out and do his part, and since the digidestined were busy, we decided he could come with us on our little excursion.

"I'm fine," ExVeemon assured Yoshie. I knew he'd say that. He was a big, tough Knight. He wasn't about to admit that a cart was heavy. I couldn't tell if he was actually having trouble or not. He was pretty good about masking that sort of thing—and his voice was naturally sort of gruff, so that didn't give anything away either.

"This is fun," Meiyomon said with a giggle.

"It's also serious," ExVeemon reminded him. "And it's dangerous."

"I know," Meiyomon said, sounding suddenly much older. "I know just how serious this is. I'm not _actually_ a child. I know I act that way, but it's just for Fumiko's sake. She likes having a kid around to take care of, and I like attention, so it works out for both of us. I don't know why I'm still keeping it up. Too much is going on now, and Fumiko doesn't even acknowledge my efforts."

"She's going through a bit of a rough patch," Yoshie conceded. "But she'll pull through. I have faith in her. She'll be fine."

"I'm glad someone believes in her," Meiyomon said with a sigh. "I can't do it anymore. She's supposed to be my partner, and my mother—and _Iori's_ mother. But she's not acting like it. She's grieving the loss of Hiroaki, and he's still alive. She doesn't think about Iori all that much."

"I don't believe that," Yoshie said firmly. "He's her son. She loves him."

"I don't doubt that," Meiyomon assured her. "She's got so much love in her. But she needs consistency, and Iori doesn't actually provide any, does he? He's gone and got himself trapped in a different world after bringing _her_ into this one, separating her from her husband. It's all a lot to take in. I was patient at first, but it's been _two months_. I can't be patient forever."

"Two months isn't forever," Otamamon informed him bossily. I stifled a grin. He was such a sweet, innocent—if slightly annoying—digimon.

"I am aware, yes," Meiyomon said. I could hear him rolling his eyes, even though I couldn't see it happen. He had his back to me, since he was walking ahead of us, and I only _knew_ that because I could hear his voice coming from that direction. He was just a sort of blurry shadow through the thick haze of the virus.

"So maybe she needs more time," Gekomon suggested softly. "It took me a real long time to get better after my partner left me."

"I know," Meiyomon sighed. "But it's different. Your partner was a horrible person. He wasn't fit to have a partner as awesome as you. He's a disgrace to humankind. Fumiko didn't go through what you went through."

"He's right though," I pointed out. "People deal with things differently. Just because everyone else is okay after two months doesn't mean _everyone_ has to be. I've known cases where it takes a person ten or more years to move on from losing someone, and even then they may never fully recover. I've seen the flipside too. A person could move on after only a couple of weeks. It's a case by case sort of thing. Fumiko has had a lot of bad stuff thrown her way in life. This may just be her breaking point."

"Fumiko's constantly reaching her breaking point," Meiyomon said bitterly. "I love her. I do. I just wish maybe she'd act like herself, even a little bit. I'm worried about too many people. I _know_ she's okay, and Hiroaki too. I shouldn't have to dedicate large portions of my day just to convince her to eat something. I have siblings to worry about you know. I'm the oldest of us now, since all of the others died when they faced the digidestined—and in some cases, the sovereign. I didn't. That means it's my job to take care of them. But I don't know where some of them are. I'm failing them, and I can't fix it, because I'm too busy with her."

"So leave her alone," Otamamon suggested, as if it was the easiest answer. And in a way, it was.

"I can't," Meiyomon cried. "She needs me."

"She's kind of broken," Shuu said bluntly, wincing as he did so. "But it's not the type of broken that you can fix by gluing the pieces together. What she's going through is something she's going to have to work through on her own. You can't force it. Using force might just make it worse."

"She's my partner," Meiyomon said, his voice wobbling. "She's _Mom_. I need her to be better."

"Sometimes there's no easy fix," Yoshie said sadly. "We may just have to wait for Iori or Hiroaki to come back before she makes any progress."

"Then I'm failing her too, just like my siblings," Meiyomon said. "Where's the honour in that?"

"You're doing the best you can," ExVeemon told him. "That is honourable in itself."

Meiyomon didn't answer, and the conversation was dropped. Otamamon started up a seemingly endless stream of nonsense after a few minutes when he decided he was afraid of the silence. I agreed with him. It made the virus even more eerie. Eventually, he ran out of babble, and started singing a song about ninety-nine bottles on a wall. We all groaned, knowing we'd be hearing it until he'd sung his way through all ninety-nine of those verses.

And he did it too.

He'd finished his final bottle _just_ before ExVeemon announced that we were coming up to the barrier surrounding the palace. Otamamon was a little upset that he didn't have time to sing any other songs, but I was pretty sure everyone else was relieved that we wouldn't have to hear his tone-deaf rendition of Old MacDonald, BINGO, or Wheels on the Bus, no matter how _classic_ he claimed they were.

I was very happy when we stepped through the barrier, and released tension from my shoulders I hadn't realized I'd been carrying. My grip on Shuu's hand loosened, and I took in the look of the palace ahead of us. It was beautiful, made entirely of light grey stone that seemed to shimmer. There was swampy water stretching in a ring around it, instead of a typical moat, and there was an incredibly large, silver bridge designed with swirls. We crossed over it without delay, heading towards the enormous front gate of the palace. It was made of wood, stained a deep brown colour, and held on with decorated silver hinges—also designed with swirls.

We didn't get a chance to knock on the gate, however, as there was a loud collection of battle cries as a squadron of Gekomons warmed us. They were definitely the palace guards. The pointed sticks they were pointing our direction was a dead giveaway. They poked and prodded us, demanding we accompany them to the throne room. Since that's where we wanted to be anyway, we went along with their little plan, letting them think that they were scary guards. They were small digimon, and I figured they could use the ego boost.

I thought the outside of the palace was beautiful, but the interior was even better. There were large pillars made of the same shining stone, and the throne was the same silver as the bridge and the hinges, complete with swirls. It was up on a platform, making the bright orange king seated in it look even bigger. Several Otamamon were holding big fern leaves as they fanned the king. The floors glowed in the light of the crystal chandeliers that hung from the ceiling, and the walls were very tasteful, decorated only with the occasional suit of armor—that wouldn't fit any of the digimon that lived here.

"Leave your possessions, and vacate my territory," ShogunGekomon demanded with an impressive bellow. He looked powerful in his throne. I would have been terrified if he wasn't a frog.

"Excuse me?" I asked, since I wasn't scared of him in the slightest.

"You are not the digidestined," ShogunGekomon said. "Therefore, you are fair game. You will leave your spoils, and get out of my kingdom at once."

"My brother Daisuke, is the digidestined of humility," I told him, crossing my arms. "And Shuu's brother is Jou, the digidestined of faith."

"My brother is the digidestined of forgiveness," Meiyomon offered. "And I'm the digimon on honour."

"My son represents knowledge," Yoshie said proudly.

"Yes, well," ShogunGekomon said nonchalantly. "Then they can take it up with me if they aren't happy. You will do as I say. You are in my domain." We said nothing, and made no signs of movement. "Fair enough. Guards, escort them to the dungeons. They can stay there with the others."

Well, this was _not_ how I saw this trip going.

"We're not going anywhere!" Meiyomon shouted, holding his hands up and exploding the air right in front of ShogunGekomon's face. He yelled in surprise, and his guards—little Gekomons that they were—dropped their pointy sticks and ran to hide behind the pillars. The Otamamon that were fanning ShogunGekomon hid behind the king's throne.

"Fine," ShogunGekomon said sounding both angry and exasperated. He sighed at the cowardice of his subjects. "We don't have anything to spare, so if you're here for food, you're out of luck."

"We actually came to _give_ you food," I said, rocking on my heels. "But if you don't want it..."

ShogunGekomon looked skeptically optimistic. We let him debate his answer for a few moments, but the longer he took, the more ridiculous it got. Either he wanted food to feed his people with, or he wanted them to starve. It wasn't like there was any choice in the matter.

"Take the deal!" Otamamon ordered his king.

"Jun is telling the truth," Gekomon said, much more shyly. "She's a good person. She wants to help us. She's real trustworthy. She took me in when my partner abused and abandoned me. She's really nice and she loves me, even though I'm not hers."

ShogunGekomon looked impressed, and my eyes watered at Gekomon's praise.

"Jun's my partner," Otamamon bragged, and I had to roll my eyes at his cocky attitude. "She's awesome. She let me stay with her when I snuck into Earth the _last_ time the worlds got closed off, even though we were all pretty sure I was gonna be stuck there for all of forever. Obviously that didn't turn out to be true, but she was willing to do it."

I was in awe. I hadn't really thought that much about it. He was a digimon and he needed a home. Of _course_ I was going to offer. He was annoying and bratty, but he was also sweet, naive and kind. He was an adorable tadpole that just needed some love and affection. I was still in shock that he'd actually chosen _me_ to provide it for him.

"Then she is a friend of my nation," ShogunGekomon announced. I looked up to him, awkwardly half-curtsying, not knowing what else to do. "We will have a suite prepared for you in honour of your dedication to my people."

"I don't really need one..." I said trying not to sound ungrateful. "I've got to get back to the Coliseum. Daisuke is kind of waiting for us to return. We stole his partner, you see."

"That's me," ExVeemon said awkwardly. He was tense, still ready to strike in case ShogunGekomon changed his mind. He was sort of hiding Yoshie from view. She was actually still quite frightened from ShogunGekomon's earlier performance, so I figured it was probably a wise choice.

"Oh," Gekomon said, deflating as all of his excitement left him. "I thought maybe we could stay here, since they're my family."

"You can stay, if you want to," I told him. "I never want to take your choices away from you. If you want to stay with your family, you are more than welcome to. I'll miss you, but it's not up to me. You're a free digimon and you deserve to be happy."

"I don't want to say goodbye to you," Gekomon admitted in a soft voice. "I already lost my partner."

"You won't lose me," I promised. "Never. I'll visit you all the time. You'll be sick of me."

"That won't happen," he said, embarrassed that he'd been afraid for nothing. I was willing myself not to cry, saying goodbye to this digimon that had become such a huge part of my life, even though he wasn't my partner. I would have been willing to keep him for eternity, if he'd wanted me to. It was sad to see that he didn't need me anymore, but it was also a relief, because that meant he was strong once more, despite his previous partner's mistreatment of him. The joy I felt because of that was tremendous, but it didn't mean I was going to miss him any less.

"But...you're my friend," Otamamon said, helplessly. He was conflicted, and it tore at my heart. He wanted to stay with Gekomon, but he didn't want to leave me. I couldn't stay though. I had duties at the Coliseum. I wasn't an integral member of the well oiled machine that the Coliseum had become, but I was still needed there, to take care of Emiko, Masa and Haruki when no one else was available. Daisuke needed me to be there to lend an ear, to help him understand his wife's decisions, to help him deal with the fact that Takeru and Ken—his best friends—were still missing... _I_ was still needed there, but Otamamon wasn't...if he wanted to stay. I would miss him being around, chattering away, talking my ear off. There would be a lot of quiet nights, and I didn't know how I'd handle them, but I didn't want to force him to stay with me if that's not where his heart was.

"We can still be friends," Gekomon assured him. "Jun's going to be here lots, she just said so. You can come every time too. We'll have lots to talk about. You'll probably have lots of stories to share."

"I will," Otamamon said proudly. "Won't I?"

"Yup," Gekomon said.

"So you're not staying?" I asked hesitantly. Shuu squeezed my hand.

"You can't get rid of me _that_ easily," Otamamon warned me with a big smile. I nearly cried, I was so relieved. It was hard enough saying goodbye to Gekomon, it would've been unbearable to say goodbye to them both.

"We'll just unload, and then be on our way," ExVeemon told ShogunGekomon. ShogunGekomon wasn't having any of that though. He called his guards back, and they were suitably embarrassed at their behaviour. They formed a line, each of them taking something from the cart to lug all the way to their reserves. It didn't take very long for the contents of the cart to vanish, and ExVeemon was ready to start pulling when Shuu made a comment that made me feel stupidly neglectful.

"You said you have prisoners?" Shuu questioned the king digimon hesitantly.

"We do. Two of them," ShogunGekomon confirmed. "They were invading my kingdom, and didn't announce their presence. That makes them trespassers. I had them detained in the dungeon. I feed them. I'm not a monster—well, I'm not _that_ kind of monster."

"Why don't we take them?" Yoshie suggested timidly. ShogunGekomon seemed surprised by the offer.

"They're a tricky pair," he warned us.

"We don't mind some sneaky digimon," Meiyomon said. "We're pretty tough."

ShogunGekomon had one of his guards lead us down the hallway to a set of stairs that led down into a brightly lit basement that I assumed was the dungeons. I was starting to think we wouldn't have been too bad off if we'd let them take us. All of the cages were empty, until we reached the final cage at the end of aisle. Inside, there were two digimon of roughly the same size. One had rabbit ears sticking straight into the air, and a long dog's tail. He held a staff, and had pieces of chest armor, and one shoulder plate. Next to him was a digimon with long, droopy dog ears, with a rabbit's tail. He wore a muzzle over his face, and his weapon of choice was a chain that held a spiked ball on either end. He too had a shoulder plate, though it was over the opposite shoulder. He also had a collar which held a medallion with the crest of miracles drawn on it. I looked to his companion and noticed that he too had a medallion, though his housed the crest of destiny.

"Unmeimon!" Meiyomon shouted in surprise. "Kisekimon! You're okay. I'm so happy you're okay."

"You know them?" the Gekomon guard asked suspiciously. He backed away from Meiyomon anxiously.

"Know them?" Meiyomon said darkly. "They are my siblings...and you detained them here against their will for months. You will pay for your slight on my family."

"Meiyomon," Yoshie scolded immediately. He turned to her. She flinched at his glare, but stood her ground. "You can't hurt him. The virus is surrounding the barrier. If you hurt anyone, and their data tried to make it to Primary Village, they would be deleted on contact. You don't want to do what the DWD have done, do you? Do _you_ want to be responsible for the permanent deaths of any digimon? Think about how hurt you were when you thought that Unmeimon and Kisekimon had been deleted. Would you willingly wish that feeling onto anyone else?"

"No," Meiyomon said grumpily. Unmeimon and Kisekimon actually looked like they were _very_ willing to do just that. They wanted revenge for their unjust punishment. I wouldn't have blamed them, if their course of action hadn't been so violent. Being in prison for no reason probably wasn't fun at all.

We made our way back up to the throne room. I made sure to keep the Gekomon guard and Otamamon with me, since the crest digimon didn't seem pleased to look at frog digimon of any kind. When we reached the throne room, ExVeemon made the three crest digimon climb into the wagon, and refused to let them leave it, going so far as to stand guard when Kisekimon tried to lunge out of the wagon, towards ShogunGekomon. Shuu and Yoshie were standing between ExVeemon and the frog digimon, while I was saying one last goodbye to my Gekomon friend.

"I want you to meet my friends," Gekomon told me excitedly. He pointed to each of them as he spoke. "This is Gekomon, Gekomon, Otamamon, Gekomon, Otamamon, Otamamon and Gekomon."

I tried not to be too confused.

"It's nice to meet all of you," I said with a smile. "I look forward to getting to know each of you when I come back to visit. Take good care of Gekomon for me. I want to see him happy when I get back."

"Jun," Gekomon whined. "You're embarrassing me."

"I know," I teased. "I'm going to miss you." He lunged at me and I wrapped my arms around him, unable to stop the tears this time. I could feel his tears dampening my shoulder, but I didn't mind. It was so hard to say goodbye to him. When we were able to pry ourselves apart, his friends quickly came to his side. Otamamon and Gekomon had a moment of their own, while Shuu helped me to my feet and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. He shook Gekomon's hand when Otamamon was done with him, thanking him for being such a good sport, and promising to visit when I did. Gekomon was shocked at that, but he really shouldn't have been. Shuu was such a loving guy. He accepted Gekomon the instant I told him I was going to keep him.

I started crying again, when ExVeemon started pulling the cart out of the palace gates. I took one last look around the beautiful throne room. It was still gorgeous, even blurry due to the tears. I called a couple more goodbyes to Gekomon, and another one to the rest of the frog digimon.

"You are welcome back any time," ShogunGekomon assured me. "If you ever require anything, as a friend of the kingdom, I'll be sure to do my best to accommodate you."

"Thank you," Shuu said for me, because I was too busy waving at Gekomon to answer. I was flattered at his offer, though.

ExVeemon and Yoshie were having a little arguement when we exited the building. It ended with ExVeemon physically lifting Yoshie into the cart. She crossed her arms and huffed. I handed Otamamon to her, trusting her ability to keep him safe from the crest digimon. I looked back one more time at the palace.

"You're thinking something," Shuu said.

"I am," I admitted.

"Wanna share?" he asked.

"I think I found the location for our wedding," I told him.

"In the Digital World?" Shuu asked, sounding suitably shocked.

"Why not?" I asked. "All of this will be over at some point. I _know_ it will. And it's beautiful here. This world is amazing. If our guests don't want to come here, then they don't need to come. I don't want anyone to come that doesn't support digimon anyway. Otamamon and Meramon _will_ be part of the ceremony. I don't know how yet, but they will. Gekomon too. I want them to feel safe as we celebrate the next step of our lives. I don't want them to be scared that someone will hurt them."

"Whatever you want is fine with me," Shuu said, smiling a little at my dedication to Meramon. He shouldn't be surprised. He was dedicated to Otamamon _and_ Gekomon. Meramon was family to me. I didn't care that we had to come up with some creative ways to accommodate him. He was worth all the extra time.

"I want this," I assured him. I grabbed his hand, and we raced to catch up to ExVeemon before we lost sight of him, and got lost in the virus.

 _ **Taichi Yagami:**_

I was wandering through the halls at the Coliseum, not going anywhere in particular. I didn't have any destination. There wasn't anything to do. Yoshie had set out early that morning with Jun, Shuu, Otamamon, Gekomon, Meiyomon and ExVeemon, so I was sort of waiting around for them to get back. I felt the need to make sure that they were fine. I should have gone with them, or sent Daisuke, or something.

But I wasn't in charge of that anymore.

I'd given Daisuke the goggles, and he now wore them every day. They were Haruki's favourite plaything, and there were a dozen or so little fingerprints smudging the lenses. It was hard, knowing that I wasn't in charge of anything anymore, knowing I was such a failure at my job that I had to get Daisuke to do it for me. I liked having all the information, and having people depend on me... But I also knew when I wasn't the one needed. I didn't like being bossed around though. The worst part, was that Daisuke wasn't trying to be bossy. He'd just tell me that I needed to go with a team out to a safe zone, and that was it. I did it to everyone all the time, and they'd never complained even once. I felt like such a spoiled brat, wanting to complain.

But I wanted to complain.

Daisuke hadn't sent me out anywhere in two days, sending Yoshie and the others instead, because he thought they might want to feel like they were contributing to the survival of the world, giving them a bit of a break to the monotony that their daily lives had become. I felt like a jerk, for not even thinking about it that way. I'd given a lot of responsibility to the digidestined and our digimon, and assumed everyone else would be happy just staying where they were.

I needed to get out of here though.

He might not realize it, but I depended on those trips outside to help me stave off my grief. Rei was one of the unknowns, and it killed me to think about it. It hurt, knowing she'd gone out to get _me_ , and she'd never gotten to me. I knew that the decisions were her own, and she was a grown woman fully capable of having her own thoughts and opinions, but I still wished that she would've just listened to me when I told her to stay put. Then she'd be here, and I wouldn't be clinging to half-baked plans and quests, trying to hold myself together.

It was hard enough watching Hikari get dragged through that gateway to another world, but getting to the Coliseum after having to watch it, and finding out just how many people we were missing was more than I could handle.

Kurayami had returned to us though, and so I held out the hope that others could too. Yamato didn't _have_ to be dead out there, Takeru wasn't deleted upon the release of the virus. Rei wasn't taken away from me forever.

Somehow, it was much harder to believe in my delusions when I was wandering aimlessly through the halls of the Coliseum. They were much more acceptable when I was out in the virus on a long trek to Neverland or somewhere. We'd found Palmon out there, and Kurayami had been hiding out in Primary Village. But standing here, looking at the dark stonework, and the dim lighting, it was much harder to keep the happier thoughts close.

It wasn't just me that felt that way either.

I caught the sounds of someone sniffling, and at first, I was going to ignore it. I figured the person probably wanted privacy, but I recognized this hallway—the bright red curtains with the black umbrellas in particular. Those shower curtains hid away my mother's room. My feet hurried their pace and I ended up just outside those curtains, hoping that the sound wasn't coming from within.

It was.

I slipped through the curtains, and as I did so, Mom hastily wiped away her tears, trying to be strong again when she caught sight of me. I didn't want that though. I fell onto the bed next to her and wrapped my mother in my arms. As I held her, she let the dam break and tears came pouring out of her. She missed Hikari, she missed Dad. She missed our home, her other friends, our neighbours. She missed feeling the sun warm her skin, and the feeling of the wind in her hair. She missed the honking cars on the street and the feeling of being in a crowded grocery store. She missed the quiet solitude of weekday mornings, and Dad reading the newspaper to her as she fixed breakfast. She missed putting her feet up, and the sight of an empty sink. She missed relaxing without feeling guilty for not keeping busy. She missed having grown up children surrounding her that could fend for themselves in the kitchen and not need her to cook every single meal, all day, every day.

"I just feel so guilty," Mom cried. "For missing them so much when I'm pretty sure they're both fine and others are dealing with more serious losses at this time."

"It's not selfish," I assured her, knowing what she was really getting at. She shook her head and just started crying harder. I rocked her back and forth, rubbing my hand on her back. She tried to pull away, saying something about ruining my shirt, but I held tight. "I've cried all over you enough times in my life that I probably owe you this." I was hoping for a laugh, but all I got was more sobs. I sighed. Keeping my own emotions to myself was proving to be quite difficult, watching her crying so much. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold out forever.

"I'm sorry," I whispered into her hair as I held her.

"It's not your fault," she said, shaking her head. "I'm just overwhelmed. I'll be right as rain in a couple of minutes. Just wait."

"I did this to you," I told her. "I made them go and get you. I shouldn't have ever dragged all of our families into this world. You'd all be just fine on Earth. I could have managed this somehow without getting you involved."

"No, you couldn't," she said, cracking a smile.

"You're probably right," I sighed. "But I would know you were safe."

"And I wouldn't know that _you_ were," she told me. "And I wouldn't have known that Hikari is okay either. I would be worried about the both of you, and Daisuke. I helped raise that boy, you know. And I'd be worried about Sora, Yamato, Jou and Koushiro, because they're your best friends. I'd worry about Ken, Miyako, Iori and Kurayami for Daisuke—not to mention his sweet, baby boy—and Willis and Michael because of Hikari. I'd worry over Takeru too, because that boy is going to be family someday. Or he might...no. He _will_. I can't forget Mimi, or Mari and Hideto. And Team Mom isn't complete without Kiyoko. I'd worry about all of them. And I'd worry about Rei and Neo too, because _someone_ has to and I doubt their mother would."

I flinched and she looked up at me.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I forget sometimes that Rei isn't just in another world like Hikari. I've been working hard to convince myself that _all_ of your friends are. I just can't bear the thought that any of them might not be okay."

"I try to do the same," I told her, my voice cracking as I tried to keep the dam from breaking. "It's just not working anymore."

"A little hope can go a long way," she reminded me.

"It would be easier to muster up hope if Takeru were here," I sighed. "I miss her, Mom. I miss all of them. There are so many things I need to say to her, so many that should have already been said."

"Don't talk like that," Mom scolded me. "You'll still get your chance. And you'll know not to waste it next time. She's fine, Taichi. She _has_ to be. I won't let you go through that."

"I don't think you're really going to get a choice," I told her. I couldn't hold it back anymore, and I was crying—which just made _her_ cry some more. We were a sobbing, snotty mess. It was disgusting, but it was also cathartic. There was something about crying it all out with my mom that made everything seem better, even though nothing had changed. Rei would still be gone. Takeru, Yamato, Neo, Miyako, Ken, Willis, Lopmon and Kiyoko would still be missing. The virus would _still_ be covering the surface of the Digital World, and we would still be trapped within that same world. But I was getting a load off of my shoulders temporarily. I knew it would be back, but for now, I was feeling a tad lighter, having confessed my fears and secret thoughts to Mom, who had never judged me, and would never condemn me no matter _what_ I'd said.

She wouldn't think I was weak, or giving up.

She just held me tightly, as I was clinging to her, and kissed my forehead—getting tears all over me. She ran her hands through my hair—which really needed to be cut. Rei liked my shorter hair. She'd spend evenings watching movies with me, just playing with it. I missed that. I missed _her_.

"Excuse us," Kae's soft, embarrassed voice shattered the little world Mom and I had created for ourselves. "I don't want to interrupt."

"Sorry for interrupting...whatever this is," Natsuko said in her no nonsense tone which was far less awkward than Kae's embarrassment was. "But we've got something to talk to you about."

"It's the Olympus XII," Satoe said helpfully. I sighed and let go of Mom, sitting back on her bed and looking at just how many people had walked in on our moment. Satoe was standing to one side, pointedly not looking at us, choosing instead to fuss with Kamemon's pillow. Natsuko had her arms crossed, looking at the back wall of the room, and Kae was next to her, looking at her feet. Coronamon was holding onto Kae's hand, squeezing it tightly. Lunamon was leaning against Natsuko's legs, looking up to Natsuko with curiosity—too polite to ask what we were crying about, but interested enough to _know_. Minervamon was still in the hallway, I could see her talking to Mari and Tapirmon through the gap in the curtain. I was pleased that they hadn't invited the entire Coliseum to witness Mom's—and my—breakdown.

"What about them?" I asked. My voice was thick, and it was obvious I'd been crying. I cleared my throat, but thankfully no one commented.

"Go on," Kae encouraged softly to her partner, leading him forward with their joined hands. Natsuko nodded to Lunamon, and the two small digimon walked forward slowly, as though they were walking to the gallows. I wiped my face with my sleeve, and gave them my undivided attention.

"We don't know if they're okay," Coronamon said quietly.

"Olympus XII?" I clarified. Coronamon nodded shyly.

"No one put up a barrier," Lunamon said in a scared voice. "We want to see if there's anyone— _anything_ left. It's our home."

"Minervamon wants to go too," Satoe added. "She's one of them now that she's Minervamon, and she really wants a chance to see the place, even if...you know, the _worst_ has happened."

"You should really be talking to Daisuke," I said, rubbing the back of my neck. "I've put him in charge."

"Taichi," Mari said, rolling her eyes as she forced her way into the now crowded room. "He's only in charge of getting us out of here, and fixing the world. He's not in charge of _us_. We're digidestined, and we'll be going with them. It's not like you're giving the green light for inexperienced travellers. Daisuke said it was okay when he sent his sister out with only ExVeemon to keep them on track. You, me and Tapirmon will be plenty to get this excursion going smoothly. If anything, we might be overdoing it."

My eye twitched.

I was glad that I'd caught my mother when I did. I didn't want her to have to deal with all of that alone, but if what Mari was saying was true, Daisuke wouldn't have cared if I'd up and left days ago on a mission of my own choosing. I supposed it was partially my own fault, for not talking to him about it, but _still_.

Daisuke and I really _were_ very different leaders.

"Okay, we can go," I decided, making Lunamon and Coronamon smile thankfully at me. "But," I continued, making Natsuko frown disappointedly at me, as if she was afraid I was going to bench them on this one. "Only if Agumon can come too, deal?"

"Deal," Mari decided for the group. Tapirmon fluttered off right then to hunt down Agumon, while everyone else dispersed, getting backpacks ready for the long trip. Mom and I were left alone again, and I turned back to her. She was wiping away the remaining tears.

"Go on," she told me. "I'll be fine. I feel better now. And if Kae's going with you, Haruka is going to need to step up and take over the cleaning schedule, and I'll have to get Toshiko to find someone else to take Satoe's place for the auditioning process. They've decided to go ahead with the talent show. And someone's going to have to read to the children. I can read tonight, but I've already got to pick up Yoshie's slack in the kitchen. I've got enough to do. You go find the Olympus XII."

"I don't want them to get their hopes up," I said, groaning. "The virus destroyed everything that wasn't in the barriers."

"Then let's hope that a miracle happened," Mom said though she looked sad.

"They've been known to happen," I said, trying to lighten her mood. "They have to be somewhat consistent to warrant Willis' crest."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, but she smiled, so I counted it as a win. "Get out of here."

I was ready in no time. My backpack was right next to the curtain-door in my room, already packed. I'd developed a habit of packing it with water bottles and cereal bars with a single change of clothes the moment I'd returned from a mission. That way I was always ready at a moments' notice. All I had to do was grab the bag and head down to the antechamber. Agumon waved at me, adjusting his own backpack on his back and smiling to himself. He always got really excited when we had a mission. Tapirmon was with him, holding a backpack of his own, though it looked a little big on him.

We only needed to wait ten minutes or so before everyone else showed up. Mari came first, toting a bag of cell phones that we would need to use—and a couple of backups, just to be safe. Coronamon and Lunamon raced towards us, followed by an excited Minervamon. Satoe, Kae and Natsuko came after them at a much more sedated pace.

I hoped they wouldn't walk that slowly the entire journey. We'd run out of battery power for sure.

It was strange, going out into the virus and being unable to lead the way. I had to look to Coronamon and Lunamon to guide us. They dragged their partners behind them, and chatted excitedly to Minervamon and Satoe. That actually left me at the back of the group, a place I was unaccustomed to. It was jarring to hand control over so completely to digimon I barely knew.

Everyone had their buddy though, following the standard procedure. Mine was Agumon, of course, and the rest of the partners paired up. Mari was with Tapirmon, since they were the ones left out. It didn't seem to bother them in the slightest though. They were talking away to each other, too far away for me to hear what they were saying, but it wasn't any of my business anyway.

They were growing closer the more and more time passed. Their relationship grew stronger, and I knew they depended on each other the way I depended on my mother to keep themselves going. Tapirmon looked thrilled to get the hell out of the Coliseum and get his mind off of things. He was a very quiet, very sad digimon when he was stuck in the Coliseum. He helped Yoshie with food preparations, pretending they were still at their tea house, but it wasn't the same. Kiyoko wasn't there for him to share stories of his day with.

"Did you lose hope?" Agumon asked me, catching me off guard. "Is that why you made Daisuke wear the goggles again?"

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I do lose it sometimes, but I always find a reason to find it again. Daisuke needs the goggles, because I can't fix this. I'm too focussed on the here and now, and not focussed enough on the future. I can keep us comfortable, but _Daisuke_ , I think he can get us out."

"Good," Agumon said, exaggeratedly wiping his forehead in relief. "I thought I was going to have to _make_ you have hope again. It's not good for morale if the ambassador has given up hope you know."

"I'm hardly an ambassador anymore," I pointed out.

"Not to the people of Earth, maybe," Agumon said with a shrug. "But here in the Digital World, you still are. They all still believe in you. They all also don't know what an ambassador's duties really are, so they expect a lot out of you. They expect you to rule them and keep the peace and make sure as many of us survive this as you possibly can."

"That's a lot," I agreed. "I'm just one man."

"Yeah," Agumon said. "But you're not alone. You've got me. You'll always have me. You and me are like one person, you know? I might not always agree with you, and sometimes, I think that _you_ think that I'm a child, but I'm not. I'm your friend, and I am loyal to you. No matter what you decide, I'll stick with you."

"Unless I turn evil somehow," I warned him. "Then you're gonna have to be loyal to Hikari or someone, because I don't want you to be bad."

"I'll do everything I can to make sure you turn back into yourself," Agumon assured me. "I wouldn't turn evil voluntarily, that's stupid. But you won't either, so it's okay."

"If you say so," I said, rolling my eyes.

"I do," Agumon told me. He was silent for a minute or two, swinging his arms as we walked side by side. I thought for a second that I'd lost sight of the others ahead of us, but I heard Coronamon's excited voice and knew we weren't far behind. "We're going to get through this, Taichi. I _know_ we are. We have to. There are too many lives on the line for us not to. That's how I know we can win. We always do our best work under pressure."

"That _is_ true," I agreed, and we both started laughing. I didn't know if it was _that_ funny, but once we started, we couldn't stop. It was only when I started to cough, trying to catch my breath that I was able to get control over myself.

"You okay boys?" Mari drawled. "It wouldn't do for you to choke on your own saliva before we get there. You're no good to us dead."

"But that's just how I always wanted to go," I said sarcastically, rolling my watering eyes. I was caught off guard when Mari started to laugh. A sense of triumph bubbled within me at that. Making Mari laugh was no small feat. It was like I was finally understanding how the weird and mysterious Mari Goutoukuji actually worked and thought.

After that we talked about anything and everything. It was a long walk to the Olympus XII, and we had a lot of time to kill. Agumon regaled us with tales of his training with Armadillomon and Kotemon, and also with the Fight Club. He told us stories about Sukamon and Chuumon and their never ending quests to break into Satoe's room to steal a picture of Mimi. Tapirmon talked about all of the food complaints that digimon could come up with, and we all laughed at the story of my mother snapping at a particularly loud Kiwimon that was complaining about the frequency that rice was served. Mari told us about the garden, and about how Betamon was coping with being locked up in the Coliseum where he'd been tortured. I felt guilty for not inviting him along at that point. She then started regaling us with her last encounter with her parents' lawyer.

"So I used the key to the Dark Ocean, and opened the door," Mari said. "He walked right it. And then I closed the door. Easy as pie. I don't have to worry about my parents anymore. Or I didn't. I don't know what's going on now that I'm stuck here and can't defend myself, you know. I can't even go and get the guy..."

I made a mental note to find a way to the Dark Ocean so I could save him, because Mari was _obviously_ worried about the guy, even if she didn't like him.

Hours upon hours had passed since we left the safety of the Coliseum, and I was beginning to think that Coronamon and Lunamon didn't actually know where they were going, but soon enough, we came up to the base of a mountain—I could just make out its shape through the virus fog. They squealed with delight and started racing towards the mountain. We all had to run to keep sight of them.

Something was glowing in the virus, and the closer we got to it, the brighter it became. It wasn't just a white light, like I'd originally thought. The entire spectrum of the rainbow was dancing around, fending off the virus.

"What in the world?" Satoe gasped, looking to the lights in awe. Kae was similarly awestruck, while Natsuko kept her wits about her, and was looking around, trying to find the source of the light. Mari though was trekking forward, keeping pace with the two excitable digimon. I urged the mothers to continue, and Minervamon practically dragged Satoe into the light.

The virus disappeared around us; the air was clear, making the rainbow lights more prominent. Small colourful butterflies fluttered around us. One landed on Tapirmon's nose. He freaked out, trying to hit it away, but Agumon told him to relax. "That's Oikawa," he said. "He's protecting this place."

"Those are a person?" Natsuko asked, sounding confused.

"Mari," I called, already on a different train of thought.

"On it," she said, understanding immediately. She was on the same page as me. A force burst through me, originating from Mari's hand. It pushed its way through the butterflies and their shield, pushing the virus further away. The butterflies all fluttered down towards the ground, dancing around Mari, thankful for the rest she had granted them.

"Olympus XII live here?" Minervamon asked, looking around the cave entrance. It was dark and damp. She didn't seem particularly impressed.

"Come on," Lunamon insisted. We all followed her, and the cave walls gave way to bright, shining marble. The marble hall opened into a grand room with columns of gold and silver. Torches were mounted on the wall at intervals, and the columns emitted their own light, causing the room to glow in a warm way. Lunamon and Coronamon continued to bounce as they led us to the end of the large room. There were doors leading off of the room, each labelled with the symbol of the god or goddess it belonged to. At the end of the room, the wall curved, creating a half circle where thrones rested. In the very centre, there was an incredibly large throne made of solid gold. Next to it, a smaller—but still larger than the others—silver throne was placed. Each of the other ten thrones—five branching out on either side of the dome—were made of bronze.

The gold throne was the only one that was occupied. A digimon that seemed to match his throne, wearing entirely golden armor was holding two golden devices, sending lightning into the air from one, and guiding it to the other, as though he was playing a game. He had a long, white cape that looked to be made up of feathers. I wondered, momentarily, if they could perhaps be wings. His shoes had the same feathers though, covering the golden boots he wore. Three red rings floated above his head, one above the other, each smaller than the last. I guessed that this was his crown.

"Jupitermon!" Coronamon and Lunamon cheered, racing forward only to stop themselves. They bowed deeply in front of their ruler. "We're glad to see you still live. We feared the very worst."

"Coronamon, Lunamon," Jupitermon said in a deep, rumbling voice that sounded like thunder. "It is _I_ that is glad to see you are yet well. We thought perhaps we had lost you from our ranks forever."

"Can't get rid of us," Coronamon said shyly.

"We'll always come back," Lunamon agreed with a sheepish smile.

"Who is it you have brought to see me?" he asked. I could _feel_ his voice down to my core.

"Minervamon!" they cheered together. "We found her."

"Come, my child," Jupitermon said, sounding sort of happy, I guess. It was really hard to tell, what with all the rumbling. "Let me lay eyes on you."

Minervamon was suddenly very shy. She clenched Satoe's hand, and it didn't look like she'd be going anywhere any time soon. But Satoe nodded her head encouragingly, and Minervamon steadied herself, flinging her enormous blade over her shoulder and marching forward to greet the head of the Olympus XII, which she technically belonged to.

"You are every bit the digimon we have been waiting for," Jupitermon complimented her.

"Shucks," Minervamon said embarrassed. "I figured you wouldn't want me, because I stay with Satoe."

"You have a partner," Jupitermon stated, rather than asked. I couldn't tell whether he thought it was a good thing or not. Again, his voice was just too loud to guess.

"Yeah," Minervamon said. "I'm gonna stick with her, because she needs me more than you guys probably do. I'm not here to stay forever. I just want to see if I belong here."

"You will _always_ have a place here," Jupitermon told her. He raised one of his golden hands, still holding the devices, though he'd stopped his lightning game. He pointed towards a throne that was near to the silver throne. Only one bronze throne stood between it and the silver one. "That seat belongs to you. It always has, and always will, whether you are here to sit in it daily, as the rest of us, or if it is only on occasion."

"Wow," Minervamon said. Coronamon and Lunamon didn't think that was enough, and they grabbed her hands, leading her to her throne. They cheered her on as she sat in it, resting her blade across the two chair arms.

"You look good up there," Satoe complimented her partner. Minervamon glowed with the praise.

The throne started glowing under her, and before I knew it most of the doors we'd passed opened. The rest of the gods and goddesses of the Digital World were coming. They weren't alone either. A human, bird hybrid was walking among them. Her clawed feet and helmet struck a familiar chord with me, and she wore a pleated battle skirt, bearing the crest of love. A large canine followed after her, with an enormous set of wings protruding from his back, and a collar around his neck, bearing the crest of friendship. Lastly, there was a giant dragon, with metal shackles on his ankles, the chains broken, dangling from the bonds. His wings were folded onto his back, and the crest of courage was emblazoned on his forehead. It was just a testament to how large this place actually was that he could fit in here at all.

"We know them..." Agumon said slowly.

"Crest digimon," I whispered.

"Why's the one of courage so big?" Mari asked, raising an eyebrow at me.

I pointedly ignored her implications.

I was too busy watching the Olympus XII anyway. Natsuko named them off to us as each sat down, being able to guess which was which based on stories Lunamon had told her. Next to Jupitermon, Junomon sat on the silver throne. She too had the same three red rings floating above her head as a crown. She daintily spread out her large purple cloak, and as she fluffed it, I noticed patches of blue scales. Her blonde hair was under a golden circlet. She had knee high gold boots and a gold glove on either hand. She held a staff with a swirling blue ball, and she wore _just_ enough clothing to cover what needed covering. What little she wore though, was white.

On Jupitermon's right, a fish-man sat. He wasn't a merman exactly, since his proportions had more in common with a centaur than a standard merman. He was decked out in blue scaled armour, and had a spear in his hand that's tip was made up of _three_ heads that were designed to look like sharks. Natsuko informed us this was Neptunemon, god of the sea. On the throne immediately to _his_ right was a man with the head of a saber-toothed cat, with a single horn on his head, like a unicorn. His entire torso was made up of red, bulging muscles. His hands were large, and he had metal cuffs around each wrist. His pants were loose, and patterned with the same leopard-print that his face naturally possessed. His calves were encased in silver armour, and he wore red shoes. He was Marsmon, the god of war.

Coronamon leaned against the throne beside Marsmon, as it would be his whenever he managed to digivolve into Apollomon. Lunamon was leaning against her throne too, as she had yet to become Dianamon. Her throne was to the left of Minervamon's. She grinned up at Minervamon, excited about them all being together.

Next to Lunamon, was an incredibly beautiful digimon. She, like Junomon, wore very little clothing, and what she did was white. Her toes peeked out the ends of her white boots, and her long blonde hair was wrapped with white ribbons. The oddest part about her was that she also had ribbons tied over her eyes, cutting off all vision. She held a scallop in one hand, and a bird was perched in the other. Neither was making a sound that I could hear, but she was talking to them as though she could. She was Venusmon, goddess of love. She smiled to the large digimon sitting to her left. He laughed loudly in a jolly way. He had a large, round torso, but in place of legs he had the slithering body of a snake. He had long, thick arms that led to claws that were covered in green gloves. The gloves were tied on with strands of leather. His round body had a mouth right through the middle of it, and bubbles were pouring over the edges. Red bubbles that brought with them the scent of wine. On top of his large shoulders was a tiny head that was rather disproportionate, but he didn't seem to care. He was jolly, making his purple cape flutter every time he laughed.

"Bacchusmon," Natsuko muttered. "God of wine."

His throne was the last in his row, and across from him, on the other end was a man dressed as a wolf—at least I _thought_ I saw a man's face inside the mouth of the wolf's head he was wearing. His brown clothing was patched up, and he had a long mane of green hair protruding from the back of the wolf's head. His boots were made from a wolf's large paws, and his arms were wrapped with wolf's fur. He held a blade in one hand, and his knees were shaking so quickly that they looked like nothing more than blurs. He was Merukimon, god of genius.

Only one more god was seated. He had eight arms, each was holding something. Two held swords, two held clubs, two had maces, but the front pair held a hammer and a set of pliers. His head was encased in a glass dome, and he had some sort of blacksmith apparatus attached to his mouth, that would allow him to keep all eight hands free to work. He had a belt of even more tools around his waist. He was Volcanusmon, god of smithery.

The throne between Minervamon and Junomon was vacant.

The last god was taking his time, eyeing Kae, Satoe and then Natsuko with focused eyes. They were frozen in his gaze. He nodded to them, when he'd found what he was looking for, before turning his eyes to Mari and Agumon. They passed his test as well, and Tapirmon too, though the poor guy was shaking. And then his cold, calculating eyes were on me, and I swear I forgot to breath. It felt like he was looking into my very soul, judging me for what I'd done and everything I would do. I was afraid of what he'd see, but in just a few seconds, it was over and he moved on to his seat.

He was the only digimon, aside from Jupitermon who even acknowledged our presence. The others talked to one another as though we didn't exist. It was incredibly rude.

"Now," Jupitermon bellowed, "what gives you the right to enter our home uninvited?" his eyes scanned the group, but no one answered. "You have shown _no_ respect since you have walked through that door!"

I stood there, unsure of what to do, so I cleared my throat, causing all eyes to turn to me.

Having twelve digimon turn to stare at me—even if three were friends—being as powerful as they were—again, with the exception of the two that weren't even allowed to sit in their thrones—I was more than a little intimidated, especially since several of them were glaring at me. Lunamon was frantically gesturing to Natsuko, who took the hint and knelt to the ground, bowing her head. Coronamon pointed to Natsuko, and Kae followed suit. Minervamon shrugged, but Satoe wasn't about to risk it. Tapirmon was still shaking from his encounter with the last god—Plutomon, god of the dead—and fell to the ground, desperate not to offend him. Agumon reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me down with him. I was a little shaky myself, and didn't exactly protest.

Only Mari remained standing.

Every god and goddess turned to stare at her—even Venusmon, who had her eyes covered. She stood her ground though. Marsmon started growling, and Bacchusmon stopped his joyous laughter. He looked between Mari and Marsmon anxiously. Venusmon talked to her bird, calling him Olive. Merukimon's feet started bouncing. Junomon simply stared at her, daring her to remain standing.

"Enough," Jupitermon thundered. "Why do you still stand?"

Mari snorted. "I don't see why I should bow to someone so totally rude. We've done nothing but try to save the Digital World again and again and if you want my damned respect you're going to have to earn it and not expect me to worship a man who just yells at me after sitting in a chair for months on end doing nothing to even try to help when the world is falling apart around you. I didn't see _any_ of you out there fighting the DWD, but _I_ was, and I didn't even have a partner, _and_ I just set up a barrier for you lot so you can kiss my ass."

Absolutely no one spoke. Her voice had raised loud enough to echo off the marble walls, and each of the gods and goddesses turned to stare at Jupitermon, wondering how he would respond to such blatant disrespect. I, for one, thought he deserved it. Mari had guts, and she always told it like it is. And she was right too.

The silence stretched on and on, and I started to get antsy. I shifted my feet, ready to run and grab Mari if things got too dangerous and they decided to attack her for her impertinence. I knew Tapirmon and Agumon wouldn't be too far behind, and I liked to think that Coronamon, Lunamon and Minervamon would be able to protect their partners. I was making contingency plans to save them, though, if that wasn't the case.

Jupitermon stood from his chair, and I was already pushing myself off the ground, taking a step towards Mari when he threw his head back and laughed. I was caught off guard, nearly tripping in my shock.

"You, I like," Jupitermon said, when his thunderous laugher had abated. Everyone in the room, relaxed, and the gods and goddesses got off their thrones and sort of wandered around to mingle. It was really weird. They'd been so rude only a minute ago, and now Marsmon was joking with Yuukimon, the dragon of courage, while Yuujoumon—the digimon of friendship—talked with Neptunemon. Aimon joined Junomon and Venusmon in welcoming Minervamon into the family. Coronamon dragged Volcanusmon over to greet Kae, and Minervamon called for Satoe, who was getting fawned over by Venusmon, much to her delight. Natsuko wandered over to Lunamon, who was talking with Bacchusmon, who was bubbling with excitement.

"I am eagerly awaiting a time without the virus," he was saying. "I haven't had a chance to gather digimon for a party in ages. It gets so dreary without parties to living things up. These guys don't have the spirit for it I'm afraid."

Agumon and Tapirmon were talking to Merukimon, who was moving his hands into blurs now. He was getting anxious, being trapped for so long. He never stayed in one place for long, two months was ages to him. He needed to be out there, moving, wandering the Digital World. It was the only thing he knew, and now he was stationary. Agumon tried to make him feel better by telling him stories of our missions, but I didn't really think it had the desired effect.

Mari, who was proud of herself for making such an excellent point, had decided to wander to the walls. Large portraits of each god and goddess were depicted there. Some were elaborate battle scenes, where they all participated as a group, some were individual. And since they hadn't had Minervamon until today—and Coronamon and Lunamon had yet to digivolve—a bunch of them couldn't have happened yet.

I would have joined her in her perusal, but Jupitermon had started walking towards me, and I didn't really want to insult him. Plutomon was the only digimon that hadn't moved. He closed his eyes and sat stationary in his throne.

"You are the digidestined of courage," Jupitermon said when he reached me. "You are the ambassador of the Digital World. Neptunemon has a bone to pick with you, you know. You gave a Divermon his duties. He's been bored stiff since you started that Council of yours."

"That Divermon is dead now," I said.

"I am sorry to hear that," Jupitermon said, and he sounded genuine. He didn't offer Neptunemon as a replacement. I was thankful. I didn't want to replace Divermon any time soon. I missed him. I missed D'Arcmon too. I'd spent so much time with them, and they weren't easily replaced, no matter if the replacement could be the literal digital god of the sea. I wasn't ready yet.

"Thank you, for keeping those crest digimon safe," I told him. "Meiyomon will be glad to know his brothers and sister are alive."

"We could not turn them away," Jupitermon said, as if it were no big deal. "Your friend is right. We did not do much to aid in the fight. I have dedicated my life to collecting the twelve Olympians, and until today, I did not know where the last was."

"You've completed your collection," I commented. "Does that mean you're ready to fight?"

"I have done the best I can," Jupitermon corrected. "Lunamon and Coronamon are not yet ready to take their places, and Plutomon is only filling in for the final member. She may never come. She was meant to be the partner to the digidestined of tenacity."

I couldn't hold back my laugh, though thankfully it was short. Jupitermon looked to me, and I decided to take the look as curious, even though it was quite frightening. "Mari," I said, nodding my head in her direction. "She's the digidestined of tenacity."

Jupitermon laughed then, shaking his head. "I should have known."

"Her partner died," I said quietly, careful not to let my voice carry over to Mari. "Three years ago now."

"I felt it," Jupitermon said sadly. "We suffered a great loss that day. We never got the chance to meet. It is a regret I will always carry with me. Plutomon holds her place now, though I have no use for him. He's unnecessarily cruel. He strikes fear into digimon, good, bad or in-between. He fights our same fight though, and he has sworn his allegiance to me, just as I now swear my allegiance to you."

"I'm not leading the fight," I told him. "That's Daisuke."

"You are the ambassador, and it is _you_ I ally myself with," Jupitermon said firmly. "If you are sworn to obey Daisuke, it is none of my concern. I serve you, and through that I will serve him."

I nodded, knowing that it didn't really matter which digidestined he was allied with, it meant the same thing. We had Olympus XII on our side—and considering just how intimidating they were, it was pretty freaking cool.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to learn more of Minervamon," Jupitermon said. I nodded again, and he left. I headed over to Mari, who was now looking at a portrait of a giant bird that looked to be made up of rock and soil. There was a forest on its back, and vegetation covering the rest, leaving only the underbelly bare. On the bird's head was a female digimon dressed in green and gold. She had long pink hair cascading down her back, some of which was hidden by her elaborate gold head piece that looked to have some choral stained glass pieces in it. She had greenery and blue flowers on each shoulder, and vines draped down her back, coming from them.

"That's Lalamon," I told her, wincing when I realized that she might not want to hear that.

"I kind of already knew that," Mari said, not tearing her eyes off of her. "I had a feeling...I miss her...I—" She cut herself off before she could say anymore, and I tried to get her to talk, but that was a dumb idea. All that it achieved was getting her to walk away. Tapirmon saw her and flew after her. I looked from the two of them and back to the Olympian on the wall, and I realized that it wasn't _just_ Lalamon that would've become her. Tapirmon was a part of her too. I thought on that as I leaned against the marble wall, waiting until the others were ready to head back to the Coliseum.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Neo and Jou are both dwelling in places of darkness inside themselves while they explore how it is to be as Cold As those they dislike the most.


	20. Cold As You

**U/N:** Once again we have Neo and I believe this is his last chapter for all of 'Virus' and I wrote Jou here too, so they're pretty dark obviously with what's going on for the characters but it's still a lot of fun. Jou used to be my favourite to write in 03/04 and maybe even 05 because he was just so... Jou! But as he matures he becomes less and less interesting to me, but not in a bad way I guess.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 20: Cold As You**

 _ **Neo Saiba:**_

"You can't tell me you don't know _any_ of the plans," I said with a massively fake grin to Shigoto Fujimoto, "Maugrim trusts you above all else. You, the Fujimoto's simply must know something the rest of us are incapable of guessing."

"I really don't!" Shigoto laughed, absorbing my praise through his massive pores. He spoke with a mouth full of some juicy meat, not bothering to swallow first. I swallowed a thick lump in my throat and did my very best to keep the grimace to a minimum. Shigoto turned to his wife who was politely patting her face with a napkin and he laughed, "Isn't that right, Namida? We don't know anything!"

Namida and I made brief eye contact, and there was something there, something that inspired me just enough to beg with my eyes. I was practically grovelling at their feet, doing as they pleased, eating dinner with them in possibly the most obscenely expensive restaurant in all of Japan, and I had not complained once, or uttered a single sarcastic comment. Not aloud at the very least. If it had been my own choice I'd never have come to such a place, especially not with my present company. I was not impressed.

But at the end of the day, this may very well have been my first step into Maugrim's books of good grace. I was simply obeying his orders after all.

" _Do you really think they are competent enough to double cross anyone?" Bitoru had asked, running his hands through his thick mass of black hair. He had his glasses in one hand as he thought, rubbing his head as often as he could to ease the ache that was forming. The light that shone from the lantern in the center of Maugrim's great tent cast flickering shadows across his pale face._

 _Maugrim, who was sitting in a chair by his table nodded ever so dramatically. "I do, and I have seen them do so before."_

" _But Director Arnold?" Bitoru asked tentatively, "What in the world does he have to do with this?"_

" _He is but an ambitious and selfish man who has no one's interests at heart aside from his own." Maugrim said loudly, "I do not trust him, and I do not trust the Fujimoto's. They have been close to one another for years, and all I am asking is for some information."_

" _On Director Arnold?" Bitoru asked, relieved suddenly, "I can get you that, no problem. No matter how hard someone tries to hide personal matters I have a way of retrieving them."_

" _On his plans, Bitoru." Maugrim said bitterly. "I require to know exactly what it is that he is up to."_

 _Bitoru deflated again and rubbed his temples, upset once more. It was Aesop who spoke this time, stepping forward, and removing his hat from his head. "I suppose the question now," Aesop said calmly, "is 'do you honestly believe that whatever Arnold is up to is going to affect your own plans?'"_

 _Maugrim did not look behind him to where Aesop was standing, he merely bowed his head slightly and said, "I do." Bitoru threw his hands in the air and began pacing back and forth while Aesop pulled a wooden chair next to Maugrim and sat down._

" _Do you think he knows what you are doing?" Aesop inquired._

" _I do not." Maugrim said, his eyes turning to me as if he suddenly wished I had not been summoned. It was he who had done so though. I was waiting by the doorway, my arms crossed, pretending to be uninterested in everything he was saying. "Arnold has attempted to claim that he did not betray me by sending the virus to the world I was present in. He tried to kill me."_

" _Are you surprised?" Bitoru asked, one arm crossed over his stomach and the other propped up, resting on the first arm with his hand tossed back in a rather dramatic way, "He kills anyone who threatens his power." Maugrim nodded as if to say 'obviously' and Bitoru continued, "You can't trust or work with him, obviously whatever you thought the two of you were working on together, he wanted something different."_

" _I am well aware of that," Maugrim said flatly, "And I knew that walking into the arrangement. I am not asking much," he said, this time angrily, "All I want is for someone to keep an eye on Arnold, and the best way to do such a thing is to keep an eye on his close subordinates."_

" _Is that what I'm here for?" I asked, finally taking part in the conversation itself. "You want me to butter up the enemies? The Fujimoto's?"_

" _I want you to speak when spoken to," Maugrim said loudly, "But, in short, yes. They've taken a liking to you, though I can't imagine_ why _." I rolled my eyes and he stood sharply, "Are you listening?" I nodded. "Then go, do whatever it takes to gather information. Arnold is up to something and I want to know what it is."_

" _Are you not up to something as well?" I asked, apparently more stupid than I would care to admit. Maugrim turned his sights on me and his brows slowly sank with the anger on his face and essentially he growled. "Of course, sir." I said sarcastically. "May I be excused now?"_

" _Go." Maugrim permitted._

Yorokobi's laugh cut through my thoughts as she placed her hands on my shoulder, her touch as gentle as a feathers and she looked to me through her slanted framed glasses. "Oh Neo," she said, batting her eyes, "You have such faith in us!" She turned from me to hold her glass up for a silent waiter to fill her glass with more champagne. "More." She said bitterly when the waiter tried to walk off. He did as he was told. Yorokobi set her sights on me once more, and when she noticed I was looking back to her she blushed and turned away as if she thought we had just shared a moment worthy of a romantic comedy rather than a look of disgust meeting that of lust.

"It's true," Namida said after sipping her own drink, "The Director shares nothing with the likes of us. He may like us, but he holds no one higher than himself. He himself is not trustworthy, so how would he trust anyone else?" She certainly knew how to blow out the optimistic candles. The mood took an instantaneous drop with Namida's harsh words. She shrugged her shoulders elegantly and returned to her drink.

Another couple was permitted into the dining hall, and they, along with everyone else looked highly pompous and entirely ridiculous. The woman was dressed in a gaudy fur coat that she was simply drowning in, and the man's hair was slicked back as though he were under the strict impression that this were the 1950s. That was, of course, the general theme of the room. Pompous, haughty, superior. The three words would describe anyone in the building. Their first impressions at least. I had taken Sora to this restaurant once a long time ago when I had been attempting to seem rich. She saw right through me and together we had made fun of everyone for their supercilious nature.

The colours surrounding me were mostly that of gold and burgundy and the tables were accompanied by the finest of china. I certainly did not fit in with the environment. But my duty was not to feel welcomed or at home, it was simply to push further into the Fujimoto's minds.

It was a difficult task as Shigoto had been drunk since the moment we'd sat down, Yorokobi wanted nothing more than to bat her eyes at me and I had never seen Namida in a mood that was not specifically elated, and right now she was bitter and cold. Puraido had made a decision to stay at the camp site with Gomamon to avoid anyone else entering his tent and finding his secret. Namida had been offended that her son was distancing himself from her. I however had no use for him as it was clear that he knew nothing of the information I was seeking.

"Is it true that Maugrim and Arnold are brothers?" I said, concocting a rumour out of thin air to stir the pot just a tad more. I could still work different angles here and hope to eventually learn _something_ at the very least.

Shigoto snorted into his drink and slammed it to the table as he began laughing through what appeared to be a coughing fit. Namida even smiled at this, but it was Yorokobi who spoke.

"Their complexions are way off," Yorokobi said, waving her hand, passing the 'rumour' off as nothing of any importance. "It simply can't be."

"It's true," Namida nodded, "As Yorokobi says, they are not related. Who told you such a preposterous thing?" I shrugged my shoulders dramatically, feeling my discomfort seep further through to my core. Acting so friendly and nonchalant felt wrong, and it felt dirty. I did not appreciate acting, even in its simplest of forms, and I did not care to be lying about who I was. It was just something that had to be done. They simply had to be under the impression that I was one of their _friends_.

"You know," Shigoto said suddenly, thinking to himself, finally calmed from his coughing. "I seem to recall Arnold mentioning something in his office during that last visit. Over the telephone."

"I'm sure it's of no importance," Namida said coolly.

"He said the radar will soon be working," Shigoto said softly. Then the table was thrown into silence as we thought. I could not be sure, nor did I care what the others were pondering in the silence, but as for me, I wanted to know more about the radar. Whatever it was, I knew it could not be good. Would it interest Maugrim? Or perhaps he was a part of whatever device that had been. It could be true that he had been on the other end of that telephone call. I knew that Shigoto would not know anything more on the topic though, and asking would be dangerously obvious.

Namida looked all too unimpressed with her husband now, and once again, her bitterness was being shown through her tight face. She was more reliable as an accomplice than her family was it seemed. I did not believe that Arnold told them nothing, and it was only Namida who was able to keep her lies under control. I needed to attenuate her defenses and learn what it was she was hiding. If only she'd let me. Her nostrils flared as she looked to the empty dishes in front of us all. "Where is that damned waiter?" She asked, annoyed, "I cannot fathom how one person could be so incomprehensibly useless."

"Have you never met your son?" Yorokobi asked leaning forward, pressing herself against the table as a maliciously vindictive smirk formed with her shockingly red lips. "The rogue one?" Shigoto laughed, but Namida merely let her eyebrows raise in distaste. I did the same, but for a different reason I could assume. "You know, he's a waiter too."

"That's true," Shigoto nodded. "He is."

"It could be true that the entire working class is made up of fools," Yorokobi said as if she had just dished juicy gossip. She then shrugged her shoulders and looked away as if to say 'You didn't hear it from me.'

Shigoto's face lit up and he let out a loud bark of a laugh, "Do you remember when Hideto was little, and he used to bring his dirty, common friends home and talk to them in his room about their problems?"

"And we would have to sanitize the house and spray that air freshener everywhere!" Yorokobi laughed, "Oh I remember it all too well, Daddy! Just another reason Hideto never belonged in our midst."

"That makes reason number four hundred seventy two?" Shigoto joked, sending his daughter into boisterous laughter. She turned to me and once more placed her hand on my arm. I ground my teeth to avoid causing a scene.

"Reason number one!" Yorokobi said, her laughter still running. "His appearance was never that of our caliber."

"Reason number two," Shigoto joined in, "His friends!" He then turned to me, "Aside from you of course, Neo."

"Reason number three—" Yorokobi started.

"Of course, reason number three," I interrupted, causing both father and daughter to look to me with excitement rising in their eyes, "because he was not as petty as to sit around insulting figures from his past, having rose above whatever happened between his family many years, subsequently presenting himself as far more mature than any of you could ever wish to be? And reason number four surely must be that he was too kind and sought out happiness rather than fortune and fame of being a prestigious Fujimoto?"

Three sets of eyes were trained in on me, blinking comically, and I knew I'd said the wrong thing. Their emotions all went in different directions however, as Yorokobi looked physically hurt, as if I'd genuinely wounded her person. Namida's eyebrows once again rose in distaste, but Shigoto looked angry, as though I'd offended his swelling pride. "Now you listen here," Shigoto said, "You weren't there. You don't know who that boy was in his childhood."

"I _was_ there," I corrected, "And I witnessed the crushing of his spirit as his entire family refused to care for him."

"You—" Shigoto started, but his wife cut him off.

"Shigoto, Darling." Namida's voice was calm and sweet, like a coating of sugar wrapped around a particularly bitter coffee bean. She placed her hand on Shigoto's arm the same way Yorokobi had done to me so many times. "I have no respect or admiration for that boy, but perhaps Neo is right." Namida said, her lips pursed, "Perhaps it's time to simply let go and forget he existed at all. He is only bringing negativity to our minds and I'm too young to feel bitter." Everyone was silent for a moment, and then Namida added, "I don't want to feel ugly." Surely she was aware that every word that had escaped her mouth had come with a subtle hint of bitter irony since I had first laid eyes on her.

Shigoto seemed ready to respond, but he stopped when his phone began ringing. He apologized to his wife with his facial expressions and slowly pulled his phone out to answer it. His face fell as he spoke, essentially thanking whomever was on the other end for informing him of whatever it was that had been important enough to call for. For the duration of the conversation, Yorokobi attempted with great effort to catch my eye. Unfortunately, I had only been successful for a couple of moments before my eyes betrayed me and looked toward her where she looked quickly from me to look, I could assume, shy. "It's about Yamato Ishida," Shigoto said when he'd finally hung up the phone. "He's struck again. An entire park filled with those horrible manikins, buildings painted with the Dark Angel..." Shigoto sighed, "It's atrocious. We have to bring this to an end." He then paused, "We should get the cheque." He threw his hand in the air and demanded our waiter return.

Within ten minutes, mostly filled with vibrant insults flying from each of the Fujimoto's mouths, we'd gotten outside. I had ensured that I left whatever money my wallet contained for the waiter, for even if he hadn't done a particularly wonderful job, he deserved all the money in the world for putting up with these verbose monsters. When the limousine had pulled up to pick us all up, Yorokobi offered to walk. "Neo will come with me, won't you?"

I noticed Namida and Shigoto sharing a look of bemusement and excitement. "Of course," I said, holding back my bubbling disgust. "I'd love to." Yorokobi's face lit up quickly, and she waved her parents off. The last I heard from the two of them before they'd gone off had been something to do with taking down Yamato, and locating him once and for all. I of course had an idea where they were hiding, but would never tell. Thankfully no one had asked, knowing I had never been close to him, not close enough to know his hiding places at the very least.

Yorokobi walked in silence, thankfully, as we strode down the moonlit street. It was a damp, cool night, but not cold of course, thanks to my preparation in bringing my blazer. It was never my preferred fashion choice, but it created an appearance of someone who was at least _closer_ to fitting in with such high class citizens. I took in a deep breath and let my eyes scan the empty streets. Every few minutes a vehicle would pass, mostly highly expensive new cars, and I suddenly noticed how out of place I would always be in a place such as this. I was not lower class, or perhaps even middle class as I was well paid for my work in the Digital World. I was likely pretentious enough to act as though I were comfortable, but as it was, I belonged in dingy, dirty bars with the people I cared for.

I also began to notice how very far of a walk we had to the camp site.

Yorokobi shivered suddenly and rubbed her arms for warmth. "Cold out tonight, huh?" she asked flirtatiously, looking to me, tilting her chin down ever so slightly so her eyes appeared larger and more round. If she wanted my jacket she was not about to get it. She should have prepared, knowing how cold a summer night could be. Not particularly, that's how cold. After another few moments of silence she added, "Mother tells me you once were engaged to be married."

"This is true," I nodded, shoving my hands into my pockets. "Briefly."

"Was she not good enough for you?" Yorokobi asked.

"She was plenty good," I said, shaking my head, "Perhaps the best. She saved my life. But she did not love me."

"She loved another." Yorokobi said in complete understanding. "How tragically romantic." I shrugged it off. Romantic would not be the word I'd use, personally. "You deserve better. Someone who can truly, unconditionally love you."

"Love does not exist in that way." I told her, "Our brains neuro-chemically and neuro-electrically process everything we do psychologically including love, so—"

"Pardon me?" Yorokobi cut me off.

I sighed, raising my eyebrows, "Essentially, a human brain produces a chemical reaction to create a feeling of euphoria directed to a specific individual that eventually wears off. To remain 'in love' one would have to continuously fall in and out of love with that individual. But that would be forcing an emotion that is widely regarded as one of the most powerful, simply to feel connected for a long period of time. It seems irrational and pointless to me. Ultimately every person who claims to fall in love at first sight is a liar, and all those who pretend to be in love for an eternity are delusional. Therefore, the love that is so sought after, does not exist."

"I think it does," Yorokobi decided irrationally, ignoring everything I'd said. "I'd like to believe in love at first sight." Yorokobi paused and looked to me, "Do you remember when _we_ first met?"

"I do not," I told her honestly. "I recall knowing you as a child, but not the initial introduction, no."

"I do." Yorokobi's voice was frighteningly precise and close to me now, shocking me. I turned towards her in surprise and found that she had moved right next to me, her face leaning toward me. Before I could stop her she had cupped my face in her hands and kissed me fiercely, pushing me back with her force.

I pushed her away as quickly and politely as I could possibly do and found her smiling to me as though we had just witnessed history in the making. "I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression, but I am not interested you in that way."

"Sure," Yorokobi said, batting her eyes, "Playing hard to get?"

"No means no, Yorokobi," I said sharply, "I have no interest whatsoever in forming a romantic link with you. If not because of your bitter and negative stance in this world, or your prissy no-good attitude, then because Hideto is my very best friend, even if his opinions are sometimes troublingly wrong. I could never be with someone so negative and heartless toward someone who, many years ago, wanted nothing but for his family to love him. Your opinions are vile and they are cruel, and still, while they are solidified, and honest, do not expect them to be respected by any with a sense of integrity."

Yorokobi looked for a moment like she might slap me, but instead her eyes welled up with tears of anguish and sadness and she pouted her bottom lip, "Neo Saiba, how _could_ you?" She cried out, miraculously forcing sympathy to the forefront of my mind. She turned and she ran off without another word. I threw my hand out in front of me, wanting her to come back to allow me to apologize, but she was gone, and it was likely better that way, for my apology would be insincere, for I truly believed everything I had said.

No matter how I worded the truth, guilt still built up inside my mind, forcing me to groan in frustration every few minutes on my long journey back to the campsite. Yorokobi, I could only assume, had returned to the place in which her family was staying. I would most definitely need to apologize sooner or later to the family as a whole. I had come tonight to form a bond and gather information, but instead I had flown off the handle twice, and created a rift between me and the family Maugrim specifically wanted me to be close to.

What I did learn, was that 'the radar' would be working very soon. What I did not yet know was when exactly that meant, and what purpose the radar was to serve. I spent a great deal of the walk to the campsite flipping through the photographs I'd taken of Maugrim's work, searching for any details that might clue me in, but found nothing of the sort.

Eventually I'd returned to the campsite, which seemed empty, at least mostly. In the distance I could hear much excitement and yelling, likely another party. Maugrim's followers, as it seemed had no life at all aside from working by Maugrim's side, and partying when he was not around. In fact, once, a woman wandered into the campsite, searching for her husband, and she had found him. Tears of joy fell from her cheeks upon finding him to be alive, but he scarcely took notice of her, brushing her off like a mosquito, telling her to return home, and he turned off a moment later, resuming his conversation with another equally lifeless man. The woman cried to herself as she left the campsite.

It was certainly odd, and I knew there was more happening within these grounds than what met the standard eye, but I had seen enough bizarre activities by this point to understand that when something seemed off, it probably was. There was something seriously wrong with Maugrim, and he was most definitely up to something bigger than what he implied. Not that I had any information just yet on what it was he was aiming for.

Then I came across Evelen. Maugrim's daughter, who in her own way, was just as mysterious as her father. She too was up to something, though perhaps not quite as sinister. Whatever it was, she seemed ashamed of herself. Or perhaps she genuinely felt that if the truth were to come out then serious consequences would ensue.

"Evelen," I said, eyeing up Maugrim's tent. "What are you reading?"

"Learning about wildlife," Evelen told me seriously, and when I looked to her book that fact held true, though I did not recognize any of the words the cover held.

"Where is your father?"

"At the party with the others." She said, not looking up from the book she was reading by the light of a dim lantern. She had curled her legs up underneath her in a fold out chair sitting outside her own tent nearby. "Why?"

"I feel obliged to finally search through the remaining boxes in your father's tent." I told her simply, pulling my bag over my shoulder and dropping it to the ground at my feet.

"Uhm," she said, "be my guest. I'll let you know if anyone comes back. You won't find anything interesting though. I've been through it all."

"We'll see." I said, pushing the hanging doors aside and stepping into the crowded space. "Evelen," I called, to capture her attention, "Have you any ideas of what a 'radar' might be?"

"I have a couple ideas," Evelen's muffled voice answered, "but I can assume you mean in context with what my father is up to. So no, I don't." I did not respond, and instead kept looking. I had already opened the top of a nearby box and begun flipping through the pages inside. Many seemed old, sketches of creatures, seemingly useless. The first box had turned out to be useless, just as Evelen had said it would be. When I was searching through the second box I found an important looking document with Evelen's name written on it.

A birth certificate, it seemed. She was born in the middle of November, four years after my own birth year, to a woman known as Rin Mori, and of course Graul Maugrim. With little more searching I found a photograph of a small baby wrapped in a violet blanket, her eyes wide with wonder. It was charming. There was something else in the picture that interested me. The arms that held the infant were clearly that of her father's, but there was a thin golden chain around the child's neck, sparkling in the fluorescent lights of wherever the picture had been taken. Something seemed off about it all. I wasn't a super hero or anything of the sort, but I could spot a lie when I saw one. This birth certificate was fake.

I set the picture down and quickly found a death certificate for Rin Mori, the very same day as Evelen's birth. I knew that if I were to continue flipping through the pages in this very box I would continue to learn more and more about the mysterious girl of secrets and perhaps even find more lies, but I also knew I would never regain her trust were I to continue putting myself in places where I did not belong. Then again, it may be worth it just to know what she was up to. It could easily have been darker than she let on, and could perhaps lead me to a better understanding of what her father was doing.

I closed the box slowly and quietly, deciding to work on the pile of crates on the opposite end of the tent, but something caught my eye. The small wooden night table next to Maugrim's bed contained a thin drawer that had been propped open ever so slightly.

I moved quickly toward it and placed my fingers around the cold brass handle, ready to pull it open.

Then someone entered the tent behind me.

I spun quickly around to see Evelen. I relaxed momentarily, until she said, "Were you aware that the Fujimoto son had a digimon in his tent?"

I was moving toward her quickly without realizing, "What happened? Did you hurt him?" Evelen's face fell. She was hurt, either because I had accused her, or because she did not expect me to care so much for a digimon. "Did you?"

"No!" She insisted, "I was just wondering if you could convince him to get rid of it. It's not safe here. You're closer to him than I am, I don't think he'll listen to me."

I relaxed, releasing the tension I hadn't noticed building, and turned back to the nightstand. "Of course, I agree. Though not many here seem intelligent enough to solve the mystery of the voices in the tent."

Evelen laughed lightly, "He's not very good at hiding it, is he?" But I wasn't listening anymore. I was pulling the drawer open finally. It had been locked the last time I'd come to the tent. This time though, it slid open with ease. Inside was a mostly empty drawer. The only item inside was a handheld mirror with a large square shaped glass. The casing for the mirror was an old, brassy metal with intricate swirls carved into the surface. I lowered my hand into the drawer watching my curious expression reflect back to me.

When my fingers wrapped around the long handle the glass rippled instantly, causing me to jump in surprise and drop the mirror back to its place.

"Well don't break anything!" Evelen insisted, "Come on now." Again, I ignored her and reached back for the mirror. When my hands gripped the antique this time I was prepared for the glass to ripple like disturbed water. I pulled the glass from the drawer and watched my distorted reflection until it faded out of existence all together. "That's pretty." Evelen said, moving forward, "I've never seen that before." That was all the more reason to keep investigating its seemingly magical properties. If Maugrim had hidden this from even his daughter, there had to be some significance to the mirror.

At first the image was entirely dark, but as my eyes adjusted, and as it seemed, the eyes of the mirror, stone walls faded into existence. I'd seen those walls enough times to know exactly what they were, and before I knew what I was up to, my voice could be heard yelling into the mirror. "Hello!" I called out. "Hello! Is anyone there? Rei! Dracomon!"

"I-I'll keep watch again," Evelen said nervously, backing up to the door, "Try to keep it down though." I nodded to her, thanking her quickly before turning back to the mirror. Someone had to answer, someone _had_ to be there, and for once I genuinely had hope, for what I was seeing was most definitely the Coliseum, and that meant it was not gone in the virus. And that meant those inside were also still alive.

Which meant my sister had to be okay.

"REI!"

 _ **Jou Kido**_ :

I nearly screamed in fright when I heard the voice calling out. I looked over my shoulders, and jumped to my feet, knocking the chair over in the process. I kept looking, searching for whatever had started screaming, it was so close by and my brain was trying to find an escape plan as my heart pounded painfully hard.

"REI!"

I stopped, and turned toward the door, it was just someone calling to Rei. Then my heart nearly skipped a beat, what if she was hurt? I set off toward the door but then froze, remembering that Rei had run out into the virus. I was a horrible friend to Taichi for not remembering that. But if Rei was not here, then who was calling for her? Perhaps she had shown up, just like Kurayami had. It could easily have been Taichi calling out to her. What if she was now in trouble?

I threw the door open, trying to be brave. These corridors always scared me as they were, which was silent, but now with a mysterious yelling, I was not prepared to continue. Sigma's drawings and journal entries were still burning in the back of my mind, but I knew I would not feel comfortable until I had left the Dark Wing.

I had barely made it halfway down the hallway when there was another scream, this time it was so loud and right next to me, and I actually screamed in response. "Jou!" I fell back against the wall, my mouth hanging open as a scream of fright escaped me. I was staring toward a large, dirty, golden frame with a pane of reflective glass held inside. It was a mirror. I knew that because I had walked past it nearly every day since the virus had come. But this time it was not reflecting my horror stricken face, and instead showed me the face of a different boy standing in what looked to me a dimly lit room, or perhaps outside under a canopy of sorts. His white hair was taking most of the frame as his head was larger than life, staring toward me, his blue eyes in a sort of frenzy.

"N-Neo?" I asked hesitantly, "H-how? What?"

"I can only assume that these mirrors are connected to one another through some enchantment," Neo said with his drawling voice, "I cannot be sure, but it seems to make the most sense. I do wonder though, how such an enchantment could come into fruition."

"I-I'll get Dracomon," I said, clambering to my feet nervously.

"No, wait," Neo said sharply, "We might not have much time to communicate." I stopped, waiting for him to continue, staring back at his eyes that were the size of snow globes. It was weird seeing him so close, but he still had perfect skin. It wasn't just some illusion of my less than stellar eyesight, his pores were perfect and clean. "Bring Rei..."

"Neo," I said, instantly using my 'father voice' the one I would use to tell my patients of bad news, "Rei isn't here." Neo looked for a moment like he wanted to climb straight through the mirror and strangle me to death, "I'm so sorry. I-I think she went to find T-Taichi."

"Is he dead too?" Neo asked bluntly, but the fear in his eyes was prominent.

"We don't know that _anyone_ is dead," I told him nervously, "Rei could have survived. She could have found a safe place, or even created one herself."

"Fast-forward two months and she's dead now," Neo said coldly, bitterly. "But Taichi's there, isn't he?" Slowly I nodded, "Of _course_ he is. He _would_ make it back without her."

"I don't think he left her alone intentionally," I said calmly, trying to keep Neo's nerves and emotions under control, "In fact, he didn't even know she had gone until he came from the Temple. He's hurt too." Neo didn't respond. I didn't know him well, I wasn't suited for this kind of personal talk. "How are you talking to me?"

"A mirror," Neo admitted, "A strange mirror, obviously. It shows me the Coliseum. How can you see me?"

"A mirror," I echoed back to him. "It's here on the wall near Sigma's rooms in the Coliseum."

"Sigma's rooms?" Neo questioned.

"Yeah," I nodded, pointing to my left with my thumb, "he has a pretty creepy chamber where he kept all of his plans. I guess he never told you about it. That wouldn't be very secretive."

"No," Neo agreed suspiciously.

Neo seemed more confused than I was now, but I'd had time to adjust to the idea that I was spending time in a psychopath's lair. It was frightening to know that it did not bother me to go from there to my daughter though. Perhaps I had become desensitized to the idea that horror lay around every corner of this building, and that was a dangerous place to be. What if I were slowly snapping and becoming just as insane as Sigma without realizing it? I tried to stop being irrational, but it just came so easy to me, so I forced myself to focus on Neo.

"Where _are_ you?" I asked.

"Inside Maugrim's tent," Neo admitted, "I should be leaving soon. He could return at any moment."

"Wait," I insisted, "Who is Maugrim? Where is that? Where are you?"

Neo actually rolled his eyes as if he thought I should already know all of this information, and it was seriously burdening him to share what he'd learned. "Maugrim is a man who is not directly partnered with whatever the DWD are planning, but in close contact with Director Arnold, the man who sent the virus. He does not trust him though, and plans to double cross him if need be."

"You're in the enemy base?" I asked nervously, "In a tent?"

"Well yes," Neo said, "They are camping here, all gathering together. More men and woman arrive each day, each more brain-dead than the last." I scoffed at his insult, but he shook his head, "I am not being facetious. The people who come here are slowly becoming lifeless. I honestly believe something is going on."

"That's no good," I said nervously, but there really was nothing I could do to help. I was stuck here in the Digital World. Then again, I couldn't know where it was that Neo and this enemy camp actually was because he had neglected to tell me a thing. "So what world are you on?"

"Earth," Neo said with a brief nod, "Your wife is here with Sora. She hates me."

"She couldn't possibly _hate_ you..." I tried feebly, but honestly I didn't care what she felt for Neo, because now I knew she was okay. I knew that Sora was okay. It seemed likely actually that Momoe could feel resentment, or something deeper or stronger toward Neo actually. If he'd done anything to upset her in a time like this. "C-could you let me speak to her?"

Neo shook his head, but actually appeared to be sorry, "I apologize," He said, "but no. I don't think it wise for me to take the mirror away. But I can do something for you that might be just as good." He then disappeared before I could ask questions. For a moment I thought he would just leave me there, thinking it was funny, or gotten bored with the conversation, but then he was back. "Take a look at who Hideto's brother has been taking care of."

Neo hoisted a very familiar face up into view and then the grinning, positive form of Gomamon filled the entire mirror. My body felt numb with relief as I stared toward him. It had not occurred to me once in the past two months that he could possibly be alive still, and seeing him now felt surreal, incorrect even. Like someone had tampered with the past. "G-Gomamon!"

"Hey there," Gomamon said, "Miss me?"

"You know I did," I said, not taking any of his humour today. Knowing he was alive, knowing Momoe and Sora were okay... that was enough for me right now. That was good enough. "I-I'll be right back."

I rushed off, moving as quickly as I could. If that Maugrim fellow returned at any moment, Neo would be gone, and Gomamon too, but I had something I needed to do really quickly. I found the two individuals I needed and lifted them both into my arms, running back. "Taichi," hissed to Yuuko Yagami, "Send him to me, I'm in Sigma's rooms."

"Sure thing," she said quickly, hearing the urgency in my voice.

It had been all of five minutes since I had left the mirror, but Neo already looked bored and like he could be doing so many better things with his time. "Neo!" Dracomon shouted from my arms, leaping to a place where he could see his partner.

"Hello there," Neo said, and though he tried to suppress it, a smile did creep onto his face, "I'm glad to see you are well." Then his face fell and I could tell he was thinking of Rei.

"I am," Dracomon confirmed. He then went on to explain who else as in the Coliseum and okay, while I lifted Emiko higher into my arm and stepped closer so as to hear Gomamon as he whispered his greetings to her. Emiko's hand reached out and she touched the mirror, wanting to get to her friend, but they could not touch.

"But he's okay," I whispered to her, "He's alive."

Emiko looked up to me and smiled, nodding, but she wanted more, she wanted to be _with_ him, and I could not give her that, at least not yet. "As touching as this is," Neo said, sending an apologetic look to Dracomon, "Our reunion is bound to be cut short. Gomamon must return to his safe space, and I must return the mirror to the drawer."

"Wait," I insisted, "We can use the mirror for contacting one another."

"I'm sure we could," Neo nodded, "We are doing just that as we speak, but this is not my mirror to make use of. It is in fact our enemy's, and were he to catch me not only inside his tent, but using his personal belongings to share his secretive plans with his foes, he would have me _beheaded_." I knew he was right, but it still didn't mean I wanted him to give up the mirror. If he could bring it to the others, we could talk to them. Maybe together we could find a way to return to each other. "On that note," Neo added, "Maugrim I believe has been using this mirror to communicate with someone outside of this realm. He often speaks with a woman in the confines of his tent. A woman who is not inside with him."

"Are you suggesting what I think you are?" I asked, my nerves building quickly.

Neo's eyes flicked to Emiko and then back to me, unsure if he should speak his mind in front of her, but he did not waste a second more, "Yes," he confirmed, "there must be someone inside the Coliseum who is in league with him. Someone who is speaking with Maugrim making use of the connection these mirrors possess."

"Well that's creepy," Gomamon muttered quietly, "But also, you're jumping to conclusions. It could be any number of reasons. We don't know anything about some of the other worlds, maybe Maugrim has a very tiny female friend who you just can't see. Maybe she's in here right now." Neo and I shared a look of understanding. Sure we were jumping to conclusions, but Neo's theory certainly made much more sense than Gomamon's.

"What are Maugrim's plans?" I asked, "You said he had plans, what are they?"

"Well I do not know," Neo admitted, "Though as far as I can understand, a radar is being built. And if I were to take a guess, using what I have previously learned, I would assume the radar is to locate digital entities to further rid them from existence. That must be the DWD work however, as Maugrim has no interest in eliminating the digimon themselves. He craves something larger, he is using the men in charge of the genocide as his stepping stones. I do not know what he wants, but it is dangerous."

Right. Of course we weren't out of the woods yet. I knew the virus was still prominent, and that we still had enemies, but knowing that there were _more_ to deal with was troubling. "You need to find out what that is." I told him.

"Obviously," Neo drawled.

"Sorry, you knew that," I said quietly, "More importantly, you need to get more information from Arnold. You can help us delete the virus, Neo. If you can get rid of it we can survive longer, and better. Then we'll find a way out of this world and we can form an actual group. The two of us, Mari, Daisuke, Taichi and Sora. It's only six of us, but it's something."

"And Yamato," Neo added, "He's here too. That's seven."

"That's enough," I said weakly. It felt horrible to think of our team and how seriously damaged it had become. There were only seven of us left? Sure, Hikari and Koushiro were _likely_ alive, but having no contact with them whatsoever surely meant that we would not see them for longer than just the two months we had already lived. If ever. "Seven Digidestined."

"Digidestined?" A female voice questioned before her dark hair appeared in the mirror's frame.

"Go away!" Neo insisted, pushing her back gently, "Please stop learning things about me without giving me the opportunity to do the same to you!" The girl stuck her tongue out and reached her arms toward Gomamon. "Yes, please take him to safety."

"Bye, Jou!" Gomamon called, "Bye Emiko!" But I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye, because he was gone quickly. I turned to Neo, confused, but he shrugged it off.

"She's trustworthy," Neo promised. And I believed him. "I should be taking my leave as well."

"Don't," I insisted, "There's more to say, I'm sure."

"Most definitely," Neo agreed, "but it may not be worth it. If I am caught, this could cause more problems than is worth."

"Take the mirror." I said flatly. "Take it. You might not get another chance with it. You have to keep it."

"I will do no such thing." Neo assured me.

"You _have_ to!" I insisted. "Bring it to—" I froze and turned to Emiko, "Someone."

Neo seemed to understand, but still did not see this as a positive plan. "I can't do that," He said, shaking his head, "it would not be safe."

"It would be, if you'd just do it." I argued, "How would he ever know it was you?"

"Perhaps the tiny lady in his tent will tell him the truth," Neo said dryly. I rolled my eyes and he responded by doing the same. "If you wish for me to remain close with those who reside here to learn what I can about that virus, then I must not break any more rules. You know they are alive, and if I am to see Momoe I shall let her know her daughter is alright, but that is all I will promise you."

"Neo," I tried, " _please_."

"I can't," He said, looking over his shoulder, "Goodbye, Jou."

"Wait!" Dracomon and I called as one. Neo flashed a smile toward Dracomon before his face vanished and we were staring at our own reflections. Emiko looked confused and frightened. This was the very first time she'd been permitted to set foot in the Dark Wing, so I understood. Dracomon looked hurt that Neo did not want to stay and talk with him longer, and I looked far more emotional than I wished I had. I looked older too with the dim lighting, it was not a particularly good sight to see.

"Jou!" I turned to see Taichi hurrying down the corridor, "Mom said you needed me?"

I looked from him back to my reflection in the gold framed mirror and sighed, "I have some things we need to talk about."

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Momoe does not believe in apologies and Yamato takes a daring move, trusting that he will Not be Sorry with the outcome.


	21. You're Not Sorry

**Y/N:** Writing as Momoe, knowing that she only knows of a limited number of survivors, made this a very emotional chapter for me. It wasn't quite _fun_ getting into her head, but I enjoyed getting to explore more of the emotional range of one of my characters. Not a lot of characters can really delve into that particular mindset—that of a mother that lost her child. I know I'm not doing it justice, because I'm not a mother, and I've never lost a child, and that's a deep, horrible thing to go through, and I can't access those emotions, but I hope that I've given it an honest try, and that you can at least feel _some_ of what Momoe must be going through.

 **U/N:** If I'm remembering correctly, Matt's dad is in this chapter, maybe only a bit but he's still there and I like his relationship with Matt so that's always fun. There's also a reveal here that you probably weren't expecting. I'm just guessing of course, but when you're not looking for a secret it's hard to figure out what it is ;)

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 21: You're Not Sorry**

 _ **Momoe Kido:**_

The table was smooth and shiny thanks to its glaze. Natsuni had kept it in pristine condition with the use of tablecloths at every meal. If it weren't for the scorch marks along the very edges of one side, I could have forgotten that it had ever been attacked by the vicious flames of the early DWD. The same could not be said for the walls. There were remnants of the wallpaper, but the rest was charred. There were very few places that were exceptions. After each propaganda video Katsue released, Akira and Takashi would scrub at the wall before painting whatever crest the video had been about. It was a reminder for _us_ , so that we didn't forget the crests that were so vital to us now.

I knew there were more pressing matters that I ought to be working on, like helping Natsuni build her case against Morestuna, or being with Chiziru and Mantarou. They'd gone to our parents house, and while I enjoyed being in my father's presence, I couldn't handle my mother. Mom finally caved when she found out that the people she was supporting—aka the DWD—were the ones who tried to kill her family. She couldn't, however, believe that Yorokobi had anything to do with it, which irritated the hell out of me. Yorokobi was in the Digital World. She'd been in a position to attack the people I cared about, and she'd taken that chance when she started shooting at the convoy that was bringing Jun and my daughter to the Coliseum. She hadn't hit either of them, but she did get Palmon, which was horrible too.

But nope, Mom wouldn't believe that. She still loved Yorokobi and thought she was the best thing to _ever_ happen to our family. Chiziru and I could think of very obvious exceptions—our children, for starters, as well as Jou, Chiziru's boyfriend, and Ken, not to mention my siblings and myself—but Mom wouldn't hear of it. Yorokobi was a godsend, and Mantarou was a fool for letting her go.

I thought Mom was a fool, but I couldn't tell her that.

It hurt though, knowing that Mom would pick Yorokobi over her own children, over her own grandchildren.

Another thing that hurt, was the fact that four days ago, when I'd been all raring to go, they'd banned me from getting my revenge on Arnold. I wasn't going to kill him. Probably. I just wanted to rough him up a bit, make him hurt just as he'd made _me_ hurt. But no. I wasn't allowed to go, and then I'd seen Neo betraying us completely. I'd lost my daughter, my husband, my partner and my sister, and nearly all of my in-laws. I was feeling pretty horrible and they wouldn't let me do anything to try and feel better.

It didn't help that everyone was walking on glass around me, like they thought I was going to break— _again_ —at any given moment. They didn't realize that they were doing more harm than good. I was stronger than they were giving me credit for, but by being careful and gentle with me all the time they were just ensuring that the situation was constantly on my mind. I would've been easier to handle all of my pain and sadness if they would just treat me like a normal person.

The pain was bad enough without the reminders. Day in and day out it felt like a part of me was missing, and that everything remaining was going to close in on itself, leaving me a shrivelled up version of my former self. I had to actively try to keep myself functioning each day, and every word spoken, every step taken was painful. It was a herculean effort just to eat my breakfast each morning.

I was also incredibly annoyed with Mantarou, who apparently decided he wanted to start up a relationship with Sora here and now, making everything awkward. Natsuni had glared at him almost constantly since the start of his date yesterday, and it was so obvious that Yamato was upset by the whole idea of it. I was just unimpressed. It was hardly the time for this drama. I wasn't going to deal with it. I had enough on my plate already, and my brother could just leave me out of it. I was _not_ going to sit there quietly and listen to him complain about Yamato's frosty attitude.

It was obvious that Mantarou was going after Yamato's dream girl. I thought Sora was the only one that wasn't in the know on that front, but apparently my brother was oblivious to the blatantly obvious as well. It was a pity, but I really didn't care. If he got himself hurt, it was his own fault.

"How do you feel about Yamato?" Sora asked Katsue somewhere to my left. I might've known more had I been able to tear my eyes off of the shiny table with the burnt edges.

"That's not really any of your business," Katsue told her pointedly. "You're a taken woman now, aren't you? Don't think we didn't notice your date."

"I'm not asking for myself," Sora said far too defensively. "I'm his friend, a curious friend that's worried about his heart being broken again."

"I seem to recall _you_ being the one to break it," Katsue said sharply. "If you're just a curious friend, just ask him yourself." The pair were silent for awhile, and I knew Sora had a defeated look on her face. It was the only thing that could explain Katsue's next comment. "We're not dating, if that's what you're asking. We didn't work out, and I wouldn't go through that again, even if he _was_ interested. I'm not."

"Thank you," Sora said, sounding happy with that response.

It just fueled my anger at her. She was obviously toying around with my brother's feelings, and while he was oblivious to Yamato's feelings for Sora, Sora was _not_ oblivious to her own feelings for our Digital Man. She was dating my brother, even though she was in love with another man, and it was just petty, rude and cruel to string my brother along when he may have actual, genuine feelings for her.

I wasn't really invested in their relationship, though. I was taking out my anger and jealousy on them, because they _could_ be together, and my husband and daughter had been taken from me. I wanted Jou to be with me, at my side forever. I missed him, I loved him, and I wanted him back. But what longing I felt for my husband paled in comparison to the desperation I felt for Emiko. I was angry that the DWD had taken her from me, and I was angry that Mom was _still_ choosing the DWD over her kids, after everything they'd done. I was angry that the DWD managed to steal Neo away from the digidestined, and I was furious that the DWD were creating monsters in their basement.

There was a knock at the door, and I ignored it. I was probably imagining things anyway. I could feel my mind growing wilder with each passing day. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility that I could be hearing sounds that weren't real. Every morning I woke to the sound of Emiko giggling, calling for me to wake up. That definitely wasn't real. My little girl was gone. Ripped from me in the most permanent of ways and it was killing me inside.

Yutaka and Akira passed by the table, heading towards the door. I could hear Yamato talking excitedly to someone, and pried my sight off of the tabletop and looked to see who he was talking to. I saw the white hair and the smug smirk, and knew nothing but anger. I was seething with it. How dare he come here? He joined the DWD, he joined the people that stole my baby.

"Sorry for not waiting," Neo said with that stupid smirk of his that made him look like he thought he was better than everyone else. He probably _did_ think that too, the smug, traitorous bastard. "I _could_ have, but I supposed you would not appreciate it if I drew attention towards myself by knocking on the door to a public building."

I snarled at him, surprising myself with the ferocity of it. I was a mother ripped from her daughter, and I was like a lioness who'd just found her next meal. "What are you doing here?" I demanded.

"Okay, calm down," Yamato told me, holding his hands out trying to placate me. Obviously they didn't think he was much of a threat, but I knew better. I'd _seen_ him. Maybe I should've shared that knowledge when I'd gotten back, but I'd been too angry to say anything, and then they'd showed me the monsters, and it slipped my mind. I'd had something _new_ to focus my anger on. "But yeah, Neo, how did you find us?"

"This is the location for all of the digidestined gatherings for the last several years," Neo said, rolling his eyes. "I would suggest you find a different base, if you're trying for secrecy."

"It's been working for us just fine so far," Sora said. "It's good to see you, Neo. To know you're alive. I was so worried about you."

"Momoe didn't tell you?" he asked, confused. I was angry that everyone seemed to turn on me in that instant, falling for his charm without hesitation. I ignored them.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded once more.

"I brought you a present," he said, holding out a blue bag he'd had slung over his shoulder. I eyed it suspiciously. "It's heavy, and you won't want me to drop it. I suggest taking it instead."

I grumbled to myself and took the bag from him and set it on the floor at my feet. I wasn't going to open it, but with the eyes of all three digidestined, the three teenage wolves, Natsuni and her father, Hiroaki, Jenna, Chi and Katsue I felt obligated to do so. I was thankful that the four original digidestined weren't there too, or I wouldn't have been able to keep the glare firmly on my face. I might've looked suitably chastised with so many friends against me.

Crouching to the ground I found the zipper on the bag and started pulling. Once the bag was open, I pulled the sides apart, only to have something white, orange and purple fly out of the bag at my face. At first, I thought maybe Neo was getting some sort of revenge on me, for discovering his secret double-agent status, and his connection to the DWD, but then I heard a loud shout.

"SURPRISE!"

"Gomamon!" Sora gasped.

"It's me," Gomamon said with a grin. "Did ya miss me? You did, didn't you? I know it!"

"How?" I asked, taking in every inch of him and feeling utterly ecstatic, knowing he was okay and in front of me. His hair could do with a little grooming, and he could definitely eat a couple extra portions, but he was whole, and he didn't have a tracking device on him anywhere either. I narrowed my eyes at Neo, wondering what his plan was. Did he want to lure me into a false sense of security _just_ so he could pull a fast one of the lot of us? I couldn't figure out his angle.

"Hey, now Monimon isn't the only digimon," Yutaka said. "That's good, right?"

"Yeah..." I said still suspicious. I was also feeling a little guilty for not being more excited. I had Gomamon now, I had a member of my family. It was just that his presence was a stark reminder once again that Jou, Emiko, Bearmon and Monmon were gone.

"No they're not," Gomamon assured me. I was embarrassed for a second, at being caught thinking out loud. The second passed though, and my embarrassment faded into confusion. "I talked to them. I talked to Jou _and_ Emiko. Neo helped me."

"What?" Sora asked desperately. "How is that possible?"

"When?" Yamato asked. "Did you learn anything about who else is there?"

"Where are they?" Katsue demanded. "They can't be in the Digital World. The virus was sent to destroy everything."

"Why?" I asked. "Why would he help you?"

"Because he's my friend," Gomamon said, looking at me like I was being ridiculous. "He had a mirror."

"It's not mine," Neo specified. "I can't leave it here, I must take it back with me as quickly as possible. I thought, though, that you may enjoy a few minutes of connection between the worlds." He pulled a mirror from his jacket. It was an ornate, square hand mirror. It looked so unassuming, but he looked into it, before turning it to face me.

I watched as the glass rippled like water, and then my reflection faded, replaced by a new image. There were two sets of bunk beds on either side of the small room, and bright yellow curtains with colourful fish scattered across them acting as doors. It was a room in the Coliseum. I'd heard Yamato talk about how our rooms _here_ at the restaurant resembled them. It was the people though, that really caught my attention. Taichi and Mari were on the top bunk on one side. Tai was sprawled out, but Mari was perched on the edge, her feet resting on the ladder that brought her up there. Gatomon was curled into Taichi's side, while Agumon napped with Bearmon and Betamon on the floor next to the bunks. The bottom bunk was filled with Terriermon, Labramon and Wormmon who were all lying around Haruki who was rolling over. They made a game of jumping out of his way each time he got closer. He giggled incessantly.

Davis was sitting with an arm around Kurayami, also on the floor, rolling a ball across the floor towards Warg and Melga who had their backs toward the mirror. They sent the ball back within seconds of catching it. Veemon, Gabumon and Dracomon were crammed onto the top bunk on the other side, while Tapirmon floated next to them. They were playing a card game of some sort. Tentomon was buzzing through the air, and Palmon was on top of Goblimon's shoulders, trying to catch him with her poison ivy. Armadillomon sat on the bunk below the card game, with Monmon lying on his back

But none of them were more important to me than the sight of my little Emiko. She was sitting on her father's knee, looking up to him with wide eyes.

"I'm bored," Taichi groaned. "Jou, are you _sure_ Neo's going to talk through a mirror? You weren't making it up? It seems pretty farfetched to me."

"Seriously, a talking mirror is where you draw the line?" Daisuke asked with a laugh.

"Neo said he couldn't do it," Jou admitted. "But I know he will. He saw Emiko's face, he's got a heart, doesn't he?"

"That is debatable," Mari joked.

"I still can't believe you had us lug this big heavy mirror down here," Daisuke grumbled.

"Like you did any of the work," Kurayami said with a tiny smile. He grinned at her and shot a thumbs-up at Veemon who saluted him before going back to his card game.

"If he doesn't come back soon, we're going to have to leave, you know that, right?" Taichi reminded my husband. "We can't sit around forever. There are digimon out there who need our support."

"I'm supposed to be heading out to Primary Village soon," Jou said with a sigh. "I can't really keep them waiting. But I don't want to miss this..."

"Jou?" I called hesitantly, wondering if this was just a one-way mirror. I could hear them, but could they hear me. I greedily drank in the sight of my family. "Emiko?" I said, still unsure.

"Momoe?" Jou said. His head whirled towards the mirror, and his face lit up. I wished I wasn't such a mess, but really when you have to bath in an industrial dishwasher, there wasn't much you could do. He didn't exactly look fresh as a daisy either. "Momoe! It's you. I _knew_ I could count on Neo. I told you, didn't I, Taichi?"

"Jou," I said softly, looking at his face. He picked Emiko up and walked up to the mirror. I got a better look at her, and she looked beautiful. "Hi baby," I said, feeling tears drip down my face. "I miss you. I _love_ you."

"I love you too," Emiko said, crying at the sight of me. "I thought you weren't ever comin' back. I hoped and I hoped. But I didn't think I was doin' it right. Dad said you would come, and I tried to believe him."

"Good girl," I said. "I wanted to come back, every day. I can't get to you, sweetheart. I thought something bad happened to you."

"I got in trouble today," she whispered. "That's bad."

"What did you do?" I asked, feeling a smile spread across my face, despite the tears.

"I kicked Masa 'cause he took the green crayon. I wanted the green crayon. He was drawing a bird, I was drawing Monmon. I _needed_ the green crayon," she said. "Mrs Kae put me in time out for a whole two minutes. Literally."

"Good for her," I said, trying to look disapproving, but I was too happy that she was _able_ to kick Masa that I didn't even care that she'd done it.

"Masa," I heard Sora whisper behind me, before raising her voice. "Someone go get him!"

"Sora?" Taichi asked, sounding excited. No. He couldn't talk to Sora. I was talking to my daughter. He could just leave us alone.

"It's me," Sora called with a watery voice. She was crying too. "Go get him. I'm going to call Chiziru. She should get back soon. She needs to see her son. She thinks he's—she thinks something bad happened."

"I'll get him," Daisuke offered. I could see him hopping to his feet over Jou's shoulder, and he slipped into the hallway.

As far as reasons to share the mirror go, letting Masa and Chiziru talk was a pretty good one. I couldn't be selfish, no matter how much I wanted to, because she was going through the same thing I was. She thought her son was dead, and if he wasn't, then she deserved to see him. I would've hated her if we'd been in each others' place, and she didn't let me see Emiko.

"Are you eating enough?" I asked Emiko. "Are you sleeping? Are you having fun?"

"I'm scared," she whispered. "But I get to play with Dad lots now, and he takes care of me, and brings me food and lets me play with Mr Ogremon's class. I get to go to school! I learn all the digimon stuff. It's fun." She turned to beam at Jou and my heart was breaking at her fear, but I was so happy that Jou was taking care of her alright on his own. I knew he was often afraid that he wasn't a good father. I knew without a doubt that wasn't true. The look on our daughter's face was enough to show me that. I hoped it was enough to convince him too.

"Have you made lots of friends?" I asked, trying to keep her talking. I loved the sound of her voice. I craved it more than air. I _needed_ to keep her talking. As long as she talked, I knew she was alright.

"Uh huh," she grinned, looking back to me. "I miss you though."

"I miss you too, baby," I said, still bawling my eyes out.

"I want to talk to Gabumon," Yamato muttered.

"Don't interrupt them," his father scolded.

"Like you don't want to do the same thing," he countered. My heart squeezed again. Hiroaki's son was somewhere, and so were his wife and partner. I didn't want to give up the mirror, but Jou had heard them, and was stepping away, calling for Gabumon to come and take his turn. The digimon wasted no time whatsoever crawling out of the bed he'd been sitting on, and calling for Yamato.

"Can someone get my family?" Jenna asked hesitantly. "I need to see them. And Kudamon too."

"We can't," Mari told her, as Kurayami got up to go get them for Jenna. "Mary and your Dad are here, and Kudamon's fine. But Willis, Michael and Lopmon aren't."

"What?" Jenna gasped. "That's not fair. I just get hope back and then they're gone again, just like that?"

"Michael's with Mimi, Hideto and Tatum," Taichi said quickly. Agumon, who had woken up with all of our talking—along with Betamon and Bearmon—jumped to his feet.

"Palmon might've said that Lopmon was with them... but I can't remember, 'cause she told me awhile ago, just in passing," Agumon said.

"I did say that," Palmon said. "No one listens to me." I felt bad, because I hadn't even noticed her. She had been on Jou's other side, and once I'd seen Emiko, I hadn't cared enough to continue looking around. "It's like I'm still invisible sometimes."

"You didn't tell me!" Terriermon growled, causing Haruki to whimper. Labramon glared at Terriermon and he apologized. He took a few deep breaths and looked to Palmon. "You let me think my twin was gone forever for two whole months. You should have told me. I've been looking for her in the virus!"

"I'm sorry," Palmon said sadly. "I really thought you knew. I didn't know nobody listened to me _at all_."

"Gabumon," Yamato said, finally getting a chance to take his turn. "How are you buddy?"

"Angry," Gabumon said quietly. "Relieved. Happy. Angry again."

"Why so angry?" Yamato asked tentatively.

"You left me, without saying anything," Gabumon said. He broke down in tears, and I started crying harder again, just when I thought I might be able to stop. "You left me behind. I didn't know where you were going. I didn't know if you were safe. The virus came, and I thought you didn't make it. You left me alone, Yamato."

"I'm so sorry," Yamato said, his voice thick with emotion. He probably didn't want to cry in front of his former band mates, but I could tell he was pretty close to that breaking point.

"I was so scared," Gabumon told him.

"I'm sorry," Yamato repeated.

"Don't leave me again," Gabumon begged him.

"I gotta get to you first," Yamato reminded him.

Gabumon continued crying, and the yellow curtains fluttered as Daisuke carried Masa into the room. He was followed quickly by Sora's parents, who were staring at the mirror with desperate eyes. Natsuko Takaishi was last, but she was the first to get a chance at the mirror, as her son was still talking into it.

"Mom?" Yamato asked, his voice cracking a little. She looked over him, holding a hand to her mouth. Her eyes watered slightly, shimmering in the light of the small room.

"Yamato," she whispered. "You're okay. You're okay. You're alive. I was afraid you wouldn't be. I didn't know what I was going to do."

"I'm alive," he confirmed. "And you're alive too."

"I am," she said.

"What about Takeru?" Hiroaki asked. "Where's he? Is he there?"

"No," Natsuko choked. "I was hoping he was with you. Kurayami said...but I hoped. I hoped he'd found a way home to you."

"Where did Kurayami say he was?" Yamato demanded.

"She doesn't know," Daisuke said testily. "She didn't abandon him either, before you go accusing her."

"I wouldn't do that," Yamato said defensively.

"Takeru is one of our six unknowns," Taichi said from his place on the top bunk. "Takeru was with Ken and Miyako the last anyone saw any of them, but we don't know any more than that. Willis and Kiyoko left with Mimi, but they obviously got separated, because Mimi ended up going through a gate with Michael, Tatum and Hideto—and Lopmon, I guess. Palmon got separated from them too. The last is Rei. She left the Coliseum around the same time that Lopmon did. She was heading to our house, and then she was going to meet up with me. Apparently. I wouldn't know, because she never made it to the Temple. I have no idea where she is."

Neo's eye twitched and his jaw clenched, and I was reminded that we were talking about his sister. I felt bad for him, even through my confusion and my hatred. He was still a person. He loved his sister. Maybe this would be enough to pull him out of the DWD's clutches.

"We're reasonably certain everyone else is fine though," Daisuke said, trying to sound more upbeat, but listing off their potentially dead friends wasn't a pleasant thing. It was especially heart wrenching for me to hear, because my baby sister was on that list with her husband. I'd just gotten my family back, only to lose some of it again.

"Is Fumiko alright?" Hiroaki asked, looking awkward asking about his new wife, while his ex-wife was listening in. He was met with a long silence. He was starting to look worried by the time anyone could bring themselves to talk about her.

"We could _try_ to go get her," Daisuke finally said. "But she's not really being responsive at the moment. She kind of shut herself off a little even _before_ the virus hit. She's practically catatonic now. Meiyomon's with her..."

"No," Hiroaki said. "Let Meiyomon try to help her. I don't want to add more strain to her." Everyone on the other side of the mirror looked incredibly relieved by his decision. I got the feeling that talking with Fumiko wasn't very high on anybody's to-do list. I was worried about her, wondering just how bad she'd gotten to make them all act this way.

"And Iori?" Natsuni asked cautiously. "You said everyone else was fine...so he's okay?"

"He had a key," Jou said. "I know he used it. He's smart."

"That's it?" I asked. Jou shrugged his shoulders.

"What about Hikari?" Natsuni asked eagerly. They were roommates. It made sense. Goblimon was waving to her, and she waved back, blowing a kiss his way. He caught it and then looked embarrassed, because of all of the stares that were pointed his way.

"She went through a gate that Koushiro opened," Taichi said firmly. "We don't know what world though."

"He's gone?" Sora asked. "What are we supposed to do without him? He's _always_ there when we come up with plans. How's Biyomon? How's Tentomon?"

"I'm fine," Tentomon buzzed. "I miss him, and you, and Mimi. But I'm okay. I know that you're all safe, just in other worlds. It's not much more difficult now than it was either of the times you were separated from us for three years apiece. Biyomon's still in Primary Village."

"We'll be going there soon," Daisuke offered. "If you want to send a message."

"Tell her I love her, and I'm sorry," Sora said. "She needs to know that."

"Okay..." he said, not asking what she was sorry about. He probably didn't feel it was any of his business, which was great and all, but I kind of wanted to know. I also wanted everyone to stop standing in front of Emiko, so that I could see her clearly again. I didn't like having her hidden from me.

"Sora," Toshiko said loudly. "I heard you were in prison. Tell me that was a nasty lie."

"It wasn't," Sora said. "I got arrested and they're still after me."

"My daughter is an escaped convict?" Toshiko asked, looking a little faint for a second, before grinning. "You're a tough girl. You don't let them catch you, no matter what."

"I'll try not to," Sora said.

Kurayami walked back through the curtains before Sora's father could say anything, and Mr Washington raced forward, desperately calling Jenna's name. Kudamon was wrapped around his shoulders, and the three of them had a nice touching reunion that I couldn't pay attention to, because Tentomon had finally moved and I was able to see my daughter again. She was twirling her hair around her finger, sitting on Jou's lap and kicking her feet. Masa was standing next to her and she was holding his hand tightly as he waited for his mother. She was so sweet when she wanted to be. I wished she wanted that more often.

But I'd take her as a terror right now if it meant I could actually hold her in my arms.

"I don't mean to break up any touching moments, but we need to talk about plans," Taichi said. "I need to know anything that you've got on Arnold or this Maugrim guys' plans."

"Who's Maugrim?" Yutaka asked. "We've only been tailing Arnold."

"Arnold is working with Veronica and her team from New York," Jenna offered.

"And Mimi's old friends, Michan and Tako," Sora added.

"The Fujimotos are also in his back pocket," Neo said.

"Yes," Natsuni agreed. "They've been going around with the Goutokuji's doing everything in their power to discredit everything that Yamato and Sora stand for. They've made it seem like Sora did a bunch of really terrible things, and they're the reason Yamato is public enemy number one."

"Neo works for the bad guys now," I pointed out. "We could just ask him."

He rolled his eyes when a suspicious silence settled over the groups on either side of the mirror. "I'm learning all that I can by integrating myself into the enemy's life. I'm... _roomies_ "—he said the word with such utter disgust that I nearly laughed—"with Maugrim's son, and I talk with his daughter." Gomamon snorted, and Neo pointedly paid him no attention. "I've been trying to learn his plans, but he's playing this close to the chest. He's very nearly trusting me at this point. That is why I need to return the mirror. If I don't, he'll become suspicious of me, and all of my hard work will go to waste. I can't afford to stay much longer."

"But Chiziru's not here yet," Sora pointed out. "You can't take this from her. Even _you_ can't be that cruel. Just a few more minutes. Please?"

"Fine," he said. "But it's not _your_ head on the chopping block."

We didn't have long to wait, as it turned out, because Chiziru crashed through the front door right then, looking frantically around for the magical mirror Sora had told her would allow her to see her son. She took it right out of Jenna's hands—who had gently taken it from Neo, so he could rest his arms. She was thoughtful like that. The thought hadn't occurred to me. Literally.

"Masa," Chiziru called loudly. "Masa, come and talk to Mommy."

"Mommy?" Masa called uncertainly. He caught sight of her in the mirror though, and ran at it. Daisuke was there to lift him up so he could see into the mirror. "Mommy! I missed you lots. I got a partner now, but that meanie Willis took my digivice a'cause someone tooked his. But he's still _my_ partner, not Willis' a'cause Willis already gots two."

"That's amazing sweetheart," Chiziru cried. "What's his name?"

"Kunemon," Masa said proudly. "We're bestest friends now. Mrs Kae looks after us with Wormmon. We always have lotsa fun. I miss you though. I drew lotsa pictures so that you can know all the fun things I did."

Chiziru was openly crying now, and I looked away, trying to give her some space—but mostly because Daisuke's elbow was covering up my view of my daughter, and I was disappointed by it. Mantarou was awkwardly standing by the door with a girl at his side.

"Why'd you bring _her_ here?" Sora asked, getting defensive right off. At first, I thought she might be jealous—even though she was in love with Yamato while dating my brother, and would be a giant hypocrite if that were the case—but that wasn't it. "She shouldn't be here, not after all the work she'd put into setting it on fire."

The girl looked ashamed of herself, but didn't say anything. She just held out a hand, offering Sora a memory stick for a computer. Sora was caught off guard. She'd been prepared for a fight, not a potential peace offering. Sora reached out and took the offered piece of technology.

"It might help you," the girl said. "I can't stay. I'm betraying Michan by being here at all, but I couldn't just stand by and allow Michan to dictate my actions anymore. Michan has become a monster, and I don't like it." She stopped and eyed Gomamon uncomfortably. "I'm trying to be a better person, but I can't abandon hope for Michan yet. I'm giving you that video to try and make amends for my actions. It's not enough, and I know that. But it's what I can do for now. I have to get back before anyone notices it's missing. I don't want them to know it was me."

She ran out the door without so much as a goodbye. Sora eyed the memory stick, unsure of what to do. I was finally able to place the girl, realizing that she had to be Tako, if she was so dedicated to Michan. She was one of Mimi's old friends.

My eyes followed Mantarou as he made his way over to Chiziru. I was surprised to see Emiko was back to being in the front, with Jou holding her up next to Masa. I hurriedly followed Mantarou, and stared at my daughter, trying to get as much out of this short visit as I possibly could.

"Hey kiddos," Mantarou greeted them. They giggled at him. He asked them the same questions Chiziru and I already had. How they were doing, were they having fun? The usual stuff. "How's Gotsumon doing without me?"

"He's fine," Masa said. "He's lots of fun."

"He practices..." Emiko started. She waited for Jou to whisper the word in her ear before continuing. "He practices _kendo_ now in Armadillomon's classes." Natsuni gasped and I knew the significance. I'd hung around Iori a lot over the years, considering he and Jou were practically the best of friends. Armadillomon had started teaching kendo as a way of honouring Iori. Obviously, they assumed Iori was okay, just in a different world, but it was a very sweet gesture on Armadillomon's part.

"Neo looks like he's ready to leave," Katsue said bossily. "I know you guys won't be my biggest fan, but I need to ask the tough questions. It might be best if the kids weren't there for this." Jou and Daisuke put the kids down, and the Washingtons led them out of the room. My heart broke a little as I watched Emiko leave. I never wanted to take my eyes off of her. The Takenouchi's, and Natsuko stayed with the digidestined and their digimon.

"First things first," Katsue said, pulling out a notebook. "Is Jun recovering?"

"I got her the antidote," Jou answered quickly and my heart seemed to ooze relief. I hadn't even remembered Jun in all of the excitement of seeing Emiko again.

"Were there many confirmed deaths?" Katsue asked next.

"D'Arcmon," Taichi said. "Jackie too. Jun said there were nine deaths over at ShogunGekomon's palace, and a couple more that we know of scattered across our region. Of course, there are probably a whole lot we can't confirm at all. I'm sure we missed a lot of digimon when we were putting up barriers."

"What about DemiDevimon?" Yamato asked. "We found his partner. Please don't make me tell her he's dead."

"He's fine. Really sad, but he's physically okay," Mari assured us.

"Morestuna is dead," Kurayami said in a flat voice. Natsuni started swearing up a storm, shocking her father and just about everyone at her language.

"Everything I've been working on is useless then," she said, once her initial anger had died away. She sank to the ground, and I felt back for her. She'd been working tirelessly putting a case together against that man, and now there was nothing to show for it.

"Not necessarily," her father whispered, comforting her.

"Just a couple of the crest digimon remains unaccounted for," Taichi said. "The digimon of knowledge, tenacity and pride."

"We also haven't had much luck in trying to get out of the Digital World," Jou said. "We're doing our best, but all three of our resident geniuses are gone, and we don't have much to go off of."

"I have to take it now," Neo said. He'd been patient, and we'd taken advantage of his peace offering, potentially putting his life on the line.

"I love you, Jou," I said quickly. Several other similar calls were shouted around me from either side of the mirror. "I love you too Bearmon. And tell Emiko how much I love her again, please?"

"I promise," he assured me. "I love you too. I'll miss you."

"And I you," I said, crying yet again. I was starting to wonder if I had ever stopped at all. The glass in the mirror rippled again, and then all that remained was my reflection. My shoulders drooped. I was so relieved to see that my daughter was safe. She was healthy, alive and _mostly_ happy. That was far more than I'd hoped for.

"I can't promise that I can bring the mirror again," Neo said in his blunt way. " _But_ , I may be able to get you something better: a way back into the Digital World."

Everyone was stunned into silence. During our shocked stupor, Neo slipped out the door, disappearing down the street before anyone could even _try_ to wrestle the mirror out of his grip so that we could keep it. If I'd not been hung up on the idea of getting to the Digital World, I totally would've tracked him down.

"Well," Sora said. "We'd better see what Tako gave us." She plugged it into the nearest laptop, and we all held our breaths, hoping it wouldn't turn out to be a virus. It wasn't. It was a video. I saw the folding chairs, and the runway and knew what it was. "The security footage," Sora said in awe. She quickly fast-forwarded the footage, stopping when that horrid man tried to attack Haruki, after attacking Rei. She paused it when Biyomon used her Spiral Twister against him. She smiled up at Katsue, who had huddled in over her shoulder. Katsue smirked.

"Oh yeah, we can use this."

 _ **Yamato Ishida:**_

It was hard to want to do _anything_ after the meeting with the others. Taichi was _alive_. My mother was doing fine. Gabumon, well he was upset, but he was still able to be that way, and so basically, I was ecstatic. Or at least I wanted to be. There were only a small handful of our number that were entirely unaccounted for now, and my brother was one of those people. I suppose small victories were something I was supposed to feel great about, but until the war was over, it wouldn't feel much like a victory at all. And Takeru _was_ my victory. I just needed to know that he was okay, that he was alive. And with every passing day it seemed that was less likely to happen.

The others seemed to forget that we hadn't really won anything just yet, because each and every one of them was bursting with energy now. I wanted them to know it was okay to feel happy, but that we should look at things logically and with our heads rather than with our hearts, but none of them wanted to listen at all.

Natsuni and her father were immediately turning what she'd worked on for the past two months into a different case entirely, claiming that the chief police had been killed in the enemies attempts at taking the digimon away, as well as so many innocent people. It was something the police and the government were surely keeping quiet, and that meant it was something we could strive to exploit. Anything they didn't want to happen, we did. Mostly.

Katsue was working away with the Teenage Wolves, creating a new video using the footage Tako had provided us with to prove that not everything was as it seemed. Not only were the DWD—or EVOLVE, as Arnold had called them apparently—twisting true events to get what they wanted, they had also attempted to attack a _baby_ and that was something we could most definitely use.

We had the original Digidestined, Junpei, Kouji, Koichi and Takuya out as our watchdogs. They were among the city looking for people who were supporters, and those who were not. If we could start sorting people accordingly we would be able to more effectively start an army. Amai had told us that there were enough of them out in the city to have a continuous rally, or meeting, or whatever it was they met up to do. Either way, we had supporters and we needed to locate them.

Momoe and Chiziru were both heartbroken in an oddly happy way. Each of them looked so pleased, and yet they were both crying, I supposed it was due to their lack of time with their children, but it was more than they could have hoped for them both to be alive, and that was amazing. And yet horrible that they had seen them, but only for a short time and now they knew they existed still, but that maybe they would never be with them again.

Unless of course, what Neo had said could be true. He had said he could bring us back to the Digital World, and while I didn't want to get my hopes up, I knew that could be a very good thing. Not because I particularly wanted to be surrounded by the virus, but because I wanted to have everyone trapped at the Coliseum be able to return home and join the world back in normality. Even if Sora and I couldn't, the others could. Except perhaps Taichi because his actual _home_ was in the Digital World.

I heard a stupid laugh come from Mantarou and rolled my eyes. He was so annoying. He was charming and kind and he held doors open for Sora and he was open and honest and gave her space when she needed it and brought her flowers from the local shop and he shared his extra dessert with her... He was annoying and I didn't like him. He was the perfect boyfriend, and Sora _deserved_ the perfect boyfriend. She could do better than me, and Mantarou _was_ better than me. She deserved the very _best_ —better than him even, and if that's what she wanted, that was fine. From her point of view at least. I didn't like it from his point of view though, because I didn't like him and wanted him gone. He couldn't date her—but she could date him...

It was confusing.

I looked over, and sure enough spotted Sora laughing and placing her hand gently on Mantrou's arm. She was flirting with him. I knew how Sora flirted. I could predict every move before she'd made it. She would play with her hair, laugh at whatever he said, make solid eye contact, and then break it so he would crave more. And with every thought that came to my mind, Sora practically obeyed me, like I was in control.

I shuddered, just thinking about it. Not only was controlling another person like that highly frightening and possessive, but also if I _could_ , that would have meant I was flirting with Mantrou, and he was the last person in the room I would want to flirt with. Right next to my dad of course. He was sitting by himself, reading a book and eating an apple. His lunch breaks had been all but eliminated from his daily schedule, and whenever he got a moment by himself was when he would jump right into his lunch, which would last maybe seven minutes at most. He looked up and smiled to me, using his foot to spin a chair around near him. He wanted me to join him.

I had nothing particularly exciting to be doing otherwise because, for the most part, everyone left me out of the decision making process, thinking I wasn't good enough or something. I guess maybe they thought I was incompetent—I was a celebrity, see, so that meant I was only capable of writing cheesy love songs and causing public drama for publicity purposes. Obviously. I let out an agitated breath of frustration and moved across the room to sit with my dad.

He was chewing his apple still as I sat down, and it was kind of gross, because he spit on me when he went to talk, "Hello—sorry!" He wiped his mouth, "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," I shrugged, lying bitterly.

"I doubt that," He said, seemingly able to read my mind. I diverted my eyes to stare at the floor, unable to keep eye contact. "I know you're an adult, Yamato. You don't have to talk to me if you don't want to. I'm not trying to pressure you."

I looked up at him, but just from the corner of my eye and saw that he was still half-reading his book, hardly paying attention. If he was able to be so casual right now, then why couldn't I? Takeru was just as important to him as he was to me. He was a quarter of our family. Or my family anyway—Dad's family expanded recently. "I just..." I tried, sighing in defeat when I couldn't find the words to express the way that I felt.

"I understand," he said without any knowledge of what I wanted to say. "Takeru is gone, but maybe not forever. You just learned that your friends are alive—that Gabumon is okay. Does that not give you any more hope that your brother, a symbol of universal hope, could also be alive and well?"

"No," I admitted, "Not really. That Coliseum was my last shred of hope, and he's not there. Why isn't he there? He was _supposed_ to be there."

"But he's not," Dad said, understanding. "I get it."

"And if that wasn't enough," I said, leaning forward and digging my elbows into my legs in an attempt to ease whatever pent up aggression I had coursing through my body. "Sora's dating a random guy, which is _fine_ I guess, but I mean, it kind of sucks because I waited three years for her. I mean, I waited longer—but since the last time I told her I'd wait—it's been _three_ years. I'm a wanted criminal because the whole world doesn't like my opinion? I guess, which is highly presumptuous of them all—literally like, all of them, and I just want to scream _all_ the time, but I can't because if I do I'll be found and locked away for an eternity just because I _love_ something, and obviously the world doesn't think I deserve love because everything I've ever loved has been ripped away from me in horrible, painful ways, and I keep having dreams about the virus—I don't know anything about it aside from a button. I keep having nightmares of someone pushing it and sending out more of the virus, this time to Earth, just to finish the job, but weirdly it doesn't make me sad or scared, because I kind of welcome it—it's only frightening when I wake up and realize that I just kind of willingly died, which is basically suicide even though it isn't, and it just sucks a lot." I took a deep breath, forcing the tears to stay back, "and I just want to _destroy_ whoever pressed that stupid button. I want to watch them bleed and die."

I leaned back, frustrated as I dug my hands into my pant legs, and I saw that Sora was staring directly toward me, tears in her eyes. It wasn't just her though, everyone was looking at me now, and it was really embarrassing. I nervously looked toward Dad and he leaned toward me, "You love me, don't you?"

"Of course."

"I'm still here," he said calmly.

"I know," I told him, my voice weak. I looked up to him and he half smiled. "How are _you_?" I asked, not expecting an answer really.

"You know how I am," Dad had avoided the question, as I expected.

"I'm sorry for acting so much like a child," I practically pouted, "You're right. I'm an adult. I need to start acting like one. I want you to tell me, I can handle talking to you about Fumiko if that's the problem."

"Ah," Dad said awkwardly, "Well... you see, Fumiko and I—"

"Look!" Jenna's voice cut through our conversation and we all turned toward the television that we had recently moved out onto the counter. We all turned as one to see Shigoto Fujimoto standing in a grassy field on the television. I jumped from my seat quickly, moving directly toward the television. What did he want this time? Was it going to be more trouble?

" _...actually understanding what he's up to is not as simple as you wish for it to be_ ," Shigoto was saying to a pretty reporter woman.

"Who?" Sora asked, "What's he talking about?" Many hisses erupted from our little crowd, telling her to hush up so we could hear the monitor better.

" _Not even I, his trusted companion fully understand the makings of the man's mind."_ Shigoto admitted, _"But it just proves that to win a war, muscle and strength are not all that is required. Brains can sometimes win just as easily."_

"You know they _can_." Katsue proclaimed, walking in through the studio with a sly grin on her face, "We've got him."

"How?" Jenna asked.

"We've got a _great_ new video to show the people." Katsue seemed all too pleased with herself. She looked to my dad and tossed him a memory key. He caught it by the strap and looked up to her, "Broadcast it."

" _As it seems, he is nearly ready to take action_ ," Shigoto was saying on the screen as Dad pulled up a laptop. He couldn't seriously be planning to broadcast it from right here, could he? That would be insane. _"As voted by the people..."_ I stopped listening because Dad was already heading out the door. He had smartened up and was getting ready to broadcast Katsue's video.

Natsuni, who normally chose to tag along with my father decided against this I noticed, as her eyes looked over to him and then back to the television, but Jenna and Chi had gone out after him. I decided it was time for me to get back outside too. They couldn't really stop me; my dad had just said it after all. I was an adult, and I could do as I pleased.

I rushed toward the door, not before collecting my makeshift disguise of a sweater and a jacket and rushed out after them. "Wait!" I paused and looked back to see Gomamon, rushing up to me, "I want to come." I shrugged my shoulders. It wasn't my choice to keep him locked up like this, so I caught him as he jumped into my arms. I caught the others just as my dad had started the engine of his vehicle and I threw open the door to the back seats, jumping in.

"Shouldn't you be inside?" Chi asked me, eyeing me up.

"No," I said flatly. Dad and I locked eyes in the rear-view mirror, but he nodded and hit the gas. Whatever Arnold was doing had sparked something in my chest. It just felt like it was time. Time to get something done. If Arnold wanted to keep fighting, then I would fight back harder, and right now, the only way for me to do that was to get the hell out of that damned restaurant and into the real world. I wasn't going to let my friends be taken from me. Not that Arnold had directly threatened that, but I just found out that most of them were alive, and I wasn't going to risk whatever it was he was up to.

"What do you think Arnold is up to then?" Chi said, looking to me politely. For a second I actually thought he'd read my mind, but he just seemed curious. After all, he'd just seen the television too.

"Could be anything," Gomamon said nervously, looking out the window of the moving vehicle, obviously excited to be seeing something aside from the inside of a tent or a restaurant. He certainly had it worse than I had. At least I had a working shower—kind of. I had a flushing toilet, so there's that. All he had was a tent and some half-witted company.

"I think I have _some_ ideas," Jenna said nervously. "A while back, when I first met Veronica, she told me about this kind of antenna thing that could keep digimon out of its boundaries. What if they created a larger signal so that any digimon in the world would be pushed from their homes and brought to one location? Or they could use whatever that radar thing is that Marshall mentioned, I don't know what _that_ is, but it seems bad. Or, maybe they've come up with a way to delete digimon but not humans and plan to send _that_ virus out into the world."

"I think I'm gonna be sick..." Chi said, ready to hurl. "Can we change the subject now?"

Jenna looked to him, spinning around from her chair in the front and reached back to take his hand but his eyes were shut tight, "Sorry, I was just theorizing. I didn't mean to sound insensitive."

"It's not that," he admitted, "It's nothing, sorry."

"If you say so," Jenna said, her eyes narrowing in on him suspiciously.

Dad, without saying a word, pulled to a stop near a burger shop and pushed his seat back, pressing my legs against my own seat, but I didn't mind. He pulled the laptop into his seat and began plugging things in to an odd black box he had in his glove compartment. "This should be good. Katsue has a lot of new information."

We all sat and waited for the video to begin playing, excitement building. This could be the information we needed to exploit Arnold, get him sent to prison and shed some light on the situation. It wouldn't convince _everyone_ by any means, but it would surely convince _some_ people to join our cause.

And then a pop up appeared on the screen with a caution sign. "What?" Dad asked, his voice rising with anger immediately. He leaned forward to better understand what the dialogue was telling him. "This isn't right..."

"What's happening?" Gomamon asked.

"I don't... I don't know." Dad admitted.

"Give it to Chi," Jenna suggested, "He's good with computers. He's pretty smart."

Chi looked embarrassed to be receiving such praise, but did not have time to react in whatever way he was going to because my dad had handed him the computer quickly. Chi leaned forward, his expression straightening out as he examined the computer screen. "It appears," he said, and then paused. I could tell Jenna and Dad felt the same sense of anticipation that I felt as he began typing away. "Yes, just as I thought."

" _What_ did you think?" I practically snapped.

"The signal is blocked," he said simply, "And, if you give me a minute or two I should be able to calculate the exact location of the block."

"How did they block it?" Jenna asked, her face screwing up in thought, "Did they block any radio or video signals? Did they block _this_ computer? Are they on to us? Do they know what we're doing? What if—"

"As it seems," Chi said, cutting short her panic, "the block is a general act of privacy and control. The only signals that can make it through must be regulated back at..." he paused, "Arnold's base."

"Okay," Jenna said, "Can we stop giving him all the credit? He's just _one_ douche bag. Let's call it the EVOLVE headquarters or something, because him going down in history as a big baddie is making my skin crawl. He doesn't deserve the credit."

"I will keep that in mind for the future," Chi nodded, looking back to the computer. "I can try to hack it, but you should know that it appears to have many codes involved and any or all of them could be a trap."

"Then don't," Dad said quietly, "We'll go to EVOLVE headquarters, and we'll take down the block from inside."

"Is that safe?" Jenna asked, worried. "I don't think I want to do anything that's going to cause an issue for, well..." she glanced my way but didn't bother speaking the name aloud.

"It's fine," I said, agreeing with Dad, "we should go. We can't let them think they have the upper hand because if they've set up this block right as Arnold is preparing to attack—" I was interrupted because Dad had started the van already and had hit the gas. I wrote out a text message to Sora and was about to send it, but instead changed the address to Natsuni, and then hit send. I needed to know what the rest of the program had said, and I just wasn't in the mood to talk to Sora anymore. At least not right now.

Dad had already driven half of the way to Kanto, which was where we all knew EVOLVE to be. I wasn't sure if it was _supposed_ to be hidden, but it certainly wasn't, and I wasn't complaining. It certainly made our lives easier at the very least. Gomamon repositioned himself in my lap to get a better look out the window and Chi grabbed Jenna's hand as she reached over her seat to comfort him. She could tell he was nervous even from where she sat. I looked to him and noticed that he was sweating and his leg was bouncing up and down. I guess he'd never been included in anything as intense as this before, it seemed odd to think someone so old hadn't been involved with digimon. It had made up most of my life now, or at least more than half.

When Dad finally pulled to a stop we were down the street from Arnold's base—or EVOLVE's headquarters. Dad turned to us and held up his phone, "Does everyone have one of these?"

"Yes, Dad," I said like a child listening to his father's warnings for the hundredth time.

"Use them." His voice was very serious as he shook the phone to ensure we all understood him. "I will only slow you down, I will stay outside. My legs can't carry me as fast as they once could."

"Oh boo," Jenna said, pushing his arm, "you're not _that_ old." Dad grinned at her, I suppose he took it as some kind of compliment. "But stay if you want, keep Gomamon with you, it would be suicide to bring him inside. And I promise we'll use the invisibility and the shields. We'll be okay." Dad nodded and kicked his door open before pulling himself out into the streets. I opened my own door and held Gomamon in my arms. Chi and Jenna met us around our side of the car and as one we all activated the invisibility on our phones. "Pretty cool that we're invisible," Jenna said as I felt someone grab at my arm. I didn't know who it was, but it was smart to keep together. I was holding Gomamon so I couldn't continue the chain though. "I mean, did you ever think you would _actually_ get to be invisible?"

"No," Dad admitted with a sheepish laugh. "That's true."

"It's not the strangest thing that's happened to me," Chi said, which I almost didn't believe. He'd only been involved in this ordeal for a few months, there was no way he'd gone through something weirder than walking invisibly through the streets of Kanto. No one really talked much after that aside from Jenna whistling softly so we could all keep together.

Then we all turned the corner together, or at least I assumed we were all still together, and we found the EVOLVE building. "I think I'll wait by the door," Dad said as whoever was holding my arm pulled me further. A car horn went off and Chi let out a mangled scream, which was troubling because he couldn't be this scared if he was going to be breaking in with us, but also good, because now I knew he actually _was_ still with us.

When we'd come near enough to the building it seemed that there was some kind of barrier keeping our technology from working to its full capacity because as Jenna walked over the border she became visible again. She looked to her phone in a panic, but Dad had already followed her through, and I found that it was his arm holding mine. But just when it seemed I should have been making my way through the barrier I was stopped by something around my stomach and I flipped sideways before falling to the pavement, revealing myself. Gomamon fell to the ground a few feet away.

"Hey!" he complained, moving toward me, "Don't leave me out here!" He walked toward me and then seemingly walked straight into a wall. "Ow!"

"What's going on?" Chi asked from the other side of the barrier. Gomamon suddenly turned invisible once more as Chi scooped him up, "Why can't he get through?"

"I guess it's because of that antenna thing," Jenna said, "They don't want digimon inside. It's keeping their genetic makeup away from this particular location. It's gross." I nodded, it really was.

"If we can't remain invisible we should leave," Dad insisted, "I don't want to be seen, and I don't want any of you to be seen either. He was quick to move back across the border, and Jenna reached for me to help me to my feet. "Perhaps I can find a way to air this at work. It's not impossible to broadcast things there, you know."

"If you think it will work," I agreed.

"I want to go in anyway." Jenna said flatly. "I don't think we can just leave. This is a really good plan! I meant it isn't thought out well, not at all. But we'll never take down the block if we don't do it from inside."

"Maybe we can do it here?" Dad suggested, "Just using their network might work."

"I can try," Chi agreed.

"Come in the barrier," Jenna said quickly.

"Maybe we could use Tako?" I suggested, "She seems to have had a change of heart."

"Oh has she?"

Jenna and I spun to see a girl with a long dark braid, smirking in the light of the cloud covered sun. "Veronica!" Jenna hissed. To Veronica's left was Ricky or Tyler, and to her right was Marshall who was standing next to the other twin. All four of them looked angry beyond compare, but it was Veronica who had the wildness in her eyes, like she was ready to pounce.

"I knew I couldn't trust you," Veronica said with a sudden smirk, "Good thing I didn't tell you anything."

"Except a lie about how your parents are dead," Jenna said bitterly. "What kind of _freak_ wants to be an underdog? Why would you create a tragic back story? You don't find yourself interesting enough? Well you're plenty interesting. I read once that sociopaths can be the _most_ interesting actually."

Veronica wasted no more time with pleasantries, getting so angry at Jenna in such a sudden impulse, and she lunged forward, her hands out, ready to grab Jenna's throat. Jenna quickly moved out of the way and Veronica grabbed at her intricate braid, "I've been waiting for this!" Veronica screamed throwing Jenna to ground by pulling sharply on her hair, "to get revenge on the _bitch_ who turned on me."

I wasn't about to let her beat Jenna up, and even though I already felt guilty about hurting a girl so recently, I knew I had to do it again. I pushed her sharply off of Jenna before she could bring her boot down on the fallen girl's face. Veronica tripped and fell to the ground.

Before I knew what was happening I was experiencing the sharpest of pains in the back of my head. I gasped and tried to see through the stars. I managed to make out Tyler and Ricky as they pinned me to the wall, the one on the left was prepared to punch me, but Jenna grabbed his leg and twisted, bringing him down too. With the change in weight I was able to slip out of the other twins grasp in time to see Marshall walking toward the barrier.

"I know there are more of you out there!" he shouted, his voice thick with rage, "Come fight me!"

There was a sudden crack as something smacked against the side of Marshall's face. I knew it had been my dad, but I wanted him to stay hidden, and I wanted him to take Gomamon and _go_. It seemed he had taken Gomamon suddenly because Chi had caused himself to become visible, standing with his fists raised. He looked a little scrawny, like he wasn't going to be any match at all for Marshall, and judging by the look on his face, he knew that too.

Marshall lunged for Chi who panicked and side stepped and stuck his foot out to trip Marshall. I didn't get to see the outcome of that because the twin who was still standing had grabbed me by the shoulders and actually thrown me through the air. I heard a loud scream from one of the girls, but couldn't see who it was because the twin was barrelling toward me with a fiery look in his eye. I knew I had to fight back, but _how_? I wasn't a warrior, I was simply... I was Yamato. I let Gabumon fight everything for me. But not this time.

I clenched my fist tightly and swung with as much force as I could muster, but the punch barely grazed the side of the man's face, and his fist, which somehow seemed to be at least twice the size of my own, slammed into my stomach.

I grunted in pain as he punched me again, and again, and then, I forced myself to move, no matter how much it hurt. I leapt backwards and watched as my limbs turned invisible. Sure it was playing dirty, but it was how they wanted to play the game, I was just following the rules. And there _were_ no rules. I glanced over the twins shoulder and spotted the other twin fighting an invisible foe, my father, and Jenna and Veronica. The latter of the girls was simply trying to pull all the blond hair she could get her hands on, but Jenna was going for the _kill_. She was swinging her fists around wildly, ready to beat the _crap_ out of Veronica. And then I glanced to Chi who was thrown back by Marshall and he slammed painfully into the barrier. I winced and realized I was fighting too.

I ducked my head down and ran full force toward the twin in front of me, knocking him over.

"This is getting _old_!" Jenna shouted loudly as she finally got a good punch in, hitting Veronica in the side of the head, knocking her off her feet. I grinned stupidly as Jenna winced in pain and together we turned to see the other twin being tripped, probably by Gomamon, as he fell into the barrier.

And then there was Marshall, grabbing Chi's throat, pinning him up against the barrier. Chi was gasping for breath, clawing away at Marshall's thick hands, unable to stop him. I was already on my way to save him, but my dad had gotten there first, hitting Marshall's face. He dropped Chi and he fell to the ground, gasping for breath.

"Why?" Jenna asked. I looked to her and she looked horrified. Marshall turned to Chi and swung his foot back, hitting him directly in the stomach, causing him to flop over. I took another step, but Jenna grabbed my arm. "Why isn't he going through the barrier?"

And then I turned, realization washing over me as Marshall kicked Chi one more time, causing him to groan in pain.

"Alright." Chi said, rolling over and jumping to his feet. He glanced to Jenna, horror and sadness written all over his face and he reached out his hand as something glowed before him. A long green pointed weapon, a scythe it seemed, formed out of thin air and he gripped it tight. "Back off," Chi said boldly. "Get away from my friends." He swung his scythe without hesitation and Marshall jumped backward and into the barrier where Chi couldn't reach him.

"Take them inside." I turned sharply at the sound of the new voice and found Director Arnold standing in the doorway, a smile creeping on his face when he laid eyes on me, "Oh good. You've finally come. I've been expecting you."

Marshall and whatever twin was still able to walk properly grabbed Jenna and I, but not before I turned in a last attempt to escape. I caught sight of Chi staring at Jenna, tears in his eyes. And then wings shot from his back and he kicked off the ground flying.

He was getting help. He had to be getting help.

We _needed_ help.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** It's chapter 22 next time, with Daisuke and Jenna as they try to find a way to safety.


	22. 22

**Y/N:** I get to do a little bit more exploring this time around, but it's not as exciting as Jun and Taichi's chapter was. It was still fun though, as I said, because we don't really delve into the wonders of the Digital World too often in our stories. We just use the same places over and over, without really spending any time at them.

 **U/N:** What a creative title though, right? We get into Jenna's mind here with her reaction to her mind being literally blown last chapter with Chi's secret. She's a little in shock so that was fun because Jenna's never really in action let alone reacting to it. So that's nice I guess.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 22: 22**

 _ **Daisuke Motomiya:**_

The sky was flashing with lightning again. The bright bolts zigzagged across the purple fog that was still infecting the air. I'd been staring at it for ages, lying one of the few free spots in the arena. The Coliseum was rife with activity. Starmon, Tankmon and Falcomon were shouting out commands for their classes. Their class wasn't as popular as Armadillomon, Meiyomon and Kotemon's. Agumon and Gabumon were in the front line though, facing each other and going through the motions of a mock spar. Every time they would land a hit on each other, they started laughing, which was the topic of Falcomon's frustrated shouts. It didn't help that Pumpkinmon and Gotsumon were doing the same thing. Falcomon wasn't having a very good day.

The vegetable garden was filled with a symphony of excited voices as well. They were pulling the onions today. Terriermon was working with Mari to spread the harvested bulbs out on the arena seats. They needed to spend a day or so drying—Babamon and Mari actually agreed on that, which was nice. I didn't really like having Haruki exposed to pointless arguments. He was sitting near my head as I spread on the ground. He was playing with the goggles that _had_ been perfectly placed on my forehead. He had them skewed now, and covered in his little fingerprints. He wanted to take them off of me so that he could suck on them, but I wouldn't let him. It was making him a bit grumpy, but I wasn't going to change my mind. I had to wear them. Taichi was depending on me to do it. I was afraid if I took them off, I wouldn't be able to scrape together the courage needed to put them back on. They were a lot of pressure.

I tried to do what I could to lighten the load that had been placed on the digidestined. We spent a bit more time in the Coliseum, but we had more to do here now too. I let Jun lead a mission with ExVeemon and whoever they assembled. I trusted the people in the Coliseum, and I wanted to make sure they knew it. I also wanted to be able to prove Taichi right when he said I could get us out of here. I wanted to prove to myself that Taichi's faith was justified.

But I wasn't really doing anything about it. I was at a loss of how to begin, and so I was lying on the ground, letting my son play with my face and goggles. It was pretty important that I spend time with my son. He was quite impressionable at his age, and I didn't want him to think I was abandoning him. Kurayami had missed two whole months out of his five and a half. I didn't hate her for it, or even dislike her. I loved her, and I knew Haruki did too. I was just trying to continue developing my relationship with Haruki, who had grown used to spending large periods of time with me when I thought I was an only parent.

"That's not how you plant them," Babamon snapped. I peeked over to her, watching as she shouted at Tapirmon, who was planting the new onions in the rows left by the freshly harvested. I had no doubt he was following Mari's instructions, and I knew he wasn't about to change his technique to please the digital crone. He _was_ flinching from her harsh voice though. I started propping myself up on my elbows, getting ready to go and save the poor guy from her verbal lashing, but Gatomon got there first.

"Keep your thoughts to yourself," Gatomon suggested. "You're taking your frustrations at Spring out on Tapirmon, and that's _not_ okay. He's planting the onions the only way onions can really be planted. There aren't a lot of options. Take a deep breath, calm yourself or remove yourself from the situation. You're scaring the budmon."

It was true. The Budmon were all huddled together, their leaves shaking as they tried to hide behind the potato plants. Babamon sighed and muttered an apology before turning and walking out of the garden, down into the Coliseum. I rolled my eyes. She was such a testy digimon. She let her impatience for news of her husband get the better of her. Spring wasn't helping much. She was upset that we brought _her_ here instead of her husband. I didn't want her to know, but I _did_ offer Jijimon a chance to come to the Coliseum, but he chose not to. He didn't want the plant digimon in Toy Town to think he had abandoned hope for them. They were all looking to him for guidance. He stayed calm and collected throughout the virus's reign. He wouldn't allow them to panic. He had faith in the digidestined and their digital partners to keep them safe. Jundomon and Karumon followed his example, which led to Toy Town being one of the calmest of the safe zones in the Digital World. That was the reason I didn't offer to bring Babamon to _them_. She wasn't calm, she was bitter, and I didn't know how much of that bitterness her husband would be able to counter before all the digimon lost their heads.

I felt like a jerk, but I brought her letters to him faithfully every week.

Spring's close proximity was probably what set her off. Spring was "meditating" quite loudly in the flower beds I was lying in between. She was standing on her head with Warg and Melga holding her up.

"How's this?" Warg asked, removing his hands only for her to wobble over and crash to the ground.

"Nope," Spring said shaking her head when she righted herself. " _That's_ not gonna work. Your gonna have to keep holding me. It's the only way."

"She's right," Melga sighed. "There's no way she can balance on her head. The ground must be uneven over here."

"I could get a shovel," Warg suggested brightly.

"Wouldn't work," Spring said sadly. "I think it's my head that needs flattening, not the ground."

"Oh," the two digimon said in awe, like they'd never even _thought_ that her head might be rounded. I rolled my eyes. They were all equally ridiculous. They spent long periods of time together almost every day since Spring had come to join us at the Coliseum. I'd never asked them about it. I figured they were just kindred spirits or something.

"We could make a pile of leaves!" Spring shouted happily.

"But where will we _get_ them," Warg asked, looking around the arena. He saw the Fight Clubs lessons—that he was technically supposed to be participating in with Melga right now—and eyed the garden, crinkling his nose. His eyes eventually trailed to the Memorial Wall. For a second I thought he was going to crumple the papers to substitute them for leaves, but his eyes travelled onwards. He heaved a sigh when the only other thing he saw was Satoe and Toshiko calling for another dress rehearsal.

"I know!" Melga shouted. "The onion tops. They're just cutting them off. We can use _them_. Let's go ask Mari. She'll let us. She loves us. She won't say no."

"You're right!" Warg called. The two of them hopped to their feet and started racing towards Mari and Terriermon in the stands. I wouldn't want to do a headstand in the middle of a pile of onion tops, but Spring was weird enough it was probably exciting to her.

"What're you guys doing?" I called to Spring when she flopped onto her back, matching me. She was buzzing her lips, making funny noises that amused Haruki while staring at the lighting in the sky.

"I don't like lightning," she confessed. It was cool that she trusted me and all, but that wasn't what I'd asked. "It's fast and mean. It hurts, but it's so pretty. You think you can trust it, but it's not nice like it wants you to believe."

"Sure," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "I can see that."

"Can you?" she asked wistfully. I got the feeling she wasn't really talking about the lightning after all. I didn't have any idea about most of the things that happened in her life. I guessed she _could_ be referring to whoever caught her before she'd been tortured for information—information she'd never given.

"So," I said slowly. "You, Warg and Melga...what're you up to?"

"They are helping me focus my energy," she said. "It is easiest to do while upside down, of course. I would've thought it was obvious."

"Sure it was," I said smiling at her logic. "I just wanted to make sure."

"Ah," she said happily. "I _knew_ you were smarter than that mean old Babamon. She thought I was wasting my time, being _silly_. Nothing I do is silly. Everything has a purpose."

"I know that," I said. That was true. I _did_ know it. She spoke in weird, cryptic messages that didn't make sense to anyone, but it didn't mean she wasn't _saying_ something. She'd done her part, it was our job to make heads or tails of it.

"You might be wondering about Warg and Melga," she commented. I wasn't really, but I didn't want to tell her that. I knew they were cool guys and they were Hideto's partners. They had fun and played jokes and Emiko loved them for it. They weren't the best role models for Haruki, but they loved so freely and cared so deeply about anyone that let them get close. "I made them."

That kind of shocked me. How did a fairy go about making a digimon?

"Little Pride needed friends that could love him regardless of everyone else," she said. "So I made them. They're not digimon in the technical sense. They sort of are though. They are made out of earthly substances, so they're only _half_ digimon."

"Huh," I said. I'd known for awhile that I was Hideto's replacement when he wasn't ready for the lessons Spring wanted him to learn. I hadn't realized that she'd used her magic to whip up his partners. I wondered momentarily why she hadn't done the same for me, but shook the thought off. I didn't want anyone other than Veemon. He was the perfect partner for me. I didn't care that she hadn't made him for me. "Do you need to channel your energy for anything in particular?"

"Does there _need_ to be a reason?" she questioned. I shook my head.

"No. But maybe you can focus all that new energy on finding a way out of the Digital World, maybe," I suggested. I was delegating, but Taichi had been hoping she'd do it for _him_ too. She didn't though, because he was too blunt about it. He hadn't let it be her idea. She needed to have a choice.

"I could give it a go," she said. She didn't seem too hopeful that she'd be able to come up with anything, but any chance was worth a shot.

"Daisuke, Daisuke!" Veemon and Labramon shouted. I reached over my head and lifted Haruki—squirming and whining about the loss of his favourite toy—bringing him down to my stomach as I sat up. I turned to see Veemon and Labramon racing towards me from the nearest entrance. Their eyes were wild and Veemon was waving his hands around the air frantically.

"What's up?" I asked, getting to my feet, worried we were under attack or something.

"It's Jun!" Labramon cried. "She's on the war path."

"What's wrong?" I demanded.

"She's becoming... _bridezilla,_ " Veemon said, looking over his shoulder and looking genuinely scared.

"Why'd you lead her to me then?" I asked, looking to the exit nearest to the one they'd led Jun to. It was too far. There was no way I'd make it. "I've got a child. Think of the children!"

"I'm sorry!" Labramon sobbed dramatically.

"Oh, ha, ha," Jun said rolling her eyes as she leaned against the wall of the arena. "You guys crack me up. I'm so touched that you all care so deeply."

"You couldn't have asked Kurayami instead?" I asked desperately.

"You know as well as I do that she likes to spend most of her time alone," Jun said. "I have a lot to talk about, Daisuke. I've finally found the perfect location. It's so beautiful. You'll love it. I can't wait! Now let's go. Shuu's already waiting with Otamamon and Meramon, and Jou's there with Emiko too. He brought Palmon and Dracomon too."

"Seems to me like you've got enough help," I pointed out. "Besides, Spring and I were having a great conversation. It's kind of important, so maybe you'll have to make do without me."

"No she won't," Spring said. "We're all done talking now. Warg and Melga have the onion tops. I have to focus now."

"Traitor," I joked. She pretended to look scandalized. Or at least I hoped she was pretending. "I'm just kidding," I said lightly just to make sure. She relaxed and I felt bad. I hadn't realized she'd take me seriously. Hardly anybody else did.

"See," Jun said with a grin. "Now come help me plan my wedding. It's going to be fabulous."

Haruki didn't seem to realize what we'd been enlisted to do, to Labramon and Veemon were fully aware of it. They were dragging their feet, and I was selfish enough not to point out that they weren't actually told to come. They could have escaped, but I wasn't going to do this alone. I was annoyed enough that Jun wanted to plan her wedding _now_. I had things to do. Stuff to think about. We'd just seen that Sora, Yamato and Neo were all fine. That was huge news. Everyone seemed healthy and looked like they were taking care of themselves. I wished we'd had more time to discuss our enemies' plans. I wanted to ask so many questions, but I couldn't. We had no idea if we'd ever get to use the mirror again. It didn't belong to Neo, it was some guy named Maugrim's. We didn't even have any idea who that was. Just how many people were we actually fighting against?

I didn't know, and I couldn't figure it out, because I was too busy being enlisted to plan a wedding that had been in the planning stages for three years already. Kurayami and I took next to _no_ time to plan ours. Jou and Momoe's first wedding hadn't taken this long either—and their second one took even less. Miyako and Ken's took a full year to plan, but that was just one third of the time Jun's was taking. She should've had it planned out by now. Hell, it should have already happened. She'd been engaged for two years before I'd even thought about proposing to Kurayami. And now we were married with a son—accomplished in a backwards manner, but whatever. Jun was still debating whether she wanted white flowers or red. I'd thought she had finally decided on colours before the virus happened, but now she'd changed her venue, so she was probably going to have to change _everything_ to match.

"Okay," Jun said, opening her curtains and leading us inside. Emiko was on a bed, wrestling with Dracomon, who was too busy trying to make sure she wasn't hurt to bother to try to win. Jou was sitting at the head of the bed with Palmon sitting on his lap. Shuu was on another bed with Otamamon jumping up and down next to him on a pillow. Jun fell onto the bed at his side, and Labramon jumped up after her, resting his head in her lap so that Jun could pet him. He was making this whole situation more enjoyable for himself, the lucky duck. Veemon sat on the floor, and I followed suit, not wanting to interrupt Emiko's fun. Meramon was looking at the open curtains with distain.

"It's undignified," he told Shuu. "It's bad enough you invited company. Does the entire population need to see it too?"

"Veemon, can you close the curtains?" Shuu asked with a sigh. Meramon was sitting on a toilet, just a porcelain toilet that had probably been stolen with him in mind. It was actually a fairly ingenious idea in my opinion. Back on Earth, he'd only been able to lounge in his bathtub bed. This was much more convenient. I knew he slept up in the arena under the purple sky, because the seats were just stone slabs, and he could roll over and stretch out as much as he wanted without fear of burning everything.

Veemon closed the curtains, and Jun picked up a pen and a pad of paper. I rolled my eyes and sighed. This was going to take forever, and Jou at least had plans for later in the day. He needed to check up on Primary Village, and I was starting to think that I needed to go with him.

"I'm going to get married in ShogunGekomon's palace," Jun announced like it was the biggest news we'd ever hear in our lives. "Isn't that just the most exciting thing you've ever heard? It's just the most _beautiful_ place I've ever seen."

"She's right," Palmon said. "I was there before when the Gekomon called Mimi their princess, and made her sing to wake ShogunGekomon up. I got to wear really pretty dresses. It was a lot of fun. It's really pretty there."

"See, it isn't just me," Jun gushed. "Shuu thinks so too, right?"

"Sure," Shuu said, nodding his head. I didn't get the impression he cared where the wedding was so much as he cared about it happening. I was on that same page.

"You're going to need really big flower arrangements, because the room is so big," Palmon warned her. "I'd suggest getting hydrangeas because they really fill out any arrangement or bouquet and they aren't very expensive. Peonies are also big blooms, but neither flower is really tall. But if you get some pale pink peonies and some deeper purple ones and pair them with white hydrangeas and then have some orchids towering above them, then that could be really pretty. Gladioluses are also tall and they pack a big punch. They'd be good to fill out the arrangements. You can use tall vases for your centrepieces for your tables, to make the space seem more filled. You could even put flowers in the chandeliers. And put rose petals all around."

"That seems like a lot of options," Jun said, looking overwhelmed.

"Toshiko Takenouchi, you know, Sora's mom, is a florist. She could probably help you with all of your questions. She might even be able to do your flowers for you. And Mari's garden has a bunch of flowers you could probably use, since they'd grow back in no time," Palmon suggested. "That would be cost effective."

"You're right," Jun said, snapping her fingers and pointing at Palmon. "I like you. You're good for my budget."

"Thank you," Palmon said happily, proud of her contribution.

"Oh, oh," Labramon called. "What if you had a red carpet rolled out for you to walk down. That would be super fancy, wouldn't it?"

"It would," Jun said. "I'd be worried it would be cliché though. Maybe I could get it in a more neutral colour, but the idea does have merit. The floors are all marble, and I wouldn't want to slip on my wedding day. That would just be the worst thing." She scratched Labramon's head between his ears and Labramon smiled happily at the praise.

"You need to have good food," Dracomon said. "Do people eat at weddings? If they don't, you should feed them anyway, because people like food, and you want people to have fun right?"

"We'll be feeding them," Jun assured the little dragon.

"Mimi makes good food," Dracomon said. "She could make it for you. That would be good right?"

"I kinda thought that Mimi would be one of the guests," Jun said, hesitantly. Dracomon sighed and looked to the bed sad that his suggestion wasn't _good_ to Jun. "Well...maybe if I make it a buffet... That way Mimi could make the food and then still be a guest. It might be asking a lot of her, and it really messes up my idea of a nice, elegant sit-down dinner. But I don't know if ShogunGekomon's chefs are any good, and I don't want to make the Gekomon and Otamamon _work_ for my wedding. They should get to party too. But then who will clear the dishes?"

"Just put out a few trolleys or something," Shuu suggested. "People can put their dishes on them and then we can have them rolled out of sight and worry about them the next day."

"That _could_ work," Jun said slowly. "It's not like I always pictured it though."

"You never pictured it in the Digital World either," Jou said, rolling his eyes. "And if you don't want to have the digimon do work, then you're going to have to change your plans."

"I know," Jun said. "I'll have to talk with Mimi whenever she gets back."

"I can't wait for that," Palmon confessed, as if it was a secret. Jou squeezed her hand, telling her that he couldn't wait either.

"I suggest eloping," Jou said, catching Emiko's hand before she could start poking Meramon. Meramon was trying to move away from her curious fingers so she couldn't get burned.

"No," Shuu said flatly.

"Sorry," Jou told him. "It's just an option. I don't really have any ideas for you. Momoe was the one that made all the suggestions, if you remember our previous meetings."

"I saw Mommy," Emiko said happily. "She said she loves me. Literally. I love her too. Are we gonna see her again?"

"We will," Jou said firmly. "I don't know when though. I _could_ be trying to get us home, but uncle Shuu wants me to help plan a wedding that can't even _happen_ right now instead."

"I think you need something lighter to keep your mind off of all the horrible stuff," Shuu said defensively. "You can't work yourself to the bone, Jou. You won't be any good to anyone if you do."

"I think you should have Yamato play the guitar as Jun walks down the aisle," Labramon suggested before Jou could even think of an answer. He was trying to keep them from fighting. Emiko was already looking between her dad and her uncle, and Haruki was fussing.

"Wouldn't that be awkward though," I said, continuing the distraction, so neither could return to the fight. "Jun used to chase after Yamato with a scary amount of determination."

"It would not be awkward at all, Daisuke," Jun snapped. "We've moved passed that, thank you very much. I would be _honoured_ if Yamato would play while I walked down to marry Shuu."

"I could be a doorman," Veemon suggested energetically. "Like how Hawkmon and Wormmon tried to be at Miyako and Ken's wedding. I could bring people to their seats."

"That's a lovely idea," Jun said with a smile. "Thank you."

"I can do that too," Dracomon said quickly. Palmon was nodding energetically. Labramon decided he didn't want to be left out either and offered his service as well.

"Thank you," Jun said brightly. "Why can't you offer any useful suggestions, Daisuke?"

"Don't get Miyako to make your cake," I said, rolling my eyes. "She sucks at baking, don't let her convince you otherwise."

"You don't want my wedding to be good, do you?" Jun asked grumpily.

"I don't have time for this," I told her.

"The others are more helpful than you anyway," she sighed. "Go on then. Go if you want to."

"I can help later," I promised. "I just need to be in the right mindset for it. I've just got to make sure everything's running smoothly here. I'm in charge now. I can't take hours out of my schedule to plan your wedding right now. It's just not feasible."

"Give me your baby," she said. "If you're busy, you don't need him demanding your attention."

"I have to go too," Jou remembered finally. "I've got to go to Primary Village."

"Emiko probably has better ideas than you do," Shuu offered. "You can leave her here, if you want. She's going to be our flower girl anyway."

"Yay!" Emiko cheered. I wondered if she'd forgotten, with the virus and everything. Jou hugged his daughter and instructed her to be good, and she tried to not give him a definitive answer, but he wouldn't leave until she promised. Veemon intercepted Haruki before he made it to Jun, setting him on the floor and tickling his tummy. Haruki squealed with laughter. I kissed his forehead and then Jou and I slipped out of the room.

"You almost forgot," I accused him. He nodded sheepishly.

"Talking with Momoe kind of made me forget a lot of things," he admitted. "It's surreal, knowing that I saw her even though the gates between worlds are closed off."

"I'm more hung up on the fact that we were talking through a mirror," I said with a laugh. "It shouldn't really surprise me, but it does."

"I know," Jou said smiling. "It just meant so much to me, for Emiko's sake really to have that chance. I didn't even care that it was a mirror and _should_ be impossible. Nothing mattered except Emiko seeing Momoe and talking with her mother. And Momoe probably thought we were dead."

"It _was_ nice to confirm that Yamato and Neo were alive," I said. "It's just bittersweet, because six people are still missing entirely." I took a breath. "Are we going alone, or are we taking anyone."

"I think Betamon really needs the time away," Jou suggested. I agreed, so we headed out to find him. He wasn't exactly hiding. He was just hanging out with Wormmon, Tentomon and Armadillomon. Jou and I shared a look, knowing that it wasn't fair to _just_ invite Betamon when they were all together, so we decided all four could come. I grabbed a bag with some water bottles in it, and we headed for the antechamber. Primary Village wasn't _too_ far away. We'd be back for dinner—maybe a little bit of a late one, but we'd still be able to eat—so I didn't bother packing anything to eat. It was just more to carry.

Babamon was lounging in the antechamber looking longingly at the doors. She hopped to her feet when we got there, demanding to know where we were going. She deflated when we said Primary Village.

"I'll go to Toy Town tomorrow," I promised. I didn't like the idea of spending an entire day away from my son, which was really what was needed for a proper trip to Toy Town, but I couldn't watch Babamon mope around anymore, taking her frustration out on younger, smaller digimon. She brightened instantly, rushing off, saying she had to start writing her letter now if she wanted to do it right. I sighed, but was pleased to see her so happy already.

It was slow going, since Armadillomon, Betamon and Wormmon all had short legs. If there hadn't been three of them, I would have suggested that Jou and I carry them, so that we could get there faster, which meant we could get back faster. I wanted a chance to talk to Kurayami tonight, I didn't want to still be on my way to Primary Village! But it was hard to stay frustrated at their slow pace when they were chattering so excitedly.

"I'm very much looking forward to talking with Biyomon," Tentomon said. "It's been awhile since we last conversed. I'm sure she has ever so much to share with me."

"She always does," I told him with a laugh. When _wasn't_ Biyomon talking a mile a minute?

"I've really missed Hawkmon," Wormmon said. "I don't like that he's so far away now. We've been together almost constantly since Miyako and Ken were married. I have so much to tell him about the Coliseum. I know that he won't want to come back with us, because he's busy with all the babies, but I'm going to ask him anyway, so that he knows how much I miss him."

"That sounds like a plan," Jou assured him. Wormmon beamed at him.

"It's been awhile since I saw Angemon," Armadillomon said. "I really have to compliment him. He's been holding his champion form for _ages_ now. He's really getting good at it. Do you think he'll ever be Patamon again, or will he stay as a champion, like Gatomon?"

"I think he likes sitting on Takeru's head too much to want to stay so big," I said. He laughed and it was a joyous sound. I took the time to double check that his phone was still firmly strapped to his back. Wormmon had used his sticky thread to stick it there, but I was always afraid something might go wrong. It was still stuck there though, so I was able to relax—until I checked again.

"I'm just happy to be outside," Betamon confessed. "It's less scary to me out here than it is inside."

Neither Jou or I could come up with anything to say to that, so we lapsed into silence. It didn't take long for Wormmon and Armadillomon start up a new conversation, but my mind was stuck on what Betamon said. _I_ was still afraid of coming out in the virus, and we'd been doing it near constantly for two months now. I found it hard to understand that Betamon felt safer out here. I knew _why_ of course, but it was still difficult to wrap my head around it.

We arrived to Primary Village while Betamon was telling a funny story about Michael. He cut off his story at the sight of the shield and they all started running at it. I winced, freaking out internally about the phones that were strapped to all of them. I was starting to wish we'd taken at least _one_ digimon that had hands. I only relaxed again when the four of them were safely through the barrier. I was going to have to talk to them before we left and make them promise that they wouldn't do that again. My heart took ages to calm itself.

Jou and I entered the barrier at a much more sedated pace. Armadillomon was already talking with Angemon. Betamon and Biyomon were already playing together with the babies. Wormmon was doing his best to hug Hawkmon without the use of arms and Hawkmon was hugging him back. Tentomon was with Elecmon, and that's where Jou headed first, to find out what he needed for the babies, so that we could prepare something to send over in the next couple of days.

Devimon came over to me, his arms full of bouncing babies. It was a weird sight to see. I'd seen it a couple of times already, but I still couldn't believe what I was seeing. It was weirder, knowing that he and Kurayami were friends now. It was her that he wanted to hear about.

"How is Kurayami doing?" he asked.

"She's fine," I said. "She's slowly getting used to being around so many people. She doesn't want to be around anyone really, until night. She hides herself away. Her dad doesn't want to leave her alone though. I'd like to see her more, but I've got enough to do, to keep myself busy."

"I'm glad she went back," Devimon said. "I told her to, but she wouldn't believe me."

"Thanks for trying," I said genuinely thankful. "Thank you for not giving up on her. I really missed her when she was gone. So did Haruki. I don't know what exactly kept her away."

"I won't tell you if she doesn't want you to know," Devimon warned me.

"Right now, I don't think I really care," I said honestly. "It doesn't matter anymore. She's home, that's all I care about."

"I do hope she shares with you eventually," Devimon said. We lapsed into silence after that. I'd say it was comfortable, but it was actually filled with Biyomon's loud chattering about anything and everything.

"It's _so_ difficult keeping up with so many children," she confessed to Tentomon, who'd found his way to his best friend. "I thought it would be easy, because they're so little, and they don't have any legs. But they're just so fast and energetic. Three babies digivolved yesterday you know, it was so amazing to watch. Isn't it weird to think we used to be that small? I think it's really weird anyway. What are you getting up to at the Coliseum? Are you helping with the kids there?"

"I don't help as often as I probably should," Tentomon said, though I knew he had no intention of helping out with any children anytime soon. "I mostly try to keep learning, in case I can figure out how to get out of the world. We saw Sora though."

"No way," Biyomon gushed. "What did she look like? Did she sound okay? Is she happy?"

"I don't think so," Tentomon admitted. "She sounded like Sora sounds, and she looked like Sora looks...because she was Sora. She gave us a message for you. She said "Tell her I love her, and I'm sorry. She needs to know that." Does that make any sense to you?"

"Obviously she loves me very much," Biyomon said. "But she has nothing to be sorry for. I don't get that part. Do you understand it?"

"Did you hear from Miyako?" Hawkmon asked, before Biyomon could _really_ get started.

"There's been no word," Tentomon said apologetically. Hawkmon was visibly distraught.

"Doesn't matter," he said. "She'll turn up. She's bound to be really pregnant by now."

"Ken's still gone too," Wormmon told him. Hawkmon's shoulders slouched even more. It occurred to me that they were all each other had left—for now, because I _knew_ they would be back. They _had_ to be. "I hope Miyako comes back before the baby is born. It's so hard taking care of kids. I've got Kunemon to watch over now, and Masa too. He's a handful, and I don't have hands, so it's really hard. I'm so glad that Kae is helping."

"I know what you mean," Hawkmon sighed, looking down at the Nyokimon who wouldn't leave his side. "Children just demand so much attention. I can't get a moment to myself. Miyako will have it easier though. There'll be four of us and only one baby."

"I think that sounds more fun," Wormmon said wistfully.

"Oh my gosh," Biyomon exclaimed. "You guys have to watch the show. I worked really hard with the Koromon, Pagumon, Punimon and Yokomon villages to create a concert for you guys to watch. They've been working really hard. I made the song up all by myself."

"I protest!" Hawkmon said.

"Okay, Hawkmon helped a little bit," Biyomon said, still as bubbly as ever. "Sit down. It's time. It's not very long, because they're so little, and the choreography had to be really limited, because they don't have arms or legs. But they bounce really well now."

Jou let Wormmon lead him to the "best seats" and sat on the ground. Betamon curled into his side. Hawkmon sat next to Wormmon, and his Nyokimon sat between his legs. No amount of prodding could get Nyokimon to go and join the rest of his friends for the performance. Elecmon sat next to Hawkmon with Armadillomon on his other side. I was going to join them, but Angemon came over to stand with me and Devimon, so I stayed put. I tried to pay attention as the four villages started to sing in passable harmonies, but Angemon started whispering to me.

"Have you found Takeru?" Angemon asked, afraid of my answer. I shook my head, unable to speak. "Oh, I've been hoping you would. I'm worried about him."

"There's no reason to be," Devimon assured him. I felt like I'd fallen into an alternate universe, listening to Devimon comfort his arch nemesis from my other side. "The digidestined don't stay down. I would know. I've tried to take them out several times now, and nothing's worked. No matter what enemy threatens them, the digidestined rise above all odds."

"You're right," Angemon said, nodding to him. Devimon shrugged his shoulders. The babies were squirming in his arms, and he excused himself to sit with the audience as the village digimon's voices rose louder.

"What's gotten into him?" I asked Angemon, only partially joking.

"Devimon is actually having a lot of fun these days," he told me. "He's being really kind to the babies. I think he likes it here. He's become a whole new digimon. I'm really happy about it actually."

"It's kind of awesome," I agreed.

The voices were growing louder still, and _just_ as they were about to launch into the grand finally, Hawkmon gasped, hopping to his feet. The singing stopped and they glared at Hawkmon, but their glares were short lived as their eyes all fell to the glowing in-training digimon on the ground.

" **Nyokimon digivolve to...** "

I was shocked, and I wasn't the only one. Hawkmon was watching in awe.

" **Poromon!** "

"No way," Jou gasped. He looked to me and I stared back. We were equally shocked. Hawkmon had become such an influential part of this Nyokimon's life that it digivolved into a Poromon—a species of digimon that was thought to be extinct except for Hawkmon. It was amazing. Hawkmon had tears in his eyes, crouching down to look at his little buddy.

"There's so much I need to teach you," Hawkmon said. "You're a Poromon now, the only Poromon in this whole world. I never thought I'd see one other than myself, not since my village was destroyed."

"You're not alone now," Poromon chirped.

"No," Hawkmon agreed, tears streaming down his face. "I'm not."

 _ **Jenna Washington:**_

What?

Was it even _possible_ that I had just seen what I thought I had?

No, it wasn't.

But I had still seen it.

"You two won't be happy when I'm through with you," Arnold was saying, but could barely focus on his words, even though I knew I should have been. "It was a mistake coming here." Well, that much was obvious. There was no real reason why we should have been here. We had accomplished nothing aside from getting a few bruises, bloody noses and possibly fracturing my hand from hitting Veronica so hard. Well, that and finding out that Chi...

"We made no mistake," Yamato said snidely, "We're inside, aren't we?"

"Not for long," Arnold said bitterly. "Not for long."

"Well, we only need a moment," Yamato told him. "In fact, we're already done."

I didn't know what he was talking about. What had he done? Was it possible that he had managed to remove the block without ever lifting a finger? I knew the Digidestined were good, but not _that_ good. Yamato seemed pleased with himself in any case, and that was enough for me. Arnold though, he looked like he was about to pop with rage. His face screwed up and his veins thickened under his reddening skin. Anger seemed to be something he was familiar with and should probably work through.

Arnold stepped forward and grabbed a handful of Yamato's shirt collar and pressed his nose against Yamato's, growling. "What did you do?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Yamato said, his voice wavering. It suddenly dawned on me that Yamato might be lying, but I didn't know for sure.

"Bring them to my office," Arnold spat to Marshall and Tyler.

"My pleasure," Marshall said politely as Arnold set off toward what I was sure was his office. The second he was out of sight Marshall kicked the back of Yamato's leg, tossing him to the ground, "He didn't say _when_ we had to bring you to his office." He looked to Tyler, "Don't you think it would be good to rough them up a bit? Get them back for what they did to us?"

"Pardon me?" I asked, nerves escaping me now. "What _we_ did to _you_? Do I need to remind you that you stalked one of my friends for years, and treated her like crap? Or that you consistently bullied my brother?" It felt horrible to have his green eyes staring straight at me with so much dislike, but worse when I saw the smile creeping onto his face. It would have been better if he hadn't cared that he'd done these things, but that wasn't the case—he actually _enjoyed_ the fact that he had caused these issues. "You guys attempted to cause a mass genocide," I said bluntly.

"Attempted?" Marshall questioned suspiciously, moving forward, leaving Yamato on the ground alone. Tyler was holding me tight from behind and Marshall was now standing over me, one eyebrow raised. He licked his curled lips and reached for my face with his hand. "We succeeded."

I pushed back against Tyler and brought my feet up, slamming them into Marshall's chest sharply. He gasped in pain and stumbled backwards where he tripped over Yamato who had tackled his legs. Yamato then jumped to his feet and slammed his fist into Tyler's face causing him to release one of my arms. I tried to escape, pulling with all my might but Tyler merely stumbled forward. "Get off!" I shouted, shaking my arm until I spun and slammed my fist into his face. Poor guy. But I just didn't care. He let go and Yamato and I took off together, rushing toward the exit, but just as we neared the door it had flown open.

That horrible girl, Veronica, had stepped inside, holding a gun up, pointing it directly at the two of us, "Going somewhere?"

"Don't!" I was surprised to hear Marshall's voice. "Arnold wants them."

Veronica looked to her gun with just her eyes, never breaking posture. It seemed she would have much preferred to be given permission to take us out. The gun was real, not just one of those digi-death machines. It was an honest to goodness gun with bullets and all. I was glad Marshall had come to our rescue. It wasn't a feeling I had expected to experience but hey, life's full of surprises. She lowered her gun ever so slightly and then jerked her head, "Then get going."

We turned as one, putting our hands up. We'd lost. We couldn't fight three of them, not when they had weapons. I was shocked to see Veronica's gun honestly, and horrified that at any moment during our previous fight she could have pulled that on me and been done with me. I was alive because it had never crossed her mind. Or because she didn't want to kill anyone.

Well, too late. She'd killed so many.

"Faster!" Veronica shouted. Tyler and Ricky, who had joined us when Veronica had, took hold of the two of us, dragging us more quickly through the hallways. It was disgusting to have their dirty chubby fingers touching me, it was like the negativity was seeping from their pores and infecting me, like I would surely have to amputate my arm if I ever wanted positive feelings again.

Soon though, we had been brought to Arnold's office and Marshall stepped forward, knocking on the door. Arnold's bossy voice wafted through. "Come in," he said calmly. Marshall opened the door and stepped aside as Tyler thrust Yamato through the door causing him to lose his balance and fall to his knees. I was thrown in a second later, knocking into him and we both fell to the floor. I groaned, lying on my back. I was not used to fighting, and my entire body was aching now from all of the punches and hair pulling. I looked up to Veronica who had her gun raised once more. I hurriedly got up, which I was sure was what she wanted from me, and then pulled Yamato to his feet as well. "Sit," Arnold said. I looked to him and saw that he was flipping through a magazine, glasses on his face now, sliding down his sweaty nose. Yamato sat down in one of the chairs that had been set up facing Arnold's desk, and he offered me the other one. I sat down quickly and nervously. "You may stand guard," Arnold said to his goons, "if you would like."

I looked over my shoulder to see Marshall signal Tyler and Ricky to watch the door from outside, but he and Veronica chose to stay inside. Both of them looked like they were excited, hoping something was going to happen in which they could watch their gun have a 'good' use. I swallowed thickly and turned back to Arnold who was finally closing his magazine.

"So nice of you to drop by," Arnold said dryly. "I didn't think you'd show up." His voice was humourless as he made direct eye contact with both of us, slowly moving his eyes between us. "Now, tell me what it is that you've done inside these walls, great Digital Man."

Yamato looked nervous as he thought of a way to answer, an answer that was good enough to keep them confused, but not confusing enough for them to shoot us, "It's too late," Yamato said finally, "it won't matter to you what we've done anymore."

Arnold's eyebrows rose in a threatening way. "Very well," he said, to my surprise, "Now, if you would be so kind as to show me your cellular phones."

"Don't have any," Yamato lied quickly—too quickly. This time even _I_ knew if it was a lie or not. Arnold did too it seemed because he motioned to Marshall to retrieve them. I was quick to pull mine out and hand it to him to avoid any more unnecessary conflict, but Yamato was being stubborn, causing trouble just because he wouldn't give them the pleasure of being able to control him. Marshall eventually pulled the phone from Yamato's pocket and then tossed them both to Arnold's desk where they skidded toward the man himself.

"Careful, you oaf!" Arnold gasped, picking up the nearest phone which was Yamato's, "we can use these."

"No offense," Yamato said spitefully, "but I don't think anyone in my contact list is going to want to speak to you, so there's no sense calling."

"You're right," Marshall said, his voice filled with a sick sense of humour, "No sense calling because they're dead." He snorted at his own joke, which simply infuriated Yamato. I took his hand as it clenched tightly over the edge of the armrest. He couldn't fight again because he'd be shot. I couldn't let that happen. We had to wait until help came, and I was sure that was where Chi had gone. He had to have left to get us help... I forced him out of my mind, it was hard to think about.

"That's enough," Arnold said his voice completely void of amusement. He turned his eyes back to Yamato and said, "How do these work? How are these... shields keeping intact inside the virus? How can I take them down."

"As if I'd tell you," Yamato said sharply.

"You _have_ to tell me," Arnold said manipulatively, eyeing Veronica with her gun.

"Bite me." Yamato's snarl seemed to create quite a stir of emotions inside Arnold who slammed his fists down on the table causing my phone to bounce further from him.

Arnold tried to control his temper as he spoke and he muttered quietly, through gritted teeth, "Perhaps I did not make myself clear, you will tell me how they work, or I will _kill_ you."

"And if I tell you, you'll kill the rest of my friends," Yamato said haughtily. "I'm not as selfish as you are. I'm not going to let you take all of them from me."

Arnold leaned across his desk like he was about to let us in on a little secret of his and whispered, "I do not need your permission to do my job." As he leaned back into his chair it seemed to me that he was done with us, and whatever he had initially planned our fates to be was about to come to play before we could be saved, but instead he turned to me. "Who was that boy?"

"This is Yamato," I said, confused.

"The other boy," Arnold said harshly, "The one outside."

"Ch-Chi?" I stuttered, Arnold shrugged his shoulders annoyed, he didn't know. "He's my boyfriend."

Arnold nearly choked on his sudden laughter. Marshall and Veronica both saw this as an opportunity to join in on the fun, laughing along with their boss who apparently found this news very amusing indeed. When his laughing died down enough to speak, his face was still red and his eyes were damp. "Your boyfriend? He's a monster."

"He's _not_!" I didn't care what they said, or what Chi _was_ I loved him! It was shocking, you know, that he was what he was—if he was that at all—but the only problem I had with that was that he lied to me, to keep it a secret. He had been keeping a large piece of himself from me, and that was something that we would have to work through. I just didn't care what or who he was. "You're the monster."

"I don't have wings," Arnold said through a sudden sneer.

"He had wings?" I asked, leaning toward Yamato, "Did he?" Yamato nodded, "That's pretty cool."

Arnold apparently was not pleased by my responses to his questioning, and so he stood from his chair now, no longer interested in playing games, he was going to want answers soon. "My team can easily decode your ghastly shields, I do not need your assistance with that," he said as he paced back and forth in front of his desk. I noticed Yamato's foot twitch, like he thought for a moment he might want to trip Arnold, but thought better of it. "What I would like from you now, is to know where your base of operations is," he said, stopping in the middle of the room, leaning against his desk and looking to the two of us, "I can't have you spreading any more lies about me. You are ruining my name."

"You ruined your own name," Yamato snapped.

"Silence!" Arnold seemed to have had enough of Yamato's backtalk, and was getting ready to send us back to Veronica and Marshall, but he took a breath and continued. "What are your plans?"

"What are your plans?" Yamato asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Arnold responded.

"Exactly," Yamato said flatly. "Why would I tell _you_?"

"Because I have a gun in this room pointed to your head," Arnold said with a very humourless sort of laugh. Yamato looked suddenly nervous, but still refused to speak up.

"What's your radar?" I asked suddenly. Arnold's eyes snapped over to me, like he hadn't expected me to say much else. "What does it do?"

"That is none of your concern," Arnold said, annoyed, "Though," He looked up to Marshall and shrugged, "it's not much of a secret, and so I think I could at least share that with you. We simply plan to locate each digimon and bring an end to their time on this planet."

"You're insane!" I growled.

"And your boyfriend will be the first to go," He said with a smirk.

I got to my feet without thinking and slammed my fists into his chest. "Don't you _dare_ touch him!" Arnold looked down on me with disgust, and then wrapped his hands around my shoulders and pushed sharply, sending me to my seat once more, "Don't."

"Don't _you_ dare touch _me_ ," Arnold said, straightening his suit jacket. He was done now though, "if there is nothing else you fools wish to assist me with, then I think our time in this office is over." My heart sank quickly. What did that mean exactly? Was he about to let us die? What if I was never able to see my dad, or Chi, or Kudamon, or Mary again? They were the only family I was sure I had left, and I needed to see them again! I couldn't just _die_ here!

"Maugrim doesn't trust you," Yamato said quickly, trying to get some information in, enough to keep us alive. I was thankful.

Arnold looked to him, amused and then sneered, "I don't trust him either. His goals are maniacal, and counterproductive. My goals are inspirational and groundbreaking. I wish to separate the two worlds, the way they were meant to be and keep them as such, indefinitely." Yamato shifted uncomfortably in his chair, "and use my own creations, my own creatures, to inflict a new order on the societal conventions. I wish to show the world the way I chose to live is much cleaner—much more advanced. I can show them things they never wanted to know before."

"So you want to take over the world," I said, shrugging it off. "Nothing groundbreaking about that."

"Get out." Arnold's response was quick and sharp, he had officially had enough of the two of us. He looked up to Marshall, "Take them to the beasts. I have enough to do without dealing with these fools all day."

We both looked back to see Marshall's face twist into a malicious grin. Whatever could make Marshall feel that emotion was clearly not something I wanted to be facing, because there was just _no_ way it was going to be anything good. We had stalled all we could, and now we could only wait for Chi to come back with some help, otherwise, these 'beasts' it seemed would be the end of us. "It would be my pleasure," Marshall sneered.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Jou and Mari are still fighting for a State of Grace as they work for a common goal that they can only hope will work out in the end.


	23. State of Grace

**U/N:** So this is another chapter written solely by me, and that's pretty weird I'm realizing as I'm writing these introductions but that's fine. It's already done anyway. Mari and Jou are some of my favourite characters, and there's a little glimpse at a character we've seen before but had no real impact. She'll be back briefly too, so don't forget her!

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 1: The First Two Days**

 **Chapter 23: State of Grace**

 _ **Mari Goutokuji:**_

"This blog is essentially useless," Natsuko Takaishi said with an almost bitter drawl. She had her laptop laid out in front of her while she and her friends enjoyed their picnic. They had many blankets overlapping one another and large portions of food lying out in the grass. It seemed a bit like a waste to me, to be eating all of that food, but there _were_ quite a few of them.

Natsuko, in her sweatpants and tank top was paying no mind to her partner Lunamon who was playing with her best friend, Coronamon. I only knew the latter well as he'd helped a lot in the gardens, giving them plenty of sunshine. Kae Ichijouji was keeping an eye on him while still remaining invested in what Minervamon was telling her, which as far as I could tell, was simply about New York cuisine which, while alright, was nothing special. Toshiko Takenouchi was eating some chopped carrots while Satoe Tachikawa raved about her daughters cooking, and how she missed eating it, but how she was _so_ glad to know she was okay now. It was as though she were throwing that in the conversation just to remind Toshiko that just because she hadn't _seen_ Mimi, like Toshiko had seen Sora, did not mean she was any less alive. Mushroomon was sitting in the grass, not far from the blanket, leaning against Kamemon who appeared to be sleeping. But Toshiko was not the only member of Team Mom that was new, because Haruka Motomiya was there as well, looking rather awkward about the situation. Yuuko was attempting to strike up a conversation about Daisuke, while Yoshie continued to offer her food.

"Daisuke is a brilliant man," Yuuko said fondly. "He and I bonded often over the stovetop."

"He likes to cook, yes," Haruka replied flatly.

"Would you like some devilled eggs?" Yoshie offered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Digitamamon asked, his eyes narrowing in on his partner.

"Nothing, dear," Yoshie assured him, and when he spotted the tray in her hands he understood. Haruka passed on the food and Yoshie looked upset, but a series of digimon led by Dorumon arrived and they each took some for themselves so her face perked right back up.

Mary Washington, Willis' mother was also present, but she was simply eating the food and humming to herself, not even attempting to make conversation. It seemed Fumiko was the only mother present, aside from Kurayami and perhaps Aimi, who did not want to take part. Not that she probably knew they were even around to picnic _with_. The poor girl was so distraught. I kind of wished she would just get over it.

Weirdly enough, the fathers seemed to be grouping together either out of sheer convenience or spite that their wives were enjoying their time apart, though the men didn't seem to be having nearly as much fun. Keisuke and Masami sat together, not speaking at all, while Kazuya sat one row below them in the stands looking rather grumpy. Haruhiko and Michael were talking animatedly though, with Isao in between the two of them as he pretended to look as though he were _not_ annoyed. Okotte Higorashi looked more upset than any of them though. Even with his daughter back, he just had this resting face that looked depressed and empty. He clearly needed more of a life.

"I love being outside," Satoe grinned foolishly. "I simply adore the fresh air."

"This air is hardly fresh," Toshiko said bitterly, which made Satoe slump down, depressed. Toshiko wasn't wrong though. I was craving fresh air that didn't come from being inside a giant bubble. For a while I'd been convinced we could run out of air, but we'd been here too long to see that as an outcome anymore. We were lucky in that sense, but it was still a very stale empty space that we were trapped inside.

"They sure talk a lot," Terriermon whispered as he came closer to where I sat, planting some new flower seeds, "And eat all the good food, apparently."

"They never eat before the digimon," I explained, "Taichi told them all to take the day off and treat themselves for once."

"Still kind of selfish," he muttered. I didn't disagree, but I certainly wasn't about to agree either. I really didn't care what food they ate. All of it was gross anyway. I didn't know where Babamon had found the supply of eggs anyway, probably some odd digital refrigerator like the one Taichi had told me about. The fruit had all been frozen and thawed, and everything else was processed and canned. The only food that was worth eating, as far as I was concerned, was being grown in this very garden, so that's why I was working on expanding it. We needed more food.

"There's a lot of selfishness going around lately," I said as a response, working with the tiny trowel I had selected to make use of. Terriermon seemed to agree, and then he sighed, but didn't talk much after that, and instead just moved along the line, planting more flowers. I followed him, but only because I was heading that direction anyway. "So, Lopmon's okay."

"Yeah," Terriermon said with a very monotonous voice. "So she is." I had thought he would be more excited to talk about it, but he didn't perk up in the slightest. "Palmon should have told me sooner."

"I think she tried," I said, covering up the seeds as he planted them. "There is just so much for everyone to tell and to think about that it was probably hard for her to express her entire story with everyone's attention. I know I had quite the story about the virus."

"Yeah," Terriermon agreed, relaxing a little. "Me too."

"And what was that?" I questioned.

He laughed a little, but it was very humourless. "I tried to leave," he told me, "I couldn't find her. Lopmon, I mean, and she didn't even tell me that she'd gone off. I was scared, and I wanted to leave and go find her. So I was on my way out the door when I saw the flash of light at the Temple. I was scared, because I thought Lopmon was sure to be dead. So I started running, and I wouldn't have stopped if Labramon hadn't already been taking a stroll. He had seen the virus and was running back, he took me back too. It wasn't really my choice. I'm glad I came back."

"I'm glad you did too," I told him, patting his head. He smiled, which was a relief. I didn't want him to be depressed. He had every reason to be excited now, because Lopmon was back. Not _back_ , but back enough to be counted as alive. But of course there was Willis, the reason Lopmon had gone out at all, to find him. They'd been separated from him for so long, much longer than the others had been separated. It had been twice as long for them and now he was away from Lopmon too. Everything he knew was gone from him. Willis, Lopmon, Michael, Jenna, Tatum. He had Kudamon, Monodramon and Betamon, but it didn't seem to be enough pieces of the puzzle to keep him from falling apart. "I miss Willis," I admitted very quietly.

Terriermon looked up to me, barely hearing what I'd said and then he sighed, his eyes watery. "Me too." He turned back to the garden and instead of sadness, when he spoke next there was only anger in his voice, "Why do the people hate digimon? Why did they do this?"

"Do you remember when you first met me?" I asked quietly, ashamed of myself. Terriermon looked up, trying to recall the memory. After a moment of thought he finally remembered, "Exactly. I was scared, I didn't understand. I thought there was a dangerous element to you because you were different. I understood as time went on." His anger seemed to subside as he allowed old memories to make their way to the front of his mind, "Maybe everyone else needs more time. They're going through what I did, but with more power to do bad."

"Power is the cause of all evil," Terriermon said as though he were quoting something.

"Make way!"

We both turned and gasped, jumping back as Warg pushed a wheelbarrow as fast as he could down the edge of the garden. Melga was sitting inside throwing seeds at random. "Stop!" I shouted, causing them to skid to a stop, ending with the wheelbarrow on its side and Melga laying in the grass. "You can't do that, you'll wreck the garden."

"We were just trying to have fun," Melga pouted.

"We just miss Hideto so much." Warg added sadly.

"Yeah, not gonna work," I said, crossing my arms. They both sighed and turned the wheelbarrow back on its feet before dragging it away. When I turned back to Terriermon I found that he'd made his way down the path away from me. I figured it would be best to not bother him any further and I stood tall, stretching in the tinted violet light, trying to remember a time when life wasn't so stressful. Terriermon had hung a heavy weight from my heart and while it wasn't his fault, I still needed something to relieve the strain, so I began searching for Taichi.

As I was wandering through the hallways, coming up short, I tried to recall when I had last seen him. It certainly hadn't been recent, that was for sure. A flash of the previous night played in my mind where we had eaten dinner together and he'd wandered off with Agumon to turn in early. I'd though it odd, but didn't question him. We were all allowed to act out of character as often as we needed while stuck in here. But I hadn't seen him since then.

I came to a stop outside the dining hall and glanced around. The room was mostly empty, but I knew that, when in doubt, search for food. Agumon was always with food. So I went for the kitchens where I found many digimon franticly learning to cook with aprons tied around their waists, but no Agumon, and no Taichi.

Eventually I found the library, which was the last place I would expect to find Taichi, but I figured if I couldn't find him, reading would be something for me to do at least, but I caught sight of Tapirmon instead. I was heading his way when someone turning a page from inside the library caught my attention.

I turned sharply to see Kurayami looking up at me, "Sorry," she said, "Didn't mean to scare you." She was sitting in one of the armchairs, her hair tied back messily, reading a big blue book. Labramon was lying at her feet, seemingly sleeping, but if the way his ears had perked up was any indication, he was simply resting.

"Startled," I corrected, "You didn't scare me." She nodded, ready to return to her book. "I'm sorry too though." I said, feeling rather awkward. Kurayami looked up, confused and so I moved toward her, shuffling my feet. It wasn't very often that I felt uncomfortable or nervous, but it also wasn't often that I apologized either. "I know it probably isn't a big deal, but there are only so many of us here, and I want us to be on good terms."

"Aren't we?" She asked.

"Sure," I agreed, "But I was rude to you when you first revealed yourself a few days ago."

Kurayami smiled up at me, "It's really no big deal." I nodded, feeling even more awkward now, and then I was turning to leave but she stopped me. "Have you seen Daisuke?" I looked back and shook my head, "We've been looking for him and Veemon but can't seem to find them."

"I can't find Taichi either," I admitted, "Maybe they're together."

"Maybe," Kurayami agreed, thinking to herself, "I've looked everywhere—oh!"

"Oh?" Labramon asked, looking up from her feet.

"What day is it?" Kurayami asked, counting on her fingers.

"I don't really know," I admitted, "I've lost track." It was horribly depressing to admit it. We had been here long enough for me to forget the standard way of keeping track of a person's daily life. I couldn't even be sure what _month_ it was. It had been roughly... eight weeks, I was sure. Probably. I pulled out my phone though, ashamed, and read the date aloud, "August first."

"Ah," Kurayami said, nodding. "That's an important day for the original eight. I never really understood why Daisuke and the others joined in on the day, but they do nonetheless. I'm sure they'll be back soon."

"So they're celebrating?" I asked, my voice was flat.

"I guess so," she said.

"What better timing could there be?" I asked sarcastically, excusing myself from the situation, waving goodbye hastily as I made my way down the hallway and toward Tapirmon. So they deliberately excused themselves from their daily business and away from Kurayami and myself, and their children—probably, though I didn't know that—to celebrate their first trip to the Digital World when in fact we were still there, but with nothing to celebrate.

I rolled my eyes as I came up to Tapirmon who was floating in the air at my eye level, staring down a strange dark passage that I'd never bothered to go down. "Hey," I said startling him.

"Hello," he said when he'd composed himself. "Did you have fun in the garden?" He looked nervous though, which seemed odd. What was there to be nervous about? I mean, aside from the things we had been growing accustomed to for two months already. I shrugged my shoulders and he looked disappointed, "I'm kind of hungry, we should go get some breakfast."

"I'm not hungry," I told him, "You go."

"You should come with me!" he insisted, "It will be fun, I promise."

"I just ate though," I told him, "I'm fine. You can go meet up with some of the other digimon."

"Mari, please come," he said flatly.

"Why?" I asked, annoyed.

"Because you're not allowed to be alone here!" he shouted bluntly. It took a moment for what he'd said to sink in because it came so out of the blue, so I simply stared at him as he attempted to correct what he'd said, "I just meant that I'm lonely...?"

"I'm not _allowed_ to go down there?" I asked sharply, flicking my eyes towards the dark hallway that Tapirmon had just been staring down, "Says who?"

Tapirmon looked like he wanted to protest and to keep coming up with alternative reasons, but he finally sighed in a very defeated way. "Taichi," he said.

"Oh really?" I asked, putting my hands on my hips, and rolling my eyes, "Of course he did." I sighed dramatically, and even I knew I was being stubbornly dramatic, but I still took a step into the darkness and even though Tapirmon was holding onto my arm for dear life I still didn't stop. "Tapirmon, you may as well stop trying, I'm going to go down here one way or another."

"Not if I can get enough digimon to pull you back!" he protested with a strained voice.

"Then I'll come back tomorrow," I said flatly, and he released me, seeming to finally realize that there was no way he was going to keep me out of the hallway, no matter how hard he tried. I wandered around for a bit, keeping my hands on the wall for some direction, but it just kept getting darker and darker. Tapirmon was floating by my side somewhere, whimpering in a way that clearly demonstrated just how frightened he was of this hallway. "Tapirmon, why are you here if you're so scared."

"I-I'm curious," he admitted shyly. "Willis told me not to come."

"Did he?" I asked. "Now I'm curious."

"Do you always do the opposite of what someone tells you to do?" Tapirmon asked.

"Not always," I told him simply. "What other people expect of me is none of my concern. I do as I feel is right for me, whether or not another person thinks it would be best." He seemed to understand, but didn't respond as he came closer to me to hold my arm again. "So why did Willis tell you not to come?"

Tapirmon blatantly ignored me though and we continued on our way. I could completely understand Tapirmon's fear of the hallway because the amount of sheer negative energy that seemed to be packed inside was nearly unbearable. That, and he'd always been rather scared of the dark. So had Kiyoko. They always kept each other company, but obviously they couldn't do that anymore, so I was happy to fill in for him.

We came to a door, and I nearly passed over it, purely because it seemed uninteresting to me, but the negative energy seemed to be coming from inside, and so I reached for the door handle, nervously pulling, opening the door. There was a moment where I was forced to remain still by the energy pouring from the room, unable to do much aside from drown in the sadness and rage that seemed to be kept inside. "C-c-can w-we g-g-go?" Tapirmon was stuttering and breathing heavily now. "I-I'm scared."

"You can go back," I told him, keeping my voice as calm as I could. "I'm going inside."

"Okay m-me t-too," Tapirmon decided.

So together we stepped into the room. The energy only got darker and deeper from that point on as I felt around the very dark room. I walked right into a table but felt something fall and smash against the table. I reached toward it and found it to be an electric lantern. I fiddled around with it, feeling as though something was watching over my shoulder, until I found a button that caused light to pour from the lantern.

Tapirmon and I stayed side by side staring toward the wall in front of us where many weapons were hanging from metal holsters bolted to the stone wall. There was a table in front of me with many blueprints laid out on its surface, and many other documents rolled and piled up. Along the walls there were shelves upon shelves of papers and devices, and everything about this place was far too familiar for it to have been a coincidence.

"Is this...?" I asked slowly.

"Sigma," Tapirmon confirmed.

I immediately found myself moving forward to look through whatever I could find. They had been keeping me away from a place in which Sigma had been keeping all of his darkest thoughts. I had just as much right to know about this place as they did, maybe more. I'd actually _known_ Sigma, though he hadn't exactly enjoyed my company. I remembered horrible flashes of times when he had tried to attack me and winced as I began flipping through the pages on the table. They were all buildings near where the three of us had recently been evicted from. I found one of the library my parents were trying to take from me.

"A journal," Tapirmon said nervously, flipping it open and reading the pages.

I moved to read over his shoulder and found it was mostly curses written in harsh jagged writing, many of the words were in different languages. I looked away and found a pile of old thick pages piled in the corner. As I moved nearer I found that they were paintings.

The one on top was of a shadow hanging over a sleeping person. As I flipped through, finding more of a similar nature I came to realize that the sleeping person was in fact Miyako. My heart was beating quickly and painfully as I flipped quicker through them. When the paintings of Miyako stopped the pictures of me began. Sleeping with the shadows hanging over me, just like Miyako's had been. There were paintings of me lying in a porcelain tub surrounded in blood. I found a painting in which Kiyoko's body, with Sigma's shadow hanging over it was bent over a dead version of me. None of the paintings were particularly well done, but each of them had just enough detail to make out what they were of. And the last painting, at the bottom of the pile was of a younger version of me, standing in the snow with a shadowy figure leaning closer to me, trying to persuade me into helping him.

I winced, dropping the painting. I remembered that night. I remembered exactly what he had said to me, and what I'd said to him. I felt panic taking over now as my breathing became choked and ragged. I didn't stop searching though, looking for anything else that they might have tried to keep from me. I grabbed a box and dumped its contents onto the floor before falling to my knees and tearing through the pages.

Each one had to do with the death of a human and how he had apparently gotten away with them, though there was no proof he had done anything. Until the page came up that was titled "Kayo and Kandosuru Izumi" I felt my heart sink. They were Kiyoko's parents. I let out a horrible groan and dropped the page, getting as far from it as I could, and finding myself staring down at a box with claw marks on the top.

I threw the top off and stared down at a photograph of a pink and green plant digimon. "Lalamon?" I asked, lifting the Polaroid out of the box to get a better look at it. My eyes fell to the document right below and I began skimming the words. My eyes were watering before I'd even started, but with the panic mixing with the contents of the box, the tears had started pouring down my face. Tapirmon was quick to comfort me, but I paid him little attention.

Inside the box Sigma had sorted his plans for Lalamon. Sigma had intended to use all four of our digimon's quality which meshed both Earth and the Digital World together in one being to create a method of survival. He was going to use their bodies to create one for himself and to link the worlds together. Their connections to the two worlds, being created by someone from the world of the fairies meant that they strung a direct line down the makeup of the nine worlds. He was going to take Lalamon from me if he ever got the chance.

And below all of that I found his plans to kill me in revenge for not... allowing him inside. I tore the page up, screaming loudly in rage and frustration and pain.

"Hey!" Two hands grabbed my shoulders and I screamed, spinning around, ready to punch whoever had grabbed me, but it was Taichi, and my punch lightened before it hit his chest. He pulled me closer and hugged me as I cried, and I felt like a weak, pathetic mess. I tried to push him away, but he just held tighter and I wasn't strong enough to keep him away so I just let him hug me. "It's okay," Taichi said calmly into my ear. "Whatever he wanted to do, he can't. He's dead. He's gone."

"But it's _my_ fault!" I cried, my voice sounded stronger than I felt. "I made him go to K-Kiyoko, and he hurt Miyako be-because of me!"

"Doesn't matter," he said bluntly. "He's dead. Let's go, it's not a good place for you to be."

I mustered enough strength to push him away this time and glared at him, "Stop telling me what I can and cannot do," I snapped.

"It was for your own benefit," he reasoned.

"Maybe," I said, the anger vanishing immediately. But the sadness was going nowhere. "I don't want to leave, so you can go and leave me h-here."

"I'm not going," Taichi tried to reason.

"It's my _fault_!" I screamed, running my hands through my hair. "My fault he did these things—my fault she's dead!"

"Lalamon?" Taichi asked, but I didn't answer. "I just don't understand."

"And you never will," I said flatly.

" _Help_ me to understand!" He pleaded.

But I didn't want him to understand, and I was too stubborn to tell him anything. "Sigma a-and I have a past," I said, sniffling, and wiping my eyes, trying to stop crying now, "I-if I knew what he wanted, or w-what he was going to d-do, I would have _killed_ him when I had the chance."

"But he's dead _now_ ," Taichi said again. "And Miyako and Kiyoko are both alright."

"Prove it." I said flatly, but before Taichi said a thing, Tapirmon fluttered up into my view and hugged me. I was shocked so I didn't hug him back but he nuzzled his face against mine.

"I want to leave now," he said quietly. "I want you to come with me. This place is bad and it's hurting you. Come leave. Kiyoko wouldn't want you in here, and I don't think Miyako would either."

I looked into his eyes, so filled with fear and anger and I nodded. I didn't want to leave until I had absorbed every piece of information that was here, but if I did, I would be taking in all of the negativity as well and that would only lead to more problems. I stood up, wrapping my arms around Tapirmon and looked over my shoulder to Taichi, "I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"Don't be," he said fiercely. "You have every right to be upset." He held his hand out to comfort me so I took his hand and squeezed it momentarily before releasing him and turning back to the door. "Come on, let's go," Taichi said. And we did.

 _ **Jou Kido:**_

"I'm glad we were able to celebrate in _some_ way at least," Gabumon said, but his voice was filled with a very focused sadness. "It wouldn't be the same without showing some sort of respect to those who we've lost."

"Remember, they're not lost," Gatomon said gently, "Not all of them. We know that so many are alive! And we'll find the rest too, and we can have a real celebration together as a full group." Gabumon seemed to immediately cheer up. Gatomon had a way of taking charge in any situation, whether someone needed some cheering up, or just needed a third party to solve an issue. She was always around, and always willing to tame the chaos.

Gabumon was right though, it was weird to think that we were all that was left of our group. Sure, as Gatomon said they were alive, but they weren't _here_ and they may never have that chance. There had been just the three Digidestined, and that was simply a quarter of the group that once was. We did have most of the digimon, and luckily, the ones we did not have with us to celebrate were Biyomon, Hawkmon and Patamon who were all waiting out at Primary Village. And Gomamon, of course. He was alive though, and I couldn't possibly put negative thoughts into that concept. I had genuinely resigned myself to the idea that he was dead, but knowing that someone had been taking care of him all this time helped a lot. It made me feel infinitely more hopeful.

"I hope Mimi comes to the next one," Palmon said, dragging her long nails along the ground, upset with the idea that only Agumon and Veemon had gotten to celebrate _with_ their partners. "She loves parties."

"Do you remember her birthday party?" Gabumon asked nervously.

"Which one?" Palmon asked, perking up at the potential stroll down memory lane.

"Do you really have to ask?" Gatomon asked skeptically.

Palmon's face fell, "Oh, right. The time she made Sora cry..."

All three digimon silenced themselves as we walked together down the hallway of the Coliseum. I personally was on my way to see Emiko, and just happened to end up walking with them, and I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I just couldn't help it, "But," I added in their silence, "Do you remember Mimi's sixteenth birthday party?"

Palmon laughed, "Her sour-sixteen?"

Gatomon snorted, but Gabumon couldn't seem to recall the memory, "The one where every little thing went wrong, and she spent the entire time running back and forth between her English speaking friends and her friends from Japan? She ended up throwing us all in the pool because playing volleyball in the water doesn't have a language barrier."

"We only came out to play when the English friends went home," Gatomon reminded me, "Aside from Michael and Willis obviously. And then we—"

"Oh I remember now!" Gabumon interrupted, "We went for a walk down town New York. Mimi said it would be okay because we digimon would protect you all, and then someone tried to mug you guys and Agumon set him on fire!"

"He was never the most rational fellow," Palmon giggled.

"Serves the mugger right," Gatomon said with a small laugh.

It felt good to hear genuine laughter, even if it was only short lived. I couldn't blame them, though the three of them had it fairly well off—just like I did. Gabumon may have initially believed Yamato to be dead, but now he was like Gatomon and Palmon in the circle of digimon who knew their partners were alright. It was now only Pal, Pul, Terriermon, Tapirmon, Patamon, Hawkmon and of course, Wormmon. Wormmon was always doing his best with every situation he was thrown into, and I felt bad for him, because he just wasn't able to do everything the others could do. He had no hands after all.

I soon found myself near the housing hallway, but caught sight of MetallifeKuwagamon rushing toward me with a worried look on his face. I froze and waited for him to catch up, "Mr Jou!" he panted, "I cannot find Taichi."

I looked over my shoulder for a moment, realizing I had no idea where he'd run off to, "I'm sorry," I said quietly, "I'm not sure where he went."

"You will do!" MetallifeKuwagamon grabbed my arm tight and set off at a run toward the antechamber. I stumbled and nearly tripped but caught myself before falling onto Gabumon's horn. The three digimon I'd been walking with had come along with me, apparently interested to see what MetallifeKuwagamon needed me for. When we emerged in the antechamber I noticed a gathering of digimon. Babamon was conversing loudly with Tinkermon who was clearly trying very hard to pay as little attention as she possibly could. Warg and Melga were standing in a sort of protective barrier around Spring who was curled up in a fetal position in the corner, apparently trying very hard to concentrate, and some of the other digimon, like a Roachmon and a Gizamon were shouting loudly, trying to figure out what was going on.

When we came to a stop I spotted something that was entirely unfamiliar to the Coliseum, it was a small pink ball floating in the sky bearing a long pointed spear.

"Pixiemon," Palmon gasped as shock ran over the four of us. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, that's why I brought you," MetallifeKuwagamon told me, looking me right in the eye. "He needs help."

Pixiemon floated toward me quickly, noticing that someone had shown up for him and he landed on top of MetallifeKuwagamon's head looking all too relieved to finally be able to relax. "Well look at you!" Pixiemon sounded exactly like an older relative who had not seen their niece or nephew in a long while. He reached forward and felt my face and I felt it turning red as Gabumon and Palmon snickered by my feet. I glared at them, pulling my face sharply away from Pixiemon who looked to me apologetically. "I'm sorry," he said, "you're just so big now."

"It's been many years," I pointed out awkwardly.

"And yet I'm still the same size!" Pixiemon began laughing and I nodded, still awkward.

"You said you needed help?" Gatomon asked, thankfully jumping right into the conversation. "With what?"

Pixiemon looked toward her and his face lit up, "I'm glad you asked, Gatomon, I simply require someone to come take a look at the barrier surrounding my shelter. There are many digimon relying on my home to keep them safe, and while they are not all the kindest digimon I've met, they do not deserve the death awaiting them on the other side of the wall."

I stared at him for a moment, trying to find the perfect way to tell him that I would happily go find Taichi or Daisuke to go on the journey for him to test his walls, but Gabumon jumped to Pixiemon's rescue, betraying me unintentionally. "We can all go!"

"Yeah," Palmon smiled, "The four of us would be happy to help you out." I took a glance around, hoping to find that another digimon had joined us, and she wasn't talking about me. It wasn't that I didn't want to help out; it was just that I was obligated to take care of my daughter, and the virus really scared me. I didn't plan to ever admit that aloud, especially not around Emiko, but it scared me more than anything ever had. I had been working on keeping my panic attacks to myself, but it wasn't easy when all I wanted to do was scream all the time. I just didn't want to go out there. "Right guys?"

"Of course," Gatomon promised.

"Yeah!" Gabumon agreed.

"I guess so," I said, hanging my head as Pixiemon's excitement got the better of him and he fluttered off to zoom around the room. I rubbed the back of my head and started thinking of all the things we were going to need for the journey and set off to find some phones we could use as barriers. I didn't know how well Palmon or Gatomon would be able to hold the phones, or if Palmon would even be able to go out there. Maybe she would see the virus and get too scared, remembering the time she was stuck out there alone.

To be honest, I was kind of relying on it. If she stayed back I could stay with her, just for comfort.

"Let's go!" Pixiemon shouted suddenly.

I turned my head, "Yes, just give me a mome—"

I didn't get a moment. I was very suddenly being dragged toward the door with Palmon clinging to my leg for dear life. Gabumon and Gatomon were flying next to me and then the doors smashed open. I looked forward and nearly screamed as we shot toward the virus.

I clenched my eyes shut and waited, thinking of everything I would have to lose if I died just then, but it was all for nothing. Palmon squeezed me gently and I slowly peeked through my crooked glasses, seeing that we were in a bubble of protection, with the virus trapped just outside. I vaguely remembered Pixiemon using his barriers before, and relaxed a little, never my taking my eye away from the virus though.

Gatomon looked very determined, keeping her eyes moving, just in case, but Gabumon and Palmon looked like they were having a blast floating through the air at such speeds. I could understand how it _might_ be fun, but honestly my stomach was just flipping back and forth with each turn Pixiemon took. "So," Gatomon said, making conversation. Her voice sounded very far away, masked by the rushing winds. "What's wrong with your barrier?"

"It's not holding up as well as I'd thought it might," Pixiemon explained. "In other words, it's breaking."

"What?" Gabumon gasped, "What do you mean?"

"I mean the virus is entering my home, and those who I have promised to protect are in danger." Pixiemon's voice was no longer fun and optimistic, but rather cold and distant. He sounded nervous, like maybe he thought we might be too late already. I felt in my pocket for my phone and sighed with relief knowing I had it. Not only would I need it to keep the four of us safe, but I would also need _something_ to rebuild the barrier with, and since Pixiemon had been in such a hurry, I hadn't had time to retrieve a laptop or anything that would work better than my old phone. "We're almost home," Pixiemon explained. We must have been moving _very_ quickly to have gone as far as Pixiemon's house in such a short time frame. "Stay close to me," Pixiemon said quietly. "It will be safer."

It was obvious when we'd arrived, because the fog had dispersed, but it wasn't as sudden as it should have been. The fog slowly began thinning before we finally reached our destination. I looked back as Pixiemon kept the bubble moving, more slowly now as we moved up the insane staircase. I saw there was a place up in the sky where the virus was slowly seeping in, like a crack in the protection.

I was already working with my phone, my hands shaking nervously. I didn't want to be here long if the danger aspect was so high. I had everything to live for now, knowing that most of my friends, my partner and my wife were all alive. Of course Emiko too, and right now, I was all she had so I couldn't go and die on her, especially when no one really knew where the four of us had gone. I glared toward my phone, too polite to actually send the glare to Pixiemon who was just so happy to have someone here to help with his problems.

As I was searching through my recent apps for the stationary barrier, I thought once more about how we could simply erect them in every location, and essentially have a free walk through the Digital World—aside from the skies, we'd be home free.

And then I fell to the wooden flooring, landing roughly on top of Palmon who shrieked in shock. I rolled off of her and apologized, helping her to her feet as Pixiemon pushed open a big wooden door that led to an enormous chamber. I allowed the others to go in ahead of me, and took the rear, closing the door behind me. The virus had not yet made it anywhere near Pixiemon's house, which was a relief, because there were apparently a large portion of digimon waiting inside the walls. We were standing in the doorway of what appeared to be a chapel of sorts with wooden pews where many digimon were conversing with one another in hushed tones. It sounded like gossip making its way through the crowd but because there were hundreds of digimon in the giant room I could make out very little of what was being said.

"You sure saved a lot of lives," Gabumon said kindly, looking around the room in awe.

"This is nothing," Pixiemon waved it off. "These are just the digimon small enough to fit inside. Wait until you see the Monochromon and Tyrannomon herds in the forest. They're keeping all the meaner digimon in line. It's not hard you see, because they don't want to _die_ , so they'll mostly listen to the rules and—"

"HEY!"

Gabumon shouted in surprise at the new voice coming from under his foot, he looked down where he appeared to be stepping on an invisible stone.

"Would you mind removing your foot from my _spine_?" the snarky voice asked, annoyed.

Gabumon slowly removed his foot from whatever was shouting at him as the rest of us leaned forward to examine what it was. Pixiemon didn't seem fazed by this at all as he continued talking as if nothing had interrupted him, but I stopped paying him any attention, focusing on the invisible creature.

Then, out of nowhere, a long wet pink snake appeared and shot toward my face, slapping my cheek. "Uraagh!" I groaned, falling back and landing on the floor again, wiping my face with my sleeve.

"Get your nose out of my personal space," the small chameleon digimon said with a roll of his robotic looking eyes.

"Kenkyomon!" Palmon said, pulling the digimon into a hug, "Meiyomon has been looking everywhere for you."

"H-he's okay?" Kenkyomon asked, "Really?"

"He's at the Coliseum," Gabumon assured him, "and we even know where most of your other siblings are."

Kenkyomon's eyes shifted toward the other end of the room and I followed his gaze to where a tiger digimon who looked much like Leomon, but as a woman instead was standing with her back to us, talking to someone who was sitting at the front and center of the stage that made up the other end of the room. "Is that Zuyamon?" I asked out of sheer curiosity. Kenkyomon nodded. "She grew!"

"Yes," Kenkyomon said, unimpressed, "That tends to happen. Hokorimon is here too. He's always out in the woods though."

"Is that the digimon of pride?" Gatomon asked, too confused to keep up. Kenkyomon nodded once more, "So that's pride, humility and tenacity. Meiyomon will sure be glad to hear that."

"Hear what?" Pixiemon asked, popping back up. He had made his way down the aisle without realizing we hadn't been following him. "Can it wait? I really do need protection for all of these digimon."

"Oh, right," I said, reaching down to my phone again and preparing a barrier. I opened the app and flopped my head back with immediate impatience. The barrier was going to take a while to actually engage, so we could be here for quite some time.

I was staring at my phone, aware that many sets of eyes were on me, but luckily it was eventually interrupted by a quick shout from Gatomon. "Wizardmon!" she cried out. We all looked up to see that the digimon Zuyamon had been speaking with had been the wizard digimon that we'd all known for so long. He perked up at the sight of Gatomon and he jumped to his feet, rushing toward us all. "What are you doing here?" Gatomon asked, jumping into his arms to hug him.

"Well," Wizardmon said, spinning Gatomon around, "I needed a place to keep safe from the virus too, and this place was the closest." Gatomon pressed her face into Wizardmon's shoulder, not caring _why_ he was here, just that he _was_. He looked over Gatomon's shoulder to me though, locking eyes with me, "Could I ask you a favour?"

"Me?" I questioned, pointing to myself with my thumb. When he nodded I slowly handed my phone to Gabumon, "Make sure the barrier goes up." Wizardmon released Gatomon and took her hand gently to comfort her and then set off, out the door of the chapel. I followed him, looking back to the other digimon and stepped out into the dull light of the outside world. I caught sight once more of the virus, seeping in from the crack in the sky. "We're going to have to do something about that..." I thought out loud, realizing that if the barriers could fade this way, then we would have to keep regular visits to everywhere in the _entire_ Digital World to ensure the virus would not get to any of the others. We had to keep deaths at a minimum no matter the cost. It just seemed so unrealistic though.

"That is true," Wizardmon agreed and together we just stared up to the sky. "Do you have any ideas why the protection is failing?"

I honestly didn't, at least not any ideas with any validation or fact, "I suppose it could be the length of its existence. This is the biggest shield we have up, I think."

"You think the protection is spread too thin?" Wizardmon asked, worried.

"It _is_ possible," I nodded, but really, I still had no proof.

"So this new barrier program you are installing," Wizardmon said, deep in thought, "It too will fade and eventually fail?" I didn't really know the answer, so I didn't respond. There was no sense worrying him if I was wrong. It was hard to be 'the smart one'. I wasn't sure exactly how Koushiro did it so easily, but without him, or Kiyoko or even Willis, I was delegated to do all the researching and thought. I wasn't cut out for that amount of stress, especially since I wasn't finding _anything_. Wizardmon shook his head. "In any case," he said, motioning for me to follow him. He set off down the wooden path that resembled a porch of some kind, but it was high above a forest that was resting peacefully below. I tried to keep my eyes from wandering down to the trees, but my fear kept taking over and drawing my sights toward the long drop. "There is someone here, and I need your advice on what to do with her."

"Oh?" I questioned. Wizardmon didn't say much else for a moment or two and then he sighed.

"I found her," he explained, "Some of your friends sent me to find and protect all those I could find. I did as best I could, but when the virus came, I was too frightened, and I retreated." His voice broke suddenly, like he was ashamed of himself.

"You saved so many—" I tried.

"But I was selfish," Wizardmon cut in flatly, "I was selfish and I chose my own life over others. I could have saved more. Even just _one_ more life and it would have been worth the risk. But instead I came here to hide from the virus."

"It isn't selfish to care about yourself," I said gently, patting his shoulder, "You chose your own life, and while that isn't _entirely_ selfless, you still saved so many lives. And besides, isn't it healthy to be a little selfish sometimes?" Wizardmon tried to smile, but I could see this was something he was going to have to get over on his own in due time. Or perhaps Gatomon or Mr Ishida could help him through it, but I didn't seem to be helping much. I figured it was time for a subject change in any case. "So who is it that you want the advice for?"

Wizardmon stopped and slid a screen door open before gesturing for me to step in ahead of him. "She's in here," he told me. I peeked inside before braving the unknown. It appeared to be somewhat of a prison, but at least it felt serene and calm inside. I could see bars though, and when I finally stepped inside, I noticed a soft looking bed against one wall. Whoever was kept hostage didn't have the worst circumstances.

When I saw her face I froze and stared.

It was a human.

She seemed vaguely familiar, but it didn't really matter _who_ it was, just that there was a person here at all. "Wizardmon," I hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him aside. "What are you doing?"

"Showing you our prisoner," he explained, shrugging his shoulders.

"Why do you have one of the enemies as a prisoner?" I hissed frantically.

"She was in danger," Wizardmon explained. "I caught sight of a pillar of smoke, and found the enemy camp in flames. They all left, and I watched them curious as to how they were travelling between the worlds. When they finally were gone I started searching for another of those devices. Whatever they had used. While I was looking, this girl came in and tried to kill me, frantic. She wanted to know what I'd done to the others, but they'd left her, not caring that one of their own was still inside this world. I couldn't leave her, I couldn't let her die. She would die knowing that she was right, that a digimon was bad enough to allow her to perish. I couldn't let her think she was right. She isn't, digimon are okay, and everyone needs to know that. We're just like humans."

"And you think putting her in prison is going to make her like you?" I asked. My eyebrows were raised. I knew I had always been bad with girls too, but never had I been _that_ confused.

"No," Wizardmon admitted, "But it will keep her from doing anything rash, or hurting any of the digimon I fought so hard to protect."

I supposed there was enough logic in his actions to actually let it slide, and I turned back to the prisoner who was sitting with her back to the wall, her lips were pursed as if she were annoyed that I'd come to see her. "Hello," I said shyly, not sure how to interact with her.

"Don't talk to me," she snapped. Thank goodness for the language barrier being so blurred thanks to—whatever went on with the Digital World—because this woman was very clearly not speaking Japanese, and yet it was easy enough for me to understand her.

"See, that's the issue," Wizardmon said, hopping forward, "She won't let us talk to her, and she barely eats anything we give to her. I don't want her to die."

"Ha!" the girl snarled.

"They don't," I assured her, but she just rolled her eyes. I turned back to Wizardmon, not caring enough to convince her otherwise, "I can't make her eat." Wizardmon sighed, not sure what to say either. I figured he simply wanted someone to give him a suggestion, but I wasn't sure I really had one. I couldn't force someone to do something against their will—nor did I particularly want to. I knelt down in front of the cage anyway to get to eye level with the woman inside. Her dark, greasy hair was pulled back into a ponytail to keep from her eyes. "I'm Jou," I said, panicking. I was never very good with meeting new people. "It's nice to meet you."

The girl leaned forward, staring to me with wide, round eyes and then she shook her head in bemusement, "You don't remember me, do you?" I stared at her. Should I remember her? I tried to place her face, but nothing was coming to my mind. "Right before the virus came, you wanted my antidote. I gave it to you?"

"Oh!" I said, clapping my hand against my knee. "I guess I didn't recognize you without the maniacal entourage of vindictive sociopaths backing up your ridiculously discriminatory opinions."

"Pity," the woman said dryly, leaning back against the wall again.

She didn't seem at all interested in speaking with me, but when I turned to Wizardmon he just motioned for me to continue, "Thank you," I blurted, regretting it the moment I had said it, she didn't deserve to be thanked. She did nothing to earn that. "For giving me the antidote. I know I made you do it, but it saved my sister-in-law's life. She's okay."

The woman looked to me, like she was glad to hear that, but only for a moment and then she scoffed, "Whatever."

"You know," I said, giving up already, "You don't have to hate everything. No one will judge you for being kind." She rolled her eyes and I shrugged my shoulders, "Your choice. But, if you think about it, it isn't as though one day you will find yourself on your death bed saying 'thank goodness nobody knew I was kind'. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. These digimon only want your well being."

"Except maybe the ones in the forest," Wizardmon added, "They can be mean." I elbowed him lightly and he nodded stepping back.

I didn't say anything else though, just waiting for her response, and it really looked like she might even give one too as she looked toward Wizardmon with half a smile. But then everything in the room felt warmer, and safer. The barrier had finally been reinstalled. I grinned to Wizardmon who was sighing with relief, but when I looked back to the woman she was leaning against the wall again, not paying me any mind.

"It's fine," I said, "I'm not telling you that your opinion, whatever it is, is invalid. You're entitled to feel whatever you want. Just know that this digimon right here, he saved your life." The woman looked to Wizardmon and then diverted her eyes again. "And I am sure he would be happy to do it again. Maybe even let you out of this prison if you were able to show that you were no danger."

"He'd never believe me anyway," the woman snarled.

"With all due respect," I said, "Have you given him any reason to trust you?" She didn't answer, "Have you even told him your _name_?"

The woman was silent for a moment longer but she finally pulled herself to her feet and walked across to the other side of the room and stuck her hand through the bars to shake hands with Wizardmon, "My name is Iruka."

"I'm Wizardmon," Wizardmon said with a nervous smile.

"Clever," Iruka said sarcastically before moving to sit back in her spot.

The door to the room was opened quietly and I turned to see Pixiemon floating through the open entryway with Gatomon underneath, "Thank you for repairing our shield," he said, motioning for me to follow him out again. I waved to Wizardmon who waved back happily, giving him and Gatomon a chance to talk and followed Pixiemon who was leading me to where Gabumon and Palmon were waiting. "It means a lot."

"Of course," I agreed, "Make sure to contact us with any further problems." I paused for a moment and then shook my head, "We can't allow any further problems to exist. If your shield can falter, so can anyone else's. It's time to stop this virus once and for all. Whatever it takes.

"We need to clear the air," Palmon agreed.

"Literally," I added.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Sora and Jou are looking for their White Horse, as things really start to heat up.


	24. White Horse

**U/N:** Uhm. Okay. So this is just me again? And Jou again? What is up with that? xD Why is he everywhere? Oh-right, Joe and Cody both got one extra chapter for the sake of telling a whole story. I think Sora and Izzy did too, and since Tai did last time maybe we should work on Kari, Tk, Matt, Mimi, Davis, Yolei and Cody and get them all caught up with extra chapters to keep the original 12 all in sync. So yeah, We have Sora this time which was emotional too because Sora... well, she's Sora. I know Jou's was a last minute addition so that was kind of strange, but in the end it had to be added obviously, which you'll understand in full when you read it. Sora's is pretty plot heavy though.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 24: White Horse**

 _ **Jou Kido:**_

I slowly closed the top of the freezer, nervous that someone might find my new treasure. I couldn't have anyone tampering with what it was. It was important for me to keep it safely out of anyone's hands. I didn't know how it worked exactly, or what it might do if it were to come in contact with someone's skin. I wanted to keep safe and make sure no one found themselves hurt because of my own mistakes.

There was a small bubble of hope floating in my chest now and I thought that maybe, if I could keep this a secret, it could work out. I figured keeping it a secret wasn't all _that_ important, but if it didn't work I didn't want anyone to have gotten their own hopes up. This way, it was only me that could screw up and only me that would ever know.

I found myself staring down to the freezer, looking at my distorted reflection coming from the silver surface, wondering vaguely if there would be a better place to hide it, but it didn't matter. It was hidden well enough now.

"Hello Jou."

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of the voice and suddenly spun around quickly to see Benjamin and his fellow agents Jose, Hogan and Ilya. It was sad that they left a gap in their formation to remember Jackie by, they didn't show their sadness well, but this was enough to prove that they hadn't forgotten about their fallen friend. "Hello," I greeted them back.

"Will you be preparing the meal today?" Jose asked brightly, "That's rather ambitious of you, don't you think? You've already taken on so many responsibilities."

"I—" I paused, turning to see the beaded curtain that concealed the kitchen area being pushed aside as my step-sister Cho came out, smiling kindly. I smiled back at her and she looked startled.

"You've already got to raise your daughter, and keep every digimon in line with their sicknesses," Ilya expanded on what Jose had been saying. "And you've been hiding away working on something in the Dark Corridor. It seems astounding that you will also be preparing our meals."

"Oh, you're cooking? Cho asked, confused as her mother followed her out into the food preparation area.

Aimi's face lit up at this prospect and she set down the basket of fresh vegetables she was carrying. She turned to me and looked like she were about to pounce. "You're going to help us?" her voice was brimming with overflowing excitement. "I would love for you to, it would be wonderful to spend more time with you Jou!"

"It would," Cho agreed. "I barely know what you sound like, you don't talk much around us."

"That's because he doesn't like us," Eri added as she and Kazue made their way to the crowded area. "He thinks we've jumped on board his family tree without earning it or something."

"I don't think that," I insisted, nervously sliding on top of the freezer to make sure no one came to open it up. Benjamin and the others seemed to sense the tension and each took a step back. "I really don't. I think you're all wonderful and sweet and I have nothing against you."

"Then why don't you talk to us?" Kazue asked.

"I do!" I insisted awkwardly.

"Mhm," Cho said with an amused smile on her face. "Name one thing about me."

I froze and seven sets of eyes were trained in on me making the moment more intense than it needed to be. I felt a wretched panic rising in my chest again and I blurted out, "One of you likes unicorns."

Silence followed my words until Cho shrugged, "He's not wrong."

"Jou, I really would love it if you would join us," Aimi said, her eyes still beaming at me. "It would mean so much to me."

Again the awkwardness set in and I slid off of the freezer as Eri moved past to begin chopping up some of the carrots. I started backing up and twisted my face up with the pressure of the moment, "I-I just can't. It's not you though, I promise! I just h-have some serious things to be doing."

"Right," Eri said sarcastically.

And then I tripped over her leg, falling toward the ground. She reached for my arm and grabbed tightly, her fingers hurt the skin of my forearm but she had caught me before I hit the ground. She pulled me to my feet and I felt my face turn bright red, so I turned away. "Thanks."

Kazue was laughing, but Cho just looked concerned. I continued backing up, stupidly, and I bumped into the agents. Kazue laughed harder and I groaned. Why could I never do anything smoothly?

I caught sight of Aimi and she looked broken and sad, and suddenly I was more relaxed. "I promise I'll spend time with you. Why don't we cook a meal together as soon as we get out of here? The first dinner? Then we can celebrate and get to know each other at the same time. It'll be fun." Aimi's face lit up again and I felt better about the situation. I was then walking away, making sure I didn't make any more mistakes, and found that the agents were coming along with me, completely silently.

I didn't even really know where I was going, but it felt weird having them follow me. I ended up back in the infirmary where they joined me and I panicked, realizing I'd left my work out. Anyone could have seen it or hurt themselves with it. I rushed over to the other side of the room and stared just for a moment at my progress. There was a glass beaker filling slowly with sea foam green liquid, coming from a small purple tube connected to a metal vial over a fire.

I was once again aware that the agents were looking at me so I slowly drew the curtain closed around the metal trolley I had been working on.

"What was that?" Benjamin asked me. I felt my shoulders droop but tried to pretend I didn't know what they were talking about. Benjamin didn't fall for it though. "What were you making behind the curtain?"

I sighed, "It's a secret," I tried lamely. "I just don't want anyone to get their hopes up."

"It's a way out, isn't it?" Hogan exclaimed. Benjamin, Jose and Ilya all lit up the way Aimi had just done, and a moment later the four of them were exchanging theories of how I was going to get us out of the confines of the Coliseum.

Well, crap. The hopes were raised.

"Stop," I tried, a little put out that my secret had come out so quickly. I glanced to the door and hurried to shut it before turning back to the chattering agents. "Guys!" I hissed, "Listen. It's not what you think."

"Then what is it?" Benjamin asked.

"Well," I started awkwardly.

" _Wait, I have one last thing to do," I told Pixiemon earlier that very day, and then I had pushed back into the room where his prisoner was being kept against her will. Iruka sat with her arms crossed still as she leaned against the wall. "Hey," I said awkwardly._

" _Couldn't get enough, huh?" she asked, her eyes flicking over to Wizardmon who was looking more optimistic than before. "What can I do for you?"_

 _I wasn't sure how to bring up the question, or what the question even was exactly, but being a man with very little tact, it didn't take long for me to mess it up. "I need the antidote, give it to me or else."_

 _Iruka's face looked rather stoic for a moment and then she lost it, bursting into a hysteric laughter. When she'd calmed enough she looked up to me with her devilish look, her eyes seeing through the gaps of her stringy, dirty hair. "My friends all abandoned me, knowing they were leaving me for death, I lost my job and now I'm locked in a prison cell in a world that is not my own surrounded by an ever diminishing barrier keeping out a deadly virus that wants to rip me apart limb by limb. What else are you going to do to me? Kill me? Bring it on."_

 _Wizardmon looked up to me as if he could see her side of the argument and it didn't help me any. I wanted to be the hero again, and I had done it before, it needed to happen again. I had an idea, and I wasn't about to let her stop this idea from taking shape—unless she literally could not help. I fell to my knees in front of her and felt tears escaping me already. "I just… I need to go to my house. I need to breathe fresh air. I need to escape my own prison. You know what it's like to be trapped in a place where you don't belong, don't you? I have a daughter and she's stuck with me in a place that is nothing like home. She's falling behind in school, she can't see her mother and she can't even play outside. I need her to be able to do the things she isn't able to right now. I need happiness for her. She's only six years old. If you can help me make her life just a little bit better, wouldn't you want to?"Iruka looked for a moment like she was going to agree with me but she simply turned her head after rolling her eyes. "It'll get you out of prison too. We can get you home maybe."_

 _That caught her attention. "And what can I do to help if I'm stuck in here?"_

" _I just need the antidote." I told her, the desperation was prominent in my voice. I wiped my tears and sighed. "Please. I need more."_

 _Whatever hope I had built in her deflated and she sighed. "I can't help you with that anyway. I don't have any." I dropped the rest of the way to the ground as my desperation failed me. Whatever idea I may have been able to come up with was now pointless now that she was unable to give me what I needed. "But, I might know where to find some."_

"So that's an antidote," Ilya surmised nodding his head, "That makes sense. You are making more in case the virus plagues us."

"Or maybe he plans to form immunity to the fog!" Jose suggested excitedly.

"Well, that's not what I'm doing," I told them quietly, looking to the door, hoping no one would overhear. "But if you sit tight for three minutes I can tell you what I _am_ doing with it."

"Go on," Hogan blurted.

 _Pixiemon had sent Gabumon and Palmon home and come back to assist Wizardmon, Gatomon and I on our mission. Gatomon had not been told what it was we were looking for, but was adamant about coming along anyway. Pixiemon waited by the door to the ship, too nervous about going inside. It was weird that someone so brave could be so scared of something that could not hurt him, but it was the base for the monsters that had been tracking him down. I couldn't blame him for being afraid. He had died once, but the people who once lived here had intended to make it a more permanent situation._

" _I'm trying to help," Gatomon said, "Really I am, but I just don't know what I'm looking for." That was true, she couldn't find something she didn't know existed,_

" _It should be a needle, I suppose." I told her cautiously, dumping the contents of a large drawer onto the floor. I began to sift through what I had found but came up short. There had to be some here. An antidote_ had _to exist within these walls. It would be unwise to carry a deadly poison around, attached to your belt and to not bring along the only cure. I had seen the cure before as well. It was a green substance; it was kept in thin syringe with a needle on the end. The antidote was to be deposited directly into the blood stream to stop the virus in its track. I had to find it._

 _I had to._

 _And then I remembered how cold it was to the touch. How there had been frost building up around the glass, and I moved quickly, rushing into the kitchen. It took me a few tries to find it, but eventually, on the second floor I found a room with a table and chairs. I felt around until my hands began sliding along a dirty and cluttered counter, and then finally I found the refrigerator. I opened the freezer that made up the top half of the old fashioned box and stepped closer to see inside._

 _There they were. The antidote's._

"Okay," Benjamin said, nodding fervently, "So you found them in the enemy ship. The horrible ship that moved around and concealed many digital entities inside during their times of strife was where they kept the cure to the pain. It makes sense." I nodded. "But why did you need it?"

"Isn't it obvious?" I said, confused. They all shook their heads so I jumped to my feet and threw the curtain aside again. "Pixiemon brought us back here and I scanned the antidote to find its exact properties. Just like the virus, it is made up of Digital resources. I would have already had these formulas if I had been smart enough to scan it before injecting it into Jun. I do not regret that though," I assured them. I didn't know how much longer Jun had, and she was okay now, that was what mattered. "I was stupid to not go to the ship before. But now I have it, I can make more. That's what I'm doing now."

"But _why_?" Hogan seemed desperate now.

I looked to the dripping substance and smiled as it joined the rest in the beaker. "To stop the virus."

"From killing someone, yes," Ilya said. "We said that already."

"No!" I insisted. "I will turn this into a gas, just like the enemies did with the virus, and I will create the ultimate antivirus. It should, in theory, cancel everything the virus stands for, and create clear air once more." I looked to them all and they stared to me with wide hopeful eyes. "I think I can save the Digital World."

"You've done it before," Benjamin said kindly. "I have faith you can do it again."

"Faith," I said dryly. "Funny."

"I am serious," Benjamin said, but he didn't sound serious, he simply sounded excited. "I promise we will keep this a secret. No one will know if you do not want their hopes to rise too high. But we have faith. We always have."

"I'm glad," I said, smiling awkwardly.

"We will do anything to help you," Jose added.

"Could you watch over it?" I suggested. "Stay behind this curtain and just tell me if something goes wrong. I have other things to be doing."

"We will do so," Ilya promised as Hogan saluted me. "Will you be in the Dark Corridor."

"Always," I said in a defeated sort of way. And that was where I took my leave, trusting them to look over the only hope we currently had to rid the world of the virus. I hoped Aimi or anyone else didn't find the antivirus in the freezer and do something stupid with it. I was going to need to collect as much as I could and see what I could do to change it to a gas form. There had to be a way, and I knew I could find it. I had all the time in the world after all.

I felt the optimism slowly drain from me as I strode down the darkened hallway carrying a lantern with me. I didn't like Sigma's room much, but if there was a way to escape written somewhere inside, I wanted to find it. I could maybe get rid of the virus, _and_ find a way to escape. Sooner or later we would be out of this mess and Emiko would be able to reunite with her mother, and so would I. Gomamon too, and we could celebrate Emiko's birthday together. I wanted to do this for her. I didn't want her to be stuck here on her birthday—she would always remember this one. It wasn't like her first birthday where it didn't matter that I'd accidently stepped on her new toy and broke it, or that her cake burnt, because she'd never remember that day. This one she would though, and I wasn't about to let her remember something as horrible as this just because I couldn't—

I froze, staring ahead. There was a face in the mirror. I could see it from the angle I was seeing it, but I was sure that whoever was inside could not see me. His face was gruff and he had a long scar running down his cheek. I moved closer slowly knowing that he surely had to be Maugrim, the man Neo had been speaking of. He knew of this mirror, and he used it to speak with someone. If what Neo had said was true then it was someone inside the Coliseum…

I swallowed thickly and looked around, holding my lantern up to look through the darkness. I couldn't see anyone, so I turned back to Maugrim and moved toward him, each step slower than the last. I was getting a much better view of his face now, and it seemed he was confused perhaps. Confused because no one was around? Then, suddenly, his eyes flicked toward me and the mirror went blank again.

Whoever he had been looking for did not show up. But I trusted everyone that lived inside the Coliseum. My eyes looked slowly toward Sigma's room and I remembered how the shadows worked. I may have trusted everyone that lived here, but who was to say there wasn't someone else staying here as well?

Once again I found myself looking around the darkness nervously feeling all of a sudden like there were a thousand eyes watching me. I swallowed nervously and turned back. I would look through Sigma's things again tomorrow.

 _ **Sora Takenouchi:**_

"Does anyone else find it troubling that the video hasn't been broadcast, yet?" Katsue asked impatiently, tapping her fingers against the leg of the chair she was sitting on. I suppose I could understand her wishing for her video to be shown, it was after all, something she had worked very hard on. But she really ought to have more patience. They had set out to make the world see it, and I had faith in them. They would play the video.

I was nervous though, because if Tako was now on our side, which was brilliant, that meant she could give us the security footage from anything involving EVOLVE. What if she brought us the footage of who sent out the virus in an attempt to help us with our cause, but instead everyone would just discover how horrible I was, and how I had been the very reason many of our friends would never see their families again. I winced, trying to push the sirens out of my head. _You didn't push the button, Sora_. I tried to convince myself it was true, it wasn't my fault, I knew that from a logical point of view, but I could not stop thinking that maybe if I fought harder...

But the button would always have been pressed. It was selfish for me to want to distance myself entirely from the virus. Whether I was there or not, Arnold would have had the virus leave, and he would have killed my friends either way. But it wasn't him who had done it. It was _me_.

I kept hearing Yamato's voice in my head, the tears were clear, and his voice was shaky. He just wanted revenge. I couldn't tell him that he should not think that way, as I normally would have, because it was now _me_ he wanted revenge upon.

"Sora, pass me that book?" Natsuni asked, her voice bubbling with excitement now. I nodded, grabbing the thick, worn textbook and tossing it to her.

"How is everything going?" I asked Natsuni, hoping to force as many negative thoughts from my mind as possible. I _had_ to remain positive, after all, we had just spoken with _Taichi_. I had worn that stupid hair clip for weeks after we'd gotten it from my home, and when I had finally lost all hope, it just didn't seem right, so I put it to rest inside my jewelry box. But he was _alive_. Jou was too! And Mari, Daisuke, Kura—Emiko! Most of our digimon were all okay too!

"Pretty good," Natsuni said, grinning from ear to ear. "That stupid wretch, Moretsuna is dead, which means we can't really build a case against him specifically, but we can now build a case in general. It won't be for any legal purposes I suppose, but it makes everything more... free, you know?"

"And don't forget," Natsuni's father added hastily, looking up from the book he was reading through, "Arnold can be taken down."

"How?" I asked, "He's working for the government."

"And they'll fight to keep him out and safe," Natsuni admitted, "but once Katsue's video is released, the seed will be planted. It will be public knowledge that Arnold caused the virus, and no matter how much they want to cover this up to keep their precious pawn, they won't be able to. It would be impossible to cover this up. I mean, we could very well be arrested as well, but we'll probably have to have a date with a judge about that."

"You really think we'll go to jail?" I asked, my voice cracking, betraying me.

Natsuni looked up and realized she'd frightened me, and then shook her head, "No, no..." she was lying of course, "Iori would never allow that." He wasn't here though, and he was also hardly a lawyer, just one in training.

"It is possible though," Mantarou said, creeping up behind us. He pulled his chair out and leaned his head on my shoulder comfortingly. "Highly possible, actually. You are already an escaped criminal, and even if they had only enough grounds to permit you to stay overnight at best without a proper court session, you did still leave."

"But Arnold actually let me out," I said quietly, my nerves taking over.

"We'll try to prove that," Natsuni promised, giving Mantarou this look that told him to stop talking. She clearly realized it was unsettling to think and talk about prison, especially since it was obviously where we were all headed. Each and every one of us were sitting in a secret base going against what the police and government officials were telling us to do, and while we may have been fighting for the rights of the digimon, they might not see it that way. The law always had a way of being selfish when thinking about other people, never really caring what their motives were.

Just then, my phone rang, thankfully taking me away from my thoughts. I picked it up desperately, hoping for something to keep me occupied, "Hello?"

"Sora, it's Neo," Neo wasted no time jumping right in. I caught Natsuni's eye and she stared curiously, trying to figure out who was calling. "I'm going to say this once, if you want to come to the Digital World, you have to come now. Maugrim...it is possible that we could use his machine to transport ourselves. Are you willing to come?"

"I-I-I'd like to," I stuttered, looking around, trying to sort out my sudden emotions, "But I can't. Yamato isn't back. He has to come too."

"Where?" Natsuni hissed.

"The Digital World," I responded as quietly as I could. "It's Neo." She nodded, understanding.

"I cannot wait around for the bumbling rock star to get his act in gear," Neo practically snarled. "If he wanted to come he shouldn't have been frolicking around town. Are you coming, or not?"

I couldn't make such a rash decision so quickly! I needed time. Time to think, or to plan—time to find Yamato. What if we walked into the Digital World only to be deleted with the virus? What if Neo really _had_ been on the other side this whole time, like Momoe had thought, and maybe he was now tricking me after luring us into a false sense of security? There were just so many endings to this path and I didn't want to go down it alone. I needed to have Yamato with me, not just Neo. All _three_ of us were Digidestined, and that meant we all belonged on this trek. "I am," I told him, finally deciding, "but I need Yamato."

"But—"

Whatever Neo had been about to say was cut off because of a loud crash. In a sudden rush, the door had been slammed open, and Momoe let out a scream. I thought for a moment, a brief, _horrible_ moment that we had run out of time, that the police had found us, and it was now time for us to pay for the things we had done to thwart the law.

But it wasn't the police who had arrived, but a familiar boy. It was Chi, but there were differences. There were moth-like wings sticking from his back, two antennas sticking from his forehead, just past the hairline of his vibrant purple mohawk, and his eyes were glowing an amber colour. In his hand he held a scythe of sorts that appeared to be made of praying mantis body parts. He looked around the room, frantic, "I need your help."

No one answered, or moved, or even breathed. We all simply stared at him

"Sora?" Neo questioned.

"I'm going to have to call you back," I said as calmly as I could.

"No!" Neo shouted, "I need you to come here."

"I'm busy." I shot.

"Then I'll come _there_." Neo snarled, hanging up his phone. I hung up my own phone and set it on the table, only taking my eyes away from Chi for a second. He was looking to everyone in turn; frantic emotion on his face, panic was overtaking him.

He rushed toward Chiziru and looked her in the eyes asking her for help, so I jumped forward, moving toward him, "Chi, tell us what happened." I said nervously.

"Tell us why you have _wings_ ," Chiziru added.

"I-I-I-I—" Chi just kept stuttering so I threw my arms around him and he continued to panic.

"Just breathe," I told him calmly, remembering how Mantarou had calmed me down from my own panic attack merely two months ago. That felt like a lifetime ago now... "Breathe."

When Chi had calmed himself enough he practically collapsed into a chair nearby and he ran his hands through his hair, trying to make sense of his situation. "It's just..." he stopped, unsure where to start, "We went to EVOLVE," he explained finally, "they took Jenna and Yamato. I-I think they're going to kill them. I need you to help me. I c-can't get in. Digimon can't get in."

"You _are_ a digimon then?" Chiziru asked, apparently ignoring the rest of the story. Lucky her, Chi's panic seemed to set in on myself and it slowly began to devour my heart. It was beating quickly in an attempt to remain calm, but I could already feel the world spinning and disappearing. I couldn't let this happen. How long had Chi taken in getting back? We could waste no _more_ time in any case, we had to get going. Right now.

"Chisikimon," Chi explained, "I'm him. I'm—"

"Formal introductions can be had _later_ ," Momoe cut in sharply, "We have to go. Now."

" _We_ don't have to go anywhere, "Mantarou said quickly, getting to his feet. "Momoe, you're staying here. It's the same rule as before, it's just not safe for you to go."

"I'm not angry anymore!" Momoe argued.

"I don't care—" Mantarou shouted back.

"Neither do I," I said flatly, cutting their argument short. "I'm going with Chi alone, and the rest of you are staying here." Many arguments were already rising, but I cut them all short this time, paying mind to Mantarou's hurt face, "Neo will be with us, we're going to save them, and then we're going to the Digital World. We'll bring the others home, but you can't come."

"You're going without us?" Momoe asked, "You're going to get Emiko?"

"And bring her to you," I said, "I'm sorry, I'm not taking any chances, and you can't argue this. I don't know if we'll die on the way in or not, and Momoe, you're not dying in an attempt to see your daughter. She'll need you later in life. So everyone just calm down and stay out of my way." Natsuni looked nervous but said nothing. I knew why she was nervous too, and that was because she thought I was looking for revenge heading straight into Arnold's base, but I wasn't. I wasn't up in my head, I was right here on Earth, grounded in reality and desperate to save my friends. I turned to Chi, "Let's go."

We rushed toward the door, but someone grabbed my hand to stop me. I turned sharply to tell them to let me go, but found Mantarou holding out keys with his other hand, "You might need these." He dropped them into my open palm and smiled warmly. "Good luck."

"Thanks," I said, moving into his arms to hug him. He hugged me back and then I was back toward the door, following Chi outside. We ran down the street as fast as our legs would carry us and skidded to a stop by Mantarou's car. I unlocked it quickly and threw the door open, but just as I was about to climb in a loud honking sound stopped me. I screamed, terrified. I hadn't been outside much lately because I wasn't supposed to be caught, I just thought for a moment someone had spotted me, someone who shouldn't have, but when I looked to see I recognized the van. "Mr Ishida!" I shouted as he backed up toward us. "What are you doing?"

He was looking out of his window at us now, "Where are you going?" He asked.

"To the Digital World," I told him, "we have to go now though."

"Yamato—" He started.

"We've got it," I assured him, "Don't worry Mr Ishida."

"Sora," he said gently, reaching out and grabbing my hand, "Call me Hiroaki." I smiled at him nervously and he nodded, seeming to understand how troubling this could be. He then reached back to the seat behind him and grabbed something, pulling it up to the front seat. It was Gomamon, "Take him back too."

"I want to go," Gomamon assured me when he saw my face, ready to protest. "Please, Sora. Please!"

"Fine," I said flatly, "Come on." I practically tossed him into the car and then turned to Hiroaki, waving to him. He nodded and then we were off. I had never been the most skilled driver, and actually weaving my way through the crowds of people was difficult, especially since I was in a hurry, didn't they know? I could also not bring focus to myself or else I would be spotted, caught and imprisoned, and that couldn't happen—especially not today! I needed to save Yamato and Jenna.

Finally I had broken free of Jiyugaoka and Chi began directing me where to go. He was much better at directions than I was. Gomamon was talking all the while in the back seat about how Marshall and Veronica had attacked them all, and then Chi tried to beat them up with his scythe—that had dissolved into nothingness to fit in the car—but they crept into the border where digimon could not go. My stomach seized at that part because I realized I may be going in alone if neither of my company could come along. I demanded that Chi use my phone to call Neo and to get him to meet me at EVOLVE.

When I pulled to a stop, right in front of the building, not caring about much else at the moment, we all flew out of the car. I grabbed Gomamon and ran toward where Neo was standing with some dark haired girl. He smiled to me politely but when I got nearer he noticed I was not smiling, "Yamato and Jenna are in trouble," I told him flatly, "We need to save them."

"Inside?" The girl Neo had brought asked, looking to Gomamon with a gentle smile, "That's going to be dangerous."

"I know." So I'd been a little snappy, but I was really worked up and they were going to have to deal with that. "Who are you?"

"This is Evelen," Neo explained. Whoever this _Evelen_ was, she was the reason that Neo had not been on our side during these difficult months, and that was irritating. I didn't like her much. "I was going to use her machine to get you to the Digital World. As it seems however, she is not actually in possession of one of the devices, and so we need to obtain one. From inside this building."

"Perfect, let's go," I said flatly, itching to get a move on. I wanted to save them, and I didn't want to be standing here making some stupid idle chit chat. It had been months since I'd been inside this building, and I had initially hoped to never have to even _see_ it again, so it was strange to have such a burning desire to get back inside. Neo nodded, understanding how serious this was, and motioned for Evelen to go in too. I turned, handing Gomamon to Chi and patted his head, "Stay hidden. We'll be back."

"Good luck," Gomamon whispered quietly.

I had barely heard him because I was already running, and Chi had called out for me to save Jenna for him, but that was unnecessary. Obviously I would save Jenna too, if I could. We could have been too late already...

Breaking into a building in a rescue mission was typically something I would have done with Koushiro, but since he wasn't here, Neo was a good alternative. Evelen was pulling on the thick metal door, but it would not open. "Perhaps the front door?" she suggested. Neo nearly laughed as he pulled out a thin metal rod from his bag. He crammed it between the door and its frame and pulled down sharply. Apparently it had worked, because the door clicked and popped open slightly. "Or that," Evelen was embarrassed as we all stepped inside.

We were now in a well lit hallway with visible cameras pointed at the entrance, and I knew that the workers would know we were here soon if they didn't already. "Where are they?" Evelen asked.

"No idea," I told her, "Split up?"

"As if," Neo shot. "Not in here, it's dangerous."

"Too bad," I said flatly. "You go up, I'll go down. We find Yamato which is more important than getting to the Digital World at the moment." I didn't wait for a response because I knew his vocabulary was diverse enough to convince me to stay. He would just use big words that all sounded so charming being strung together the way he always did and we would cover less ground because of my weak willed mind. I had begun running down the hallway and took a sharp left turn. I remembered virtually nothing about this building from my last visit, only that I felt a general discomfort within the walls, and I felt it again now for many reasons. I was already lost, for one.

I did find stairs though, and then went down, which was what I said I was going to do. Tentatively, I pulled the door open to the staircase and began rushing down the steps, taking two at a time, not hesitating for a moment. The need to call out for Yamato was building up in my chest and I knew I would have to keep quiet, but I just didn't want to. I needed the confirmation that he was alive, and I needed it immediately. I crept quietly down the hallway that I had entered, peering in through a doorway and finding many empty offices. Was anyone even _here_?

At the end of the hallway was a large arched door, so I headed for that, thinking it looked rather important. I paused though, for the first time, when I spotted something familiar. A clock on the grey wall. I looked slowly backward from where I stood, staring up to it and saw the bars that had kept me locked away. A gasp escaped my lips as I rushed forward.

That could be where they were! I could find them quickly and get out; it would just be so easy!

But the door to the cell was hanging open and there was no one inside. The entire room was empty. This entire floor was empty. I groaned quietly and then rushed back toward the clock, ready to turn back when a sudden realization washed over me. That meant that this arched doorway...

I slammed myself into it, popping it open, I didn't even care who was inside. It appeared to be just as empty as the other rooms, but this one held some actual significance. It was the room where the satanic forces of Arnold came to play, thinking he was a god. The large screens lined the walls above still, while the gaudy control panel kept still and unused beneath it. The rest of the room that had once been empty was now filled with messy equipment, like the room was being renovated. Luckily, it seemed, the workers were on break, which gave me enough time to do what my impulses were telling me to.

I rushed across the room and lifted the nearest chair, and without any further thought, I swung myself around and threw the chair toward the large screen above. It bounced off, leaving a small fracture in the glass. That wasn't satisfying enough. I retrieved the fallen chair and threw it again, anger bubbling up this time. One metal leg of the chair punctured the screen and caught a grip. For a brief moment it looked as though the chair was going to stay where it was, but it slowly fell, causing more damage to the screen as it fell.

"Need help?"

If I hadn't been worried of being caught, I would have screamed, but when I spun around I found only Neo. "If Evelen gets caught she should be alright," he explained. "You and I though, we're in this together." He reached for a second chair and spun himself, whipping it at the screen above him, shattering it easily with the force of his throw. A smile crept along my face as I looked back to the equipment. I rushed over to grab a crowbar and came back with a wild fury inside my chest. I began slamming the metal bar against the control panel, letting out all of my pent up aggression as Neo continued to do the same as the panels popped and sizzled. There was no way this was safe. But it was satisfying.

Then I came to that horrendous red button. I was staring down at it, and painful memories of the sirens flashed into my mind and I dropped the crowbar, throwing my hands over my ears. Neo fell to the ground next to me and put his arms around me, "Sora, I haven't a clue what happened to you," he said gently, "but I'm very sorry."

"Don't be," I said quietly, not removing my hands. "I just—I can't stop hearing these sirens."

Neo didn't reply, he didn't know how. We didn't have time anyway. I was wasting all of the time I should have been using to find Yamato. "What is this used for?" Neo asked patiently.

"It sent the virus," I said, my voice weak. "It killed Takeru."

"It killed _Rei_." Neo's voice was much stronger than my own as he released me. "In theory, this machine could have reversed the virus." I groaned. I hadn't even thought of that! "But I don't care." He picked up the crowbar I had been using and he slammed it down as hard as he could, directly into the center of the control panel.

There were many flashes of light and then a quick surge of electricity. With a sudden boom, we had both been thrown backward. I slammed into a pile of tools, while Neo simply skidded across the floor, groaning. We both remained still a while; pain was spreading across my whole body. And then my eyes flicked toward an open doorway in the corner when footsteps began echoing everywhere.

I forced myself up and rushed toward Neo, pulling him to his feet and diving with him behind the pile of junk just as shadows appeared in the doorway. I positioned myself so just my one eye was visible, but we were so far away there was no chance to be found, and I watched as two girls entered the room.

"What the _hell_ happened?" Michan gasped, she spun around and caught sight of the destroyed demon against the wall. "Oh my _God_!" she was shrieking now as she began to panic. "He's gonna kill us!" Michan began spinning around the room, desperate to find the source of the destruction, but she found nothing. "I'm getting Marshall. He'll know what to do."

"Sure, yeah," Tako said, nodding. "Good plan." Michan was quick to leave the room leaving Tako alone. She cleared her throat and looked around nervously, "Hello?" she called, "It's me, Tako? I gave you the footage. I know you might not trust me, but you need to leave... I can help you find a way out. There's an exit not far from here."

I looked to Neo to judge his opinion but he simply shrugged, wincing when he did so. I jumped to my feet and Tako nearly jumped in fright. I needed to make these decisions quickly if I wanted to find Yamato. "I can't leave," I told her before she could say anything. "My friends are here, possibly in danger." Tako's face drained. "You know where they are!" I accused.

"Of course I do," she said hesitantly. "But it's not safe."

"That's why I need to go," I told her with as much determination as I could muster.

She seemed to be debating, unsure if it would be worth it, but when she looked toward the door I'd entered from and remembered Michan and Marshall were coming soon she nodded. "Fine, come on." It was then that Neo revealed himself. Tako gasped, "How many of you _are_ there?"

"Just two," he said, rolling his eyes.

Tako motioned for the two of us to follow her, and she moved quickly, not waiting for Neo to come along, and honestly I didn't have time to do so either. He would have to move quickly if he wanted to keep up. Tako slipped silently into a room to the left, which appeared to be a library of sorts, and she held the door open for the two of us. She then rushed across the room and held up a hand to get us to stop when she came to another door. She pushed the door open and looked out into the new hallway. Deeming it safe, she motioned for us to follow. And then she stopped, pointing to the elevator at the end of the line. "There," she said nervously. "Go to the bottom floor. That's where they are."

"Thank you!" I said quickly, rushing toward the elevator, not wasting any more time. They might be down there, but there was no saying what state they were actually in. Neo was with me, standing by my side when the elevator doors finally opened. I climbed aboard and pressed the bottom button as Neo followed me inside. When the doors were closing I watched Tako smile to us awkwardly and then she turned just as the doors closed.

I never much liked elevators, they always made me feel dizzy, but now I just felt adrenaline and fear. I was desperate now, needing to know that they were going to be okay, but there was no proof.

What the _hell_ were they thinking coming here?

I watched the elevator light for the bottom floor light up and then finally the doors were opening.

My heart skipped a beat, but it was all for nothing. We were staring at an empty hallway, it only had one door though, so there was nothing left to figure out. They were _there_. They had to be. Was this the basement Mantarou had told me about? Where those horrible creatures were being kept?

I was reaching for the door when I heard something buzz behind me. I jumped in fright but it was just Neo's phone. He apologized quietly and I turned back, ready to go. I heard something inside. Voices. It was a deep voice that was speaking now, not Yamato though... someone else. Arnold, maybe. I swallowed thickly and understood we would have to do this quickly. "Ready?" I asked Neo, and he nodded. Good, that made one of us.

I pushed the door open quickly and moved forward, trying to take in all that I saw. Mostly I saw Arnold because I couldn't stop my eyes from focusing on his horrible face. His eyes were wide with shock, but pleased—as if he thought he was going to get me too. At his feet Jenna, huddled up and in pain, but I couldn't see Yamato. Panic shot through me as I looked around the pure white room, looking behind every glass panel where only monsters and creatures could be found, until finally I spotted a leg behind Arnold. He was on the ground too.

He wasn't moving.

"Yamato!" I shouted.

Still he didn't move.

I looked up to Arnold and could only feel anger, resentment—hatred. Hatred wasn't something I was very accustomed to, but it was a burning _rage_ inside me, and it made me want to see Arnold _dead_.

Arnold turned to Yamato who was apparently lying in front of one of the cases. The creature inside looked larger than the others, and meaner too. His long slender snout was hanging slightly open, prepared to eat his dinner. Arnold held his hands up to keep the beast back before reaching for a button that would surely open the case.

I moved quickly, tearing across the room, leaping over Jenna and slamming myself into Arnold. He smashed against the case, his face hitting it first. He hadn't expected me to fight back so soon.

"Don't you dare," I said through gritted teeth.

He pushed me back, anger in his voice as he spun to face me. "Have you not suffered enough? You could have lived your life in bitter resentment and fear, but now it will come to an end."

"No it won't!" Neo shouted, but Arnold was too quick. He slammed his fist into the button and the door opened. The creature, whose name appeared to be Behemoth backed up, excited. And then Arnold slapped me on the back, sending me flying into the case with the creature, kicking Yamato in after me.

I tried to escape, dragging Yamato, but the case shut quickly, trapping me inside. "Hey!" I shouted, slamming my fists against the glass. "Neo! Help!" He wanted to, but Arnold got directly in his way.

"S-Sora?" I looked down to Yamato who was stirring himself into waking.

"Oh thank God," I gasped, grabbing his hand. "Get up, _now_." He did so, understanding the urgency and as one we turned to see the Behemoth bark loudly at us in a strangled sort of way. Its body was lean and yet muscular. It walked on four legs, though more like the way a monkey walked with its hands than anything else, and it apparently circled its prey before devouring it. The cage we were now in was large enough for us to move around in, but it wasn't big _enough_.

Fear was completely taking over now and reality hardly seemed to exist. The Behemoth lunged forward suddenly and I shoved Yamato out of the way causing us both to fall to the ground on either side of the beast. "Run!" Yamato insisted, clambering back to his feet. I did the same and reunited with Yamato at the other end of the case where we had a better view of Neo who had just been punched across the face by Arnold.

The horrible man pulled something out of his pocket and he pressed a button.

Instantly I fell to the ground, throwing my hands over my ears. The sirens were back. They were back and louder than before. Nothing else mattered except the painful memory of those horrible sirens. "Sora!" I distantly heard Yamato yell. "Move!" But I couldn't, didn't he know that? I was stuck like this. My heart was pounding, my head was pounding and the sirens were reminding me what it felt like to press the button and to watch as my own hand had caused the death of so many.

I felt hot, thick air run down the back of my neck and I was suddenly aware of the Behemoth's proximity. Then I heard a sharp yelp and I looked up to see that Yamato had smacked the beast in the side of the head with a metal food dish. With a quick pounce the beast was aiming for Yamato and I knew I couldn't be selfish enough to freeze now. It was important for me to help.

With such little energy it would be hard though. Tears were pouring down my face, but I had to help, no matter how much pain I was in. I balled up my fist and punched the creature in the back leg, stopping its advance on Yamato. He glanced up at me and saw I was crying and he looked for a moment like he might just start crying too. The Behemoth looked over its shoulder to me and I panicked and started running, but the creature was fast and enormous.

I acted quickly, slamming myself against the door to the cage and preparing myself for the worst. And that came when the Behemoth slammed itself into me, unable to stop due to its form. The glass behind me shattered easily and I toppled backward, with the monster landing on top of me. My back ached with the glass cutting into me and I screamed in pain.

It seemed to have awoken Jenna from her unconscious state because she began screaming too. Yamato was moving quickly though and he pulled the monster off of me.

"What have you _done_?" Arnold screamed in horror. He pushed past us all and walked gently toward his precious pet.

Yamato pulled me to my feet and hugged me tight, I threw my arms around his neck and cried into his shoulder for a bit, and it was the most comforted I had felt in a long time. "I did it!" I sobbed, unable to keep quiet. The sirens were _killing_ me, it was too much to have my recent nightmares play nonstop in reality, I couldn't handle that. I clenched my eyes shut and just cried.

"Did _what_?" Yamato asked.

"I p-pushed the button," I sobbed, "Arn-nold m-made _me_ do it! And I k-killed them all!"

"No, you didn't." Yamato said, but his voice was no longer compassionate, simply filled with rage. He released me, and I reached back for him but he shrugged me off. I shouldn't have told him, I realized as my heart sank, because he hated me now. It was me who had killed his brother, and I knew he would never forgive me, so why had I told him?

Yamato reached forward and grabbed Arnold's shoulder and flung him around to face him before he balled up his fists and punched him directly in the face. "I hope you _rot_ in hell," he snarled.

Arnold, from his place on the ground reached to his belt and pulled out a sleek black gun, reaching up, ready to aim and shoot at Yamato.

"No!" I screamed, lunging forward to push him out of the way.

The shot was fired and I heard many screams, but I couldn't be sure what had happened.

Then, as Neo stumbled backwards I realized it had been him who had been shot. My entire body felt weak as I caught him in my arms, but he was heavy and I fell with him. "Neo!" I screamed, looking to the place near his shoulder where he'd been hit. "Neo _no_! What were you thinking?"

"I let you do the same for me once," He said, wincing in pain.

"Only you're _not_ dying." I said, glancing back to the bullet hole. I couldn't be sure if it was too close to his chest... "Just get up." Yamato helped me pull him to his feet and Arnold pulled his gun again as the Behemoth snapped its jaw.

Then it was Jenna who saved the day, kicking her foot up and hitting Arnold's hand, knocking the gun right out of his hands. She grabbed the gun that had skidded across the floor and held it close. Arnold looked up to her and she simply smirked with satisfaction, until his face did the same. He pulled out the small remote from his pocket again and I gasped, somehow fearing the sirens even more, though I knew that could not be his plan.

He pressed a button and immediately Neo muttered, "Run."

He had seen it before any of us had. The glass cases were rising. All of the creatures were being released. He was right. We had to run.

But we weren't leaving him like I knew he wanted.

The last thing I heard before slamming the door and rushing for the elevator was Arnold muttering, "Feed."

They were going to _eat_ us unless we moved faster. Jenna rushed ahead to call on the elevator and we all piled in, waiting for the doors to close. The door at the other end of the hall slammed open and creatures began rushing toward us at top speeds. I screamed prepared to kick at them, but the doors shut just in time and we were moving upward.

I was relieved, briefly, until Jenna said, "There's a back door into that room." She looked over to us all, scared. "He's going to get outside; we're not going to be able to escape."

"Do you really think he'd send them outside?" Yamato asked, "That would be way too risky."

"He's not sane," Jenna reminded him. "Not really."

I was hardly paying attention though, I was holding Neo, his arm was up around my neck, but it was probably not wise. His shoulder had just been shot and there were tears streaming down his face. I glanced back to the bullet wound and winced. He had to be okay. We would go to the Digital World and we would find Jou and he would help him. He would have to!

The elevator opened, but not where we'd gotten on earlier, it opened up on the main floor. "Neo," I said as we started off again, "Where is Evelen?"

"Sh-she texted me," he said, his words were slurred and deep now as sweat dripped from his face, "She's ow-eyed."

"Outside," Jenna translated, though it wasn't needed. It was clear to me at least what he had said, and then the four of us set off. We had to get out of here. Thankfully, Marshall and Michan were at least down stairs in the room with the sirens—but now that the horrible sound was echoing around us all it was going to be hard to escape. They all knew something was wrong and everything about the four of us screamed that it was us.

But there was the door, and we were going to escape.

"Put the shields up," Jenna suggested, fiddling with her phone. "If we get out and put up barriers we'll be safe."

"Right," I agreed, using my phone to do just that. Yamato was doing the same with his and Neo's phone, putting the latter back in Neo's pocket, but we didn't stop moving for a second.

Until we heard a horrible voice say, "Don't move."

We looked back to see Veronica, the girl with the long black braid, standing with her gun held high. Jenna wasted no time in pulling out her own gun and she _actually shot it_. With a bang the bullet had smashed into something on the other side of the room, shaking Veronica's confidence.

"Screw off," Jenna barked, preparing another bullet. While Veronica nervously looked around for some backup we backed away from her and toward the door. It was when she heard the click of the doors opening that she looked back to us with enough vigor to actually to something. She shot her own gun but it smashed through the window of the door near Jenna's head. Yamato gasped and I screamed, but Jenna merely ducked through the already open door and into the sunlight before popping back up and shooting through the broken window toward Veronica.

Veronica's aim was probably a hundred times better than Jenna's, but the dark haired girl was not nearly as brave as she hoped she was, for every time Jenna shot, no matter how far off she was, Veronica panicked.

And when we had all escaped the building, our invisibility kicked in and then Jenna rushed after us. "Where now?" She asked.

"Chi, Evelen and Gomamon," I told her simply, "They're out here."

"They're not the only ones," Yamato said nervously. "Look to the left." I looked over and my heart dropped again. The monsters were on the prowl, sniffing around the grounds, searching for us. They were going to follow our scents and find us. Luckily we had our shields up though.

One of them, a small furry one seemed to pick up our scent faster than the others and it walked right up to us, stopping and looking to where we should be with its tiny beady black eyes. And then it hopped forward and felt Yamato's leg. It looked up and yelped for the others. It had found us.

And it had gotten through the shield.

"Crap," Jenna breathed nervously as we all set off.

"It was made with Willis' Diaboromon formula," Yamato explained. "They're all somewhat digital. The barriers were made to allow digimon inside."

And that's when the real panic set in because we couldn't leave Neo behind, but we also couldn't run fast enough _with_ him. It was a fairly serious dilemma, really because his blood was clearly creating most of the scent that they were following. "Chi!" Jenna screamed with relief.

When I looked around I saw him too, he was with Gomamon, hiding around the corner from the monsters. Evelen seemed to be with him, holding an odd round device that was flat on one half, she wasn't looking up, but rather trying to figure out how the machine worked.

"Get us out of here!" Jenna shouted again, but Chi couldn't locate where she was calling from. Then Jenna screamed and I turned back to see a creature had grabbed at her leg. She shot toward him with her gun, but became visible. Chi set Gomamon down and flew toward her, ready to take on the enemy, summoning his scythe.

"Keep going," Yamato said, determined. "We've got to keep going." We reached Gomamon and Evelen soon enough and I took down the invisibility, leaving up the barrier, just in case. Evelen screamed in surprise as Neo and Yamato did the same.

"What happened?" she asked, fear crossing her face at the sight of Neo. "What did you _do_?"

He smirked, "I can't give you my whole life story."

She groaned and looked like she was ready to slap him and also hug him.

"No offense, but could you make that thing work?" I asked her, pointing to the device in her hands.

"I don't know how," she admitted.

"What is it?" Yamato asked, but we ignored him.

Evelen and I stood together, staring down at the device, but there were so many buttons. "Press them all!" I insisted as she began doing what I suggested. Eventually, a violet knife shot from the bottom of the machine and she seemed pleased with this.

"I know what to do now!" she exclaimed, stepping away and reaching high above her head.

"Run!" Jenna screamed. I turned back to see all of the monsters setting their sights on us and bounding toward us, with Arnold right behind them, running in his well tailored suit. I turned back to Evelen who was dragging the knife down from where she was holding it, creating a sort of rift in the sky. Then, when she had reached the ground it expanded into a doorway and I saw the familiar streets of the Temple with the yellowing stone paths and the great walls and beautiful trees. If we walked through that door we would be in the Town Square.

With a quick glance back I realized there wasn't much of an option.

"Let's go!"I shouted, grabbing Neo's side and pulling him along with me through the doorway.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** When the world _wants_ you to give up and all you can say is that you Almost Do too, how do you keep fighting? Mari and Daisuke are working together to learn that lesson as we bring the arc closer to the close.


	25. I Almost Do

**Y/N:** Things are really heating up in the Digital World. The climax is coming quickly. I wonder, are you ready for it? Or will it blindside you? We've kind of posted all of this at once, so I won't get to read your comments as you make your way through, so I won't know if any of you have guessed what's going to happen. Let me know if you predicted everything or not!

 **U/N:** Yeah! ^^ That. What she said. Let us know how you felt/thought/what you saw coming. It's always nice to hear from people!

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 25: I Almost Do**

 _ **Daisuke Motimiya:**_

Haruki was actually kind of a chubby baby. He wasn't like a complete ball, but he had a certain roundness to him that was absolutely adorable. He was lying on the bed between Kurayami and I, kicking his feet in the air, trying to see if he could chew on his toes. Kurayami reached out every once and awhile to tickle his feet, and he would spit out his toes, grabbing for her hand to chew on instead. She let him slobber all over her until he decided he didn't want to chew on her anymore. She had the sweetest look of adoration on her face as she watched our son play.

It would've been an amazingly peaceful moment if Veemon wasn't tickling _my_ feet, just to see how violently I would jerk out of his grasp. I was not ticklish. I _wasn't_. Okay. I was very ticklish, and he knew it. And he was just being a jerk. Labramon was his accomplice, laughing like a hyena instead of the dog he was when I nearly rolled off the bed in my haste to escape Veemon's fingers.

I rolled over and planted a kiss on Kurayami's face. My lips landed just under her eye, but I wasn't really aiming for anywhere specific. I just wanted to kiss her—because I _could_. She was here and she wasn't dead, and it _still_ blew my mind to be able to just look at her after thinking she was out of my reach forever.

"I love you," I murmured, running a finger down her cheek. She blushed and refused to look away from Haruki, but I saw she was smiling. I knew she didn't think she deserved it, my love. But I knew the truth. It was the other way around. I didn't deserve her, but I strived to do good every day to prove to myself that I _could_ be worthy of her. I'd tried to tell her that once, and she refused to listen. We'd gotten into a goofy argument, coming up with the most ridiculous reasons why neither of us was good enough for the other. That was the one time since getting her back from Primary Village that I was able to really see _her_. She wasn't hiding in that moment. But the next morning, she was gone away again, hiding somewhere in the Coliseum, wanting to be alone.

I tried really hard to understand that. Logically, I got it. It was just _hard_ for me to be patient with her when she'd left me hanging for two whole months, letting me think that she was dead, letting me think I was a single father to our beautiful, cuddly baby. But I tried my best to not let her see how much it had hurt me, because she was hurting too.

"Don't you love me too?" I asked dramatically. I threw my hand up to my forehead and pretended to faint when she didn't answer. "How will I _ever_ go on?"

"Of course I love you," she said earnestly. For a second I thought she hadn't understood that I was joking, but her serious expression cracked and she was barely suppressing a smile. Her eyes were shining for the moment.

"Prove it," I challenged her. She rolled her eyes, but she leaned forward to kiss the tip of my nose. I faked a betrayed look, but she wouldn't fall for it. I pouted childishly, much to Labramon and Veemon's amusement.

"Your daddy is ridiculous," Kurayami whispered to Haruki and I chuckled. If he hadn't gathered that yet, he would soon without her help. I wasn't trying to hide it.

"Have you heard from Norn?" I asked her. I wished I hadn't the moment I'd gotten the words out. She bit her lip and looked down to focus entirely on Haruki's little toes, wiggling each one individually. Haruki watched her movements transfixed.

"I'm worried," she whispered.

"I know," I told her. "I am too. But I was worried about you, and you turned out to be just fine. Maybe Norn's just hiding too."

"I'm sorry," she said, still playing with Haruki's toes.

"Why?" I asked. I already knew of course, because I wasn't stupid. But I needed to hear it. I didn't want to just _know_ I wanted her to tell me.

"Because I hid from you for two months," she said, looking up from our son to stare into my eyes. "I let you think I was dead. That wasn't fair. I'm sorry."

"I already forgave you," I told her, meaning it more this time than any other. She'd finally said it. She knew what she did, and she felt guilty about it. I'd known that already, but it was more real now.

"But I haven't stopped," she said, shaking her head, making her hair flutter around. "I'm doing it here too. I hide all day, every day. I only spend time with you and Haruki and Veemon at night. I'm not being fair to you."

"You're just going through some stuff right now," Veemon assured her, not feeling slighted that Kurayami was only spending time with Labramon. He made me feel like a schmuck, because I _was_ feeling slighted.

"That's not an excuse," Kurayami said, sounding furious with herself.

"You won't do it again though," Labramon said confidently.

"No," Kurayami agreed.

"Can you promise that?" I asked, wincing at how pathetic I sounded. My voice was tiny and it broke, and it was conveying all of the pain and fear that I'd been hiding from her. She looked up to me with shiny eyes filled with unshed tears. "I can't handle it if you do that again."

"I know," she told me. "And I won't. I swear it."

"Don't be mad if she takes some days off," Labramon warned me, being protective of his partner. "She's not going to be with you all day every day. She's going to need _some_ time to herself."

"I know that," I said, wanting to roll my eyes, but I was still feeling too emotional to do it.

"I feel like such a jerk," Kurayami muttered angrily. "I abandoned everyone."

"You're not a jerk," I argued firmly. "You'd only be a jerk if you meant to do it again. But you won't. You just promised. We gotta shake pinkies, or else it won't count." I held up my hand, waiting for her to latch pinkies with me. I was trying to show her that I was okay. It wasn't perfect yet, but it _would_ be. A smile tugged at her lips, and she raised her hand, locking pinkies with me. I shook them, as if it was a handshake, and then I pulled her down, crashing our lips together. A kiss was a much better promise than a pinkie-swear anyway.

One minute, I was kissing my wife, and the next I was falling off the bed. Veemon decided that was the perfect moment to tickle my feet again, and I'd launched myself off of the bed to get away—entirely by accident. I crashed on the ground and grumbled to myself. Kurayami started laughing at me, soft and unsure at first, but after a few seconds it developed into a full laugh, and she was soon joined by both Veemon and Labramon. It was such a happy sound that I couldn't help but join in.

We all stopped though, when we realized there was a fifth voice. I propped myself up onto my elbows and stared at Haruki, who was still laughing with the sweetest, most adorable laugh I'd ever heard in my entire life.

"You think that was funny, do you?" I cooed at him. He looked at me, and just continued laughing. I grinned and looked to Kurayami, only to find she was so overcome with emotion at this point in his development that she'd literally started crying. Labramon and Veemon both crawled up overtop of Haruki, both trying their best to get him to laugh again the moment he stopped. They tickled him, and ticked each other. He wasn't laughing anymore, but it didn't matter. I was so _proud_ of him.

"Daisuke!"

I was pulled out of our family bonding moment by Tentomon's frantic call. I looked towards our curtain door just as Tentomon fluttered through it, getting caught in the curtains. Veemon hopped to his feet and pulled the curtains away from Tentomon, freeing him from their grasp. Tentomon paused to thank Veemon, who bowed _humbly_ with a grin.

"What's up?" I asked, unable to keep my eyes from glancing back to Haruki, who'd just laughed for the first time. It was amazing. He was now trying to stuff his entire hand into his mouth. It was hilarious. Kurayami was fighting the losing battle of trying to _stop_ him.

"It's Spring," Tentomon buzzed. "She's freaking out. We don't know what to do. She just shies away if anyone tries to help her."

"And you want me to help out?" I guessed.

"You know her best," Tentomon said sheepishly. "She doesn't really talk to anyone other than you, and we thought that you would know what to do."

"Let's go," I agreed, leaning over and pressing a surprise kiss against Kurayami's cheek. She pushed me away with a soft smile.

"Get out of here," she said, but I could tell that she liked it.

I got to my feet, holding the curtains out while Tentomon flew back through them, and had to run to keep up with him. I was actually really worried about Spring, but I knew I couldn't really _show_ it. If the digimon in the hallways saw me running—practically sprinting—through the halls with a look of fear and worry on my face, it would cause a panic. Quite frankly, I didn't want to have to deal with the commotion. So I kept my face as positive as I could—keeping my mind on Haruki's laughter for inspiration—so that anyone we passed might think Tentomon and I were just playing a game.

Most of the digimon we came across moved out of the way quickly, pressing themselves against the wall of the hallway, but every so often one of Mr Ogremon's students, or a Numemon or whatever, couldn't get out of the way fast enough, and I had to jump _over_ them, to avoid squashing them into the ground. I didn't have time to stop, and wait for them to move.

Spring needed me.

I'd left her once, when she needed me. I hadn't understood the dreams she'd sent me. I hadn't realized what they were, didn't take them seriously enough. That time, she was being tortured for information by shadows that were working for Sigma—her _father_. I couldn't risk not taking anything seriously anymore when it came to her.

Tentomon led me to the antechamber, and flew further ahead of me, circling above Spring's head. My heart stopped when I saw her. She was collapsed on the ground, hands buried in her mess of spiraling curls, holding her head tightly. It was the _scream_ though that really freaked me out. She was screaming, one long continuous scream. She didn't _sound_ like she was in pain. She didn't sound like she was afraid either. She was just screaming, and I didn't know _why_.

I raced to her side, falling to my knees instantly, pulling her off of the ground and leaning her against my shoulder. My arms curled around her instinctively, and she moved her hands from her head, twining them around my torso, burying her face into my neck. I could feel the tears that were pouring down her face as they fell off onto my neck, sliding down until my shirt collar was able to absorb them.

"What is it?" I asked her gently, trying not to upset her with the panic I was feeling. I rubbed her back with one hand, and buried my other into her hair, trying to keep the coiled curls from hitting my face. "What's wrong? How can I help?"

She pulled away from me, propping herself up on her knees, moving until she was in front of me. Her hands slid up until she was cupping my face. My brows furrowed in confusion. And then I noticed her mouth. She was grinning like a maniac. Her tears weren't from pain or fear. They were from happiness. Her screams, now that I'd noticed the smile, seemed less frightening to me, and more like the squeals they probably were meant to be. Her pure, unfiltered happiness filled me and I couldn't help but grin back, even though I didn't know _why_ she was so happy.

"I've done it!" she cried, squeezing my cheeks together in a way that was almost painful—but _still_ I couldn't force my smile away. I didn't think I really _wanted_ to. I wanted to ask her to elaborate, but my mouth couldn't form the words while she was squashing my face, so it came out as unintelligible garbling. She, _of course_ , was able to understand them though. Her curls bounced around her head as she shook it in her excitement. "I've found a barrier around a world that is weak enough that I'll be able to break through it! I can get you out of the Digital World."

"I knew you could," I told her, pulling her hands off of my face and clutching them in my grip. My chest was bursting with happiness and hope and all the positive emotions I'd been too afraid to let myself really _feel_ for a long time.

"You did," she said, smiling at me. "I should have trusted you. You're not like lightning. You're _good_. You're always good. You _know_ things."

"I'll always have faith in you," I promised her. "You trusted me when you had no reason to. You _chose_ me to protect the Digital World."

"All the worlds," she corrected, sticking her tongue out at me. I laughed at her childishness, and she pulled her hands out of mine so she could tackle me to the ground and start messing up my hair, like Jun used to do just to annoy me. She knocked the goggles askew, but I was too busy laughing to care. I wrapped my arms around her waist, crushing her against me, trying to pull her far enough away that she couldn't continue her assault—but I wasn't trying _too_ hard.

"Stop!" I called out amidst our laughter, but we both knew I didn't mean it. It just _needed_ to be said. She laughed brightly, and the sound of it was almost as powerful as Haruki's first giggling laughter. Maybe laughter really _was_ the best medicine. It had sure made me feel more uplifted than I'd been in a long while. I laughed until I couldn't breathe, but even then I couldn't stop. My eyes were watering, and I had to resort to tickling Spring to get her off of me. She squirmed dramatically, rolling off of me in order to get away from my wriggling fingers.

That just made me laugh harder.

"Oh my," Kurayami murmured. "Daddy's so silly sometimes, isn't he, Haruki?"

I hadn't even realized that she'd been following after me. She'd obviously been moving at a much more reasonable speed, considering she was carrying our son. I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was; Veemon and Labramon were with her too. They were all caring people, of _course_ they would've wanted to come and make sure Spring was okay.

"What's going on?" Veemon wanted to know. His hands were in fists, prepared to attack whoever was hurting Spring. I was happy to see how quickly he'd come to her defense, but I had to roll my eyes at him. His eyes were scanning the surrounding crowd that had formed when Spring had started _screaming_ for reasons that no one understood. He was looking for a threat that didn't even exist.

"You okay?" Labramon asked Spring.

"I'm _wonderful_ ," Spring told him with a tinkling laugh. She hopped to her feet, and reached her hands down towards me, and I took them, bracing myself when she _flung_ me up into the air instead of merely pulling me to my feet. I had to stop myself from crashing back to the floor.

I grinned at Kurayami, and her eyes lit up at my excitement. She didn't even know what it was, but she was starting to share in my excitement anyway, just because _I_ was excited. I loved her so much, it was ridiculous. Haruki reached out his chubby little hands, grabbing the air between Kurayami and I, and I held my hands out. He leaned out of Kurayami's arms, and I caught him, before he managed to escape her grip, tucking him into my side and kissing his head. He gurgled happily at me.

"Spring's just a genius," I commented. "Nothing new there."

"You're sweet," Spring said, smiling at me. Her _eyes_ were smiling too, all crinkled up with happiness and shining with excitement.

"I'm only telling the truth," I promised. "Guess who found a way out of the Digital World? Yeah, that's right, this genius, right here."

"No way," Labramon gasped.

"Yes!" Veemon cheered, running over and tackling Spring into a hug, surprising her completely. She looked down, quirking her head at him, and he grinned up at her. I grinned at him. She obviously wasn't hugged all that often here. Most of the people hanging around this place didn't know what to make of her. They had a tendency to avoid her. It frustrated me. I spent as much time with her as I could, to make up for their behaviour and Warg and Melga hung out with her nearly every day too. I made a mental note to hug her more. She deserved it. She'd just found a way out of the Digital World.

"Where does that _way_ lead?" Kurayami asked. I opened my mouth to answer her, but paused, realizing that the only thing I knew was that it was a world that _wasn't_ the Digital World. Spring quirked her head again, thinking about it.

"I don't actually know," Spring said brightly after a few minutes. "I've never heard of it before. I didn't even know it was there!"

"What does that mean?" Kurayami asked. "Is the world _safe_?"

"I don't know," Spring said, more seriously this time, but there was still a peppiness about her words.

"So we can't just pack up the entire population of the Digital World and take them along," Kurayami surmised. I smiled at her.

"My wife is so smart," I told Spring, who nodded solemnly at me. Kurayami was embarrassed. She was looking to the ground with wide eyes, and her cheeks were flushing pink. I could tell she was really pleased by my compliment though. She was adorable. She was so beautiful. And she was _alive_. That's the only thing that really mattered. I was so happy she was here.

"Perhaps we should inform the others?" Tentomon asked. _My_ face lit up light a fire truck. I'd forgotten he was there, flying above our heads. He'd watched me and Spring roll around on the ground like we were toddlers. It was rather embarrassing to think about. I rubbed the back of my neck, forcing a grin back on my face as I turned to look up at him.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," I agreed with him. I looked to Kurayami, and she understood what I wanted to suggest—but _couldn't_ without making Spring feel like I didn't trust her—and offered to stay with Spring. Spring giggled and waved her hand at Kurayami smiling brightly. I wondered how long ago it was that Spring got to hang out with another woman, and figured this was probably one of my better ideas. Tentomon, Veemon and I raced out of the antechamber—Labramon decided to stick with the girls, so he could try and disperse the audience that was still just standing there, awkwardly watching us all. We split up, and I found myself racing through the hallways, weaving around the wanderers, and laughing with excitement at every turn, keeping my eyes peeled for any of the other digidestined or our partners.

Haruki kept pulling at my hair—not nearly as gently as Spring had—and punching me in the face without meaning to. I sort of wished I'd left him with Kurayami, but at the same time, he _wanted_ to be with me, so I wasn't too fussed that I still had him. He shoved his fingers in my mouth, while he chewed on his other hand. I pretend to eat them, and he gurgled at me, clearly pleased at that game.

By that time, we'd ended up near the infirmary, and I took a minute to stick my head in—to see if Jou was there. He was. I recognized his back as he fiddled with a box of kid's Band-Aids, Emiko was sitting on one of the hospital beds, trying not to look at any of the other patients, all of whom were sick with colds—there was a pretty bad one going around the Coliseum. She was swinging her feet, and sniffling. Monmon was sitting next to her, holding out his arm. From what I could see, there was nothing wrong with his arm, but Emiko's knee was pretty banged up. I wondered if she'd tripped while they were playing or something.

Jou brought over two different Band-Aids, asking her to pick one. She treated it like it was the most important decision she could ever make, and took her sweet time, debating over the two admittedly similar designs. Eventually she picked the pink one with the white daisies over the yellow one with red tulips. Jou gently put the Band-Aid on her leg, and kissed the bandage after smoothing it out. Emiko looked up to him, smiling despite the tears in her eyes. Her dad was her super-hero. One kiss made the pain go away. I smiled at the thought, wondering if Haruki would ever look at me with as much adoration as Emiko clearly had for Jou.

Monmon wasn't happy being ignored and shoved his arm into Jou's face. Jou sighed and shook his head. "We can't waste the bandages," Jou explained. "You aren't hurt; you're just being sympathetic to Emiko. It's just an imaginary wound." Monmon squawked indignantly.

"Monmon's really hurting, Dad," Emiko said knowingly.

"Literally?" Jou guessed. Emiko nodded sagely. "I'm sorry. We really can't waste them. We don't have many boxes left. We don't know how long we'll be here. What if Monmon uses all the Band-Aids on pretend wounds so that they're all gone when someone _really_ needs one? That doesn't seem fair, does it?"

"But he wants one," Emiko said, as if that made everything better. I loved kid logic.

"I know," Jou sighed. "But he _can't_." Emiko crossed her arms and pouted. Jou wasn't caving though. I'd have caved _ages_ ago. Jou was much better at being a father than I was—but he also had a lot more practice. I hoped I'd be able to catch up to him someday.

"Hey," I called, distracting Monmon and Emiko from their Band-Aid mission. "Spring's given us a mission, Jou. We've got to get moving." I watched as he pinched his brow. I knew that he didn't like going on missions. I even understood why. He needed to look after Emiko. I got that. I had Haruki too. Both Kurayami and I were going on this one though. I wasn't about to bring him into potentially hostile territory though. I kissed his head again, realizing that I'd have to leave him behind. It hadn't even occurred to me before then. "I know," I told him. "But it's a _special_ mission. Off world."

Jou looked to me sharply, his eyes narrowed, before they lit up. He understood the seriousness of the situation—and also the potential. If this worked out, and we could figure out a way to Earth, Momoe and Gomamon were both waiting for him. He nodded, before turning to look at Emiko, and I decided to be polite and let the two of them discuss Jou's future absence without an audience—the sick digimon around them didn't seem to share the same opinions as me. I guessed they were bored of lying in the infirmary and were looking for _any_ form of entertainment.

I took that time to run my fingers through Haruki's messy hair, and pepper his face with kisses, trying to make him understand just how much I loved him, and how much I was going to miss him. I didn't know how long we'd be gone, but I _would_ be coming back. I needed to come back to him. He needed me, and I needed him too. He was blissfully unaware of what was going on around him. He couldn't understand my whispered goodbye, my promises.

"Sorry," Jun said, when she bumped into me from behind. She was carrying a tray heavily laden with food. Most of it was soup, for the sick digimon, but I spotted a few sandwiches in there. I figured they were for Isao and his volunteers for the day. I stepped out of her way, letting both her and Shuu step into the room, brightening the faces of all the sick digimon. It seemed like they were hungry.

Jou met my eye across the room, and nodded his head towards our siblings before looking pointedly at Haruki and Emiko. I caught on pretty quickly and grinned at him. We waited until they'd distributed the soup and sandwiches, before calling for them. Jou brought Emiko and Monmon over, grinning at Shuu—who was starting to look nervously between Jou and me.

"Hey Jun," I said, casually resting one arm over her shoulder. "How would you like the chance of a lifetime?"

"What do you want?" she said, rolling her eyes.

"You've always wanted children," I told her. "And now's your chance to really _experience_ them."

"Just think," Jou said, joining in. "First you have a beautiful baby girl." He lifted Emiko into the air and passed her to Shuu. Emiko planted a messy kiss on her uncle's cheek. Shuu was very confused as to what was going on.

"And then," I added. "Six years later, you've had a baby boy." I handed Haruki to Jun carefully. She looked more amused than anything. She couldn't help but laugh. "Presto! Now you've got an instant family."

"You can now safely experience children and see if you do in fact want some for yourselves," Jou said with a smirk. Shuu was completely baffled and Jou and I laughed. Emiko joined in, though I doubted she really understood what we were laughing about.

"How long?" Jun asked, rolling her eyes.

"I don't know," I admitted, losing my grin. She and Shuu looked concernedly at us. "We'll be coming back though," I assured them. "Definitely. Taichi has the key to the Digital World, so we'll always be able to get back. We'll be back before you know it. You won't even miss us."

"It's not _us_ I'm worried about," Jun said, glancing at the two kids. My son didn't seem to care that it was Jun that was holding him now. I didn't know how I felt about being interchangeable with my sister, but I also knew that it meant he would be fine until we got back. I ran my fingers through his hair again and kissed his cheek noisily, just to try and hear his laugh again. I got a giggle, and I memorized the sound of it, just in case we were longer than I planned. Jou said another quick goodbye to Emiko, and then we left the infirmary, trying to keep ourselves from wandering back to our children. We needed to keep looking forward. We needed to find a way to get them out of the Coliseum.

We could maybe do that with Spring's help.

We hurried down the hallways, keeping our eyes peeled. It wouldn't make any sense to go back without looking at least a _little_ bit. I couldn't depend on Veemon and Tentomon to collect everyone. That was rude. So we raced down random hallways hoping to catch sight of anyone. And when we turned down one particularly abandoned hallway, our searching paid off.

Armadillomon was walking down the hallway next to Goblimon, who had his arms up, hovering close to Fumiko. Fumiko was walking very slowly, barely paying attention to anything in front of her. I feared that Goblimon's guidance was actually _needed_. I didn't like to think about Fumiko often, no matter how guilty it made me. It had been two months though, and she hadn't improved at all. If anything, she was getting worse. I didn't know how to fix that. I couldn't help her. I wasn't trained to be a grief councillor. I was only trained to make noodles. Noodles were awesome, but they couldn't heal the holes in her heart.

Meiyomon was trying his hardest to help her. She was his partner, but she was also his mother. It was incredibly hard on the poor digimon to have to deal with Fumiko on top of all of his own worrying. We were easing his worries as best we could hunting high and low, searching for his siblings. It wasn't enough though. The strain was getting to him. I didn't know how much longer he was going to last before he snapped.

And when Meiyomon snapped, things had a tendency to blow up.

We could not afford any explosions right now. We only had the one Coliseum, and the only digidestined that would be able to fix the damage Meiyomon could cause was Kiyoko, and nobody knew where the hell he was—or if he was even alive.

"Armadillomon," Jou called brightly. Armadillomon looked to him, happy to have a distraction from Fumiko, who was doing her best to imitate either a ghost or a zombie. She was there, but she wasn't _there_. "We're going on a mission," Jou explained. "You're in. How long will you need to get ready?"

"I have to get Fumiko back," he said, trying not to sound too excited about the idea of a mission. It didn't matter. Fumiko didn't look like she'd heard him anyway.

"Go," Goblimon urged him. "I can watch after Mrs Ishida." Wow. I often forgot that she was married to Yamato's father. It always blew my mind when I heard her called Ishida. I was so used to her just being a Hida, like Iori. "Meiyomon will assist me."

"Yep," Meiyomon said, mustering up as much excitement that he could manage. It fell a little flat. He kicked at the floor, reaching his hand out to grab Fumiko's. She didn't react much, but I thought _maybe_ her fingers gripped his. I couldn't be sure of it though.

"Pixiemon came and took me to his oasis," Jou commented casually. "You'd be surprised by how many digimon are there. Three in particular might interest you. Gabumon stepped on Kenkyomon, who informed me that Zuyamon and Hokorimon were there too. I actually _saw_ Zuyamon too, so..."

"Really?" Meiyomon asked shyly, like he was afraid to believe Jou. Jou smiled at him and nodded, and Meiyomon's face brightened considerably. "That just leaves Chisikimon. Just one brother missing. That's good!"

"That's not true."

I looked to Goblimon, about to ask him about his voice, because he usually didn't speak with _that_ tone, but my mind caught up to me, and I looked at Fumiko with wide eyes. I wasn't the only one. I knew she'd spoken to Kurayami, but other than that, she hadn't said a word to _anyone_. Meiyomon quirked his head, valiantly _not_ acting like it was surprising that she might want to speak. I felt guilty for drawing so much attention to it, but I wasn't the only one. Armadillomon, Jou and Goblimon were all staring too.

"You're missing four," she said quietly, shaking her head at him. Her voice was crackly, because she hadn't been using it, and there was also a haunted quality to it that made her sound like she was on the verge of crying with each word. "Iori, Yamato and Takeru are still gone. Are they _ever_ coming back? I don't know that they are. They probably won't. Are you going to find them?"

Jou spluttered and in the end could only shrug his shoulders, looking to me. I didn't know either. We had no idea what world we were going to, but I had a sneaking suspicion they wouldn't be there. Spring didn't know this world existed. Everyone else might assume she was stupid, but I trusted that she knew of the nine worlds that _we_ knew about. If she didn't know about this world, chances were that we didn't conveniently have a key that could bring us there—which meant that none of our missing friends could have escaped into it.

"If it turns out that they _are_ there, I'll do my best to bring them back to you," Jou promised. "I want them back too. Iori has missed _quite_ a few of our weekly lunches—" He stopped talking when Fumiko quite suddenly latched onto him, hugging him and crying into his shoulder. He looked to me apologetically, but it wasn't his fault that we were held up—it was _no one's_ fault. She needed comfort, she needed this. Yes, I would've liked to keep moving, but I wasn't going to begrudge her if she was starting to find hope buried in her broken heart. She continued sobbing, and Jou awkwardly patted her on the back.

I heard people coming, and motioned to Armadillomon, Meiyomon and Goblimon to get closer to the wall. Jou wasn't able to move, but the least we could do was make some space. Masami and Tomotsu were carrying one of the cafeteria tables down the hall, followed closely by Tomoki, who was carrying the brackets and one of the legs. They were bringing it to a less populated area. They'd learned early on that it was incredibly difficult—almost impossible—to find enough space to work in the cafeteria. Everyone wanted to lend a hand, and they were all _right_ there.

I nodded to them as they passed, and they offered strained smiles in return. It _was_ an excessive distance to be carrying the heavy wooden table. They had a workshop somewhere. I actually still didn't know where it was. Ken's father followed after them at a much more subdued pace, walking with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He paused, looking at Jou and Fumiko before very pointedly trying to catch my eye. He was doing a little dance, and I figured I couldn't just pretend I didn't see him. We'd talked about Ken before. He probably felt comfortable confiding in me, and just like Fumiko—and my father-in-law—he needed to get his feelings out.

"You talk to Kae yet?" I asked him, keeping my tone light, rather than accusatory. Kazuya nodded. I grinned at him, urging him to talk to me.

"I talked to Masami too, since we work together," he offered. I raised my eyebrow, silently asking how it went. "It helps," he admitted grudgingly. "Not a lot. _Barely_. But it does help some, I guess." I patted him on the back before squeezing his shoulder.

"Keep trying," I told him. "You'll find something that works."

"I just wanted to say thank you," he said awkwardly.

"Baby steps," I told him. "Baby steps are good."

He seemed more comfortable with that idea, and did something with his mouth. He didn't _smile_ , but I could tell that's what he was trying for, and that was enough for me. I patted him on the shoulder once more, watching as he walked off after the rest of the handymen. He didn't appear to be in any hurry to catch up with them.

"Fumiko?" Armadillomon called. I could hear the impatience that he was trying to hide. Jou was too polite to say anything. "Jou needs to go on that mission, or else he'll never get a chance to see if he can find Iori or the others."

Fumiko let go of Jou faster than I'd seen her move in months, grasping one of his hands and squeezing it before letting him go completely. Jou backed away slowly, reiterating his promise to keep his eyes open for them. Armadillomon, Jou and I slipped away then, calling our goodbyes over our shoulders.

We decided to stop by the Antechamber to see how many people had been found, and I was kind of disappointed to see that Veemon was back with just Gatomon. Tentomon was still searching, and Gatomon and Labramon were playing tag.

"So," I said slowly. "Should we all split up and keep looking?"

Gatomon and Labramon stopped running, and Veemon looked sheepishly at his feet. Armadillomon didn't seem as excited about hunting down our friends as he'd been at the prospect of a new adventure. I started heading off in a random direction, but Jou called me back. I turned to look at him inquisitively.

"Biyomon," he said simply. "Biyomon is in Primary Village, with Hawkmon and Angemon. If we're going on a journey through an unknown world, we're going to have to at least _tell_ them that's what we're doing."

"We could bring them along," Armadillomon suggested.

"It's only fair," Gatomon agreed. Gatomon and I were on the same page, and soon, we were splitting up again, this time into different teams. Jou and I were going to take Veemon, Labramon and Armadillomon to Primary Village with us, leaving Gatomon and Kurayami to help Tentomon spread the word.

"Don't you think for one second you can leave without telling me where my baby is," Kurayami told me firmly. I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly as I admitted to pawning the two kids off on Shuu and Jun. She nodded, and slipped off down the hallway, and I knew she was going to say goodbye to our son before she even bothered to look for anyone else. I didn't blame her at all. Our son was adorable—and he could laugh!

Veemon digivovled into ExVeemon so that he could pull the cart of supplies we'd promised to bring tomorrow. We figured that if we were already going to make a trip over, we might as well bring it a day early. One day wasn't that much of a difference anyway. I grabbed one of the backpacks hanging by the doors, checking to see how many phones were in it. I counted nine right off the bat, and figured that was _plenty_. Jou and I carried our own everywhere we went, and we'd only need three for the digimon from the Coliseum, and potentially another three for the digimon in Primary Village. That left us with three extras, just in case any of the batteries decided to die on us. Jou and I strapped phones to Armadillomon and Labramon's backs, and I taped one to ExVeemon's ankle, so that he wouldn't have to worry about holding one _and_ pulling the cart. I put the backpack on my back, and pulled out my phone, ready to get this trip started, so that we could get the _real_ adventure started.

Spring reached out and touched my arm though, before Jou and I could start getting the big doors open. I looked to her questioningly. "I can't do it _here_ ," she whispered conspiratorially. I was confused. There was nowhere else to _do_ anything. It was really convenient in the Coliseum too, because we wouldn't need phones or anything, and I told her as much, but she shook her head stubbornly. "I just don't have a strong enough connection to the world in this spot. I would use the Looking Glass, but it's not working right now. The best place to try this is the Temple. All of the gates have been opened there before. It is a good place to try and connect to other worlds."

My mind was flooded with memories of Taichi's hall of gateways. I sighed. It made perfect sense. Besides, it was Gennai's home, it was probably directly linked to Earth in some way. Spring needed to be able to focus her power. I didn't even try to claim to understand her power's limitations. If she needed to go somewhere in particular, then that's where we'd go.

"Okay, Gatomon, let Taichi know that we're heading to the Temple if you see him. Tell him that we've already left, and that we'll meet you all there," I told her. She smirked.

"We'll probably beat you there," she told us. I rolled my eyes at the challenge, but internally, I was planning ways that we could get there faster. I wanted to win this unofficial race. The best way I could think of, was to stick Armadillomon and Labramon in the cart with Elecmon's supplies. I lifted them up over the side before we stepped out into the virus, just in case I jostled the phones. I didn't want to accidentally be the cause of their deletion. Jou and I both double-checked all of the phones, just to be sure, and then we headed off.

We didn't waste any time. We set a fast pace, and we stuck to it. Silence surrounded us, aside from the occasional crack of thunder from somewhere in the endless purple fog. I continually took a head count, not wanting to lose anyone just because of a stupid challenge that Gatomon had jokingly set. Eventually, the silence proved to be too much for Armadillomon and Labramon, who struck up a conversation in the back of the cart.

"No way," Armadillomon gasped, responding to something I hadn't heard. "He's still too little."

"Nope," Labramon said proudly. "He laughed. He _did_. Didn't he ExVeemon?"

"Haruki?" ExVeemon clarified, but he didn't wait for confirmation. "He sure did. He's learning so fast."

"Wow, do you suppose he's gonna learn to talk soon too?" Armadillomon wanted to know.

"He better not," I said, dramatically placing my hand over my heart. "I don't think I can handle him growing up _that_ fast. But I guess I could make an exception if his first word was Daddy. Do you think he could do that? Is there a way I can make him say _that_?"

"Don't rush him," Jou warned me. "He'll be crawling soon, and then talking and walking, and running will follow, and then you'll blink, and the next thing you know he'll be going off to school and being independent, and he'll be turning six."

"Emiko's birthday's tomorrow, isn't it?" Armadillomon asked.

"Yeah," Jou said. "She's six, or she will be. It's been six years since she was born, since we beat Fanglongmon and Dragomon. That's crazy, isn't it? I think it's crazy."

"It really is," I agreed.

"It's been almost six years since I was hatched," Labramon reminded me, in case I'd forgotten. I reached over the side of the cart and rubbed his head, to ensure him that I remembered.

"I can't miss her birthday," Jou told me. "I can't. Momoe's on Earth, and so is Gomamon. It's just Bearmon, Monmon and me this year. I can't take that from her."

"Taichi carries the keys everywhere," I reminded him. It was true. Taichi had them on a keychain on his belt at all times, just in case they were needed. It was unlikely that they ever _would_ be until now. He only had the keys to the Digital World, Earth, the Time Tunnel and Heaven. They were all pretty much useless to us while we were _in_ the Digital World.

"Did you _really_ go to Pixiemon's oasis?" Armadillomon asked Jou shyly.

"Yeah," he said. "They've got a human prisoner there actually. Her name's Iruka. She's DWD. They don't know what to do with her. I didn't know what to tell them."

"I wouldn't know either," I assured him.

There was a small silence and then Jou smiled softly, "To think, all of this will be gone soon."

"What?" I asked sharply, "What's going to be gone? The world? Is the virus getting stronger?" Jou looked to me, confused as if he hadn't spoken and I pressed my eyebrows together. Jou didn't seem to get the hint and instead just looked off into the fog again.

"Fumiko made great progress," Armadillomon offered as a way to fill the silence. We continued to commend Fumiko's recent attempts at speaking, and the conversation rattled onto inconsequential things. Labramon and ExVeemon came up with more and more ridiculous ideas as to what this new world could be like, and Armadillomon told us all about what he wanted to do first once we were finally able to get back to Earth. I kept up our quick pace the entire time, and before I knew it, we were arriving at Primary Village.

Once those that resided in Primary Village noticed our arrival, ExVeemon was swarmed by the children, all of whom were excited to see what he'd brought for them. Labramon and Armadillomon tried their best to calm them down, but it was an impossible task. Jou and I, standing away from them, having fled when the kids started flocking, were approached by a concerned looking Elecmon. Biyomon, Hawkmon and Angemon weren't far behind.

"What's wrong?" Elecmon demanded. "What's happened?"

"Huh?" I asked feeling very confused.

"You're early," Biyomon pointed out. "You shouldn't be here until tomorrow. If you're here today instead of tomorrow then you'd have a really good reason, and the most likely reason is that something has happened. So what was it?"

"There's a mission that involves leaving this world," I told them. Angemon was stoic and patiently waiting for more information, but Hawkmon and Biyomon both leaned in eagerly. "We wanted to know if you'd like to come along."

 _ **Mari Goutokuji:**_

My hands felt gross and sweaty pressed against my face, but I was just too bored to move them. I had my head resting in my hands as I sat on a wooden stool by the counter where the food was typically prepared. Taichi had assured me that he would not be leaving me alone for the rest of the day to make sure I didn't wander off back into that horrible room where Sigma kept all of his work. I wasn't sure why they were keeping it all in there in the first place. It deserved to be burned. None of it would serve us any good anyway. There was no way Sigma wrote out a step-by-step plan on how to travel between worlds without the use of a typical portal. If he could do it, which I was sure he could, he didn't need a reminder of how to do so.

I felt a cool breeze pass over my bare legs and looked behind me to see Yuuko Yagami open up the large silver freezer that we had stolen for them. Taichi was leaning against the wall next to her and she sighed, looking up to him sadly before closing the door gently. "Taichi," she nearly whispered to be sure no one else could hear. "We're running out."

"I know," Taichi said flatly.

"What are we supposed to do?" she asked.

"I don't know," Taichi answered with the same tone as before. He had his arms folded tightly across his chest as if none of this news bothered him, but it was clear by the lines appearing on his face that everything was worrying him. Everything.

I caught sight of Tapirmon, who had been following me around, as he floated higher into the air and he moved toward the others. "Maybe we can plant more food in the garden? The garden is amazing! Fresh food always tastes better. Mari is doing a great job!" Tapirmon brought much of the focus of the room onto me and I felt my face turning red, so I turned my head away again.

"It won't grow fast enough," Taichi said quietly.

"Maybe if Coronamon turned up the heat?" Tapirmon suggested, "More sunlight means more food, doesn't it?"

"Not exactly," Yuuko said softly. "But it wouldn't hurt to expand the garden. It's something at the very least."

"Maybe we can forage for food like we used to do?" Dorumon piped up from where he sat at the other end of the counter. His violet tail was waving back and forth calmly as he sat, completely relaxed. "The virus hasn't deleted the trees, Taichi told me so. Maybe the food can still be eaten." Yuuko looked to Taichi, hoping for a solid answer, but he could only shrug his shoulders. "It's worth a shot."

"No it is not!" Kamemon practically shouted. "What if you bring back some berries and we eat them and _die_?"

"Then we'll know not to eat them," Dorumon said, trying to keep the mood light, but it was a poorly crafted joke. Knowing that the virus was the cause of many deaths was enough to clarify how ruthless that joke could have been taken. Everyone was silent and Dorumon seemed to realize his mistake. "Sorry," he muttered quietly. Kamemon moved toward him to comfort him.

"We'll figure something out, I promise," Taichi assured his mother, placing a hand on her shoulder for comfort. "I'll do what I can." She moved closer to him to hug him and even though her eyes were shut tight I could tell that she was ready to cry. Everyone was ready to cry, and I was sure everyone had taken their turn at doing just that.

Taichi and his mother's moment was interrupted by Gatomon, leaping up to the countertop and clearing her throat. "We're leaving," she informed us calmly. "Goggle-head Motomiya is on his way to Primary Village. We are to meet him at the Temple."

Taichi and I exchanged curious glances but it was Yuuko who spoke. "What? Why?"

"We're breaking out of here," Gatomon said with a fiery look in her eyes. Taichi's own eyes widened and it seemed as if Gatomon's passion was being shared with him as well. He got to his feet and was chasing after Gatomon before I'd even noticed that she had gone. Yuuko and Tapirmon shot off after him leaving me alone. I wasn't much for running around, so I would just wait for them all to get ready and come back.

In the meantime I found myself wandering toward the freezer to take a look inside myself. When I propped the top open I felt my heart drop. When Yuuko had said that the food supply was running out she hadn't been kidding. The supply was nearly gone—at least from this freezer, I personally didn't know where they kept the rest of the stored food, but it seemed that, with this one not being replenished that they were running out as well.

I spotted a blue metal thermos and pulled it from its place wedged in the corner. It had an orange piece of construction paper taped to it that read 'Jou'. I shook it gently and listened to the contents swish around inside..

"Mari?"

I jumped and spun to see Agumon and Palmon standing side by side. "Mhm?" I asked, screwing the lid back on the thermos before dropping it back into the freezer. I spun to face them, trying to keep my face blank. Whatever it was that Jou was hiding inside there was obviously a secret. He hadn't told me about it in any case—not that it was saying anything. He'd kept Sigma's room a secret too.

"Have you seen Taichi?" Agumon asked as Palmon squinted her eyes suspiciously.

I nodded, pointing down the hallway. "He's probably looking for you," I told Agumon. "There's a new mission."

Agumon's face lit up and he looked to Palmon with excitement before rushing off down the hallway shouting something about finding Gabumon. Palmon didn't follow though, instead she moved toward me and looked up at me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I lied, and Palmon knew it was a lie too. She shrugged though and let it go.

"If you say so," she decided. "So what's the mission. Are you going?"

"I don't know," I said quietly, but before the conversation could continue, that loud lady—Mimi's mother—showed up and started excitedly listing recipes to her friends. I noticed that both Dorumon and Kamemon were taking their leave now so I took the opportunity to go with them. Palmon was at my heels following me. It didn't bother me much, not as much as it might have with some of the other digimon. Palmon was sweet, and understanding. She was a little thick headed sometimes, but I liked her all the same. She seemed to trust me too, because I went with her when Hideto's sister had shot her with a tracking device.

It seemed silly now to worry about someone following us. It was so long ago, and at least then we had the option to leave this world, or even go outside. Now our problems were much worse. We, as a whole, were all going to starve to death if we didn't find a solution to the problems quickly.

It didn't seem likely. I looked down and saw how content Palmon looked. It was sad, really, to see how she could be peaceful in a time like this, in a time where it was much worse than she could even imagine.

I heard whispers, familiar hushed sounds and stopped walking, sidestepping toward the room I knew to be Terriermon's. He shared the room with Kudamon, Monodramon and Betamon, but none of them had their partners to stay with. I balled up my fist and knocked gently on the wall outside the doorway. A faint voice came from inside. "Go away."

"Terriermon?" I asked quietly, "It's me, Mari. I think we're going out… Do you want to come?"

The curtains were pulled open and I was surprised to see Mrs Washington, Willis' mother, standing in front of me. "Mari," she said kindly, "he's a little shaken right now."

"I know," I told her softly, hoping Terriermon could hear. I figured with how big his ears were there was nothing in the Coliseum he _couldn't_ hear. "I know what it feels like to lose someone important to you. So do you, don't you? You lost your daughter, right? It sucks, but staying in your room won't make anything better."

There was a silence as Mrs Washington waited for Terriermon to make a decision, concealed behind the curtains and finally his whispered voice asked, "Where are we going?"

"I'm not sure," I admitted. "Gatomon made it sound like we might get to go home."

"Well _I'm_ in," I was surprised to hear Betamon's voice instead as he waddled underneath Mrs Washington's feet. "I don't want to stay in this _Hell_ any longer than I have to. How soon can we leave?"

"We're leaving now," I told him. Betamon wasted no time in rushing off toward the antechamber, probably to ensure that he was not left behind. A moment later the curtains by Mrs Washington's feet were pulled aside again and Terriermon appeared, emerging from the dark depths of his room. "Are you going to come?"

"Do you think there's a chance Willis or Lopmon got home?" Terriermon asked quietly.

No, I didn't think that. If they had gotten to Earth we would have seen them in the mirror. We would have been able to make contact with them, but that wasn't the case, and so I did not for a moment believe that they were safe. But I'd learned that the truth wasn't always the best way to treat a situation—and yet I'd also learned how betrayed someone could feel were the truth to be concealed. "It's possible," I decided. Terriermon seemed to know I didn't have much faith in the concept but he agreed to go anyway. Palmon threw her arm around his shoulder and together they walked off after Betamon.

I felt a tap on my shoulder as I made my way to follow them, and spun to see Mrs Washington. "Do you really think he's there? Willis?" I debated lying, but slowly shook my head. "No, I didn't think so." She looked so sad. Heartbroken really, and I couldn't help but remember all of the things Willis had told me about her. She may have given up a while back but Willis was once _everything_ she ever had. "Can you bring him back to me? Promise me that you'll do what you can to find him."

I stared back at her, my mouth hanging open slightly and the intensity of her gaze startled me into looking away. I couldn't lie to her, and I couldn't keep up lying to myself either. I looked back up to Mrs Washington and spoke quickly. "Willis is dead," I assured her. "He won't be coming back." Her face turned to shock quickly and her eyes began to water. I quickly made my way down the hallway, too afraid to face her any longer. I hadn't lied. Willis was dead. It had to be true, it seemed too unlikely that anyone else survived, and it was too painful to hold onto the lingering idea that Willis might someday return to me. I knew that wasn't a possibility. He was just as gone to me as my grandmother was and Lalamon too. He was gone just like they were.

I couldn't hold on as long this time. I couldn't do that to myself.

But the bubbling guilt in my chest told me that I'd done the wrong thing. I was selfish. I was a bad person. I fought with the tears threatening to escape as I made my way to the antechamber where Tentomon had greeted Palmon with Wormmon, Warg and Melga. Standing behind the group of digimon stood Spring with her long spiraling hair looking messier than usual. I could relate to that. Soon Agumon and Gabumon had emerged from the stairs that led to the arena—or garden now, really—and finally Taichi, Gatomon, Tapirmon and Dracomon made their way into our midst.

"Are we going then?" Taichi asked, flicking his eyes toward me, "To the Temple?"

"Not without these, you aren't." We all turned to see Kurayami entering with a brown sack full of cell phones. She shook them lightly and smiled, "Hopefully we won't be needing to use these much longer." She then tossed the bag to Taichi who began passing out the devices. Kurayami began counting the digimon to ensure we hadn't missed anyone.

When Taichi was nearing the end of his task someone had called for him. He stopped and looked back, passively handing the bag to Gabumon to finish handing the phones out. He saw his mother standing in the doorway looking teary eyed. She moved toward him quickly and threw her arms around him again. "I want you to be careful."

"We'll be fine," Taichi assured her. "I'm just going to the Temple."

"We will be travelling to an unknown world, actually," Spring said helpfully. "It will be fun. We might not survive the trip though. You should know that. And we might never be able to return."

Yuuko's face turned to panic quickly but Taichi calmed her by hugging her again. "No, Mom listen! We have the keys." He held up his chain of large animated keys. "We can get back any time, no matter what world we go to. Unless it's Earth…" Yuuko tightened her grip on her son. "I promise I'll be back."

"You don't know that though," she said quietly. "You don't know that." Apparently their display had caused a great deal of attention because many of the Coliseum residents had crowded around now, watching as we prepared to go. In the crowd I caught sight of Mrs Washington and she locked eyes with me, only to begin crying again. I winced, turning away as her husband comforted her with his arm around her shoulder.

When Yuuko finally stepped away from her son the crowd became entirely silent until a small voice spoke up. "Is it true?" Kae Ichijouji asked, "Are you leaving this world?"

"We hope to," Taichi nodded. "Daisuke and Spring figured it out," he seemed pleased and yet embarrassed to admit that.

"Will you find Mimi?" Satoe asked, apparently leaving the crowd with the impression that all of their questions needed to be asked at once. Taichi threw his hands up to silence the crowd.

"We'll do our best," he promised. "We know Mimi, Michael, Hideto, Tatum, Lopmon, Koushiro and Hikari all made it out of this world before the virus struck them. Whether we find them today, or a year from now, I can promise you that we'll bring them back."

"And the others?" Natsuko asked loudly. "What about Takeru?"

"If he's alive, I promise I'll find him." More questions began firing off but Taichi groaned, silencing them once more. "Look, I'm not leaving forever. We'll be back tonight maybe. Save your questions, okay? This isn't as dramatic as you're making it seem. This new world could be nothing. Keep your hopes at a safe height so when they drop they don't shatter."

"Way to be positive, Taichi!" Agumon hissed, rushing forward to stand with his partner. "We're getting out of this world tonight!" Agumon cheered, throwing a fist—sort of—to the air, the crowd roared with excitement. "We'll bring the team back together one way or another!" Again the crowd cheered, "You can count on us! We're the Digidestined!"

I rolled my eyes as the crowd cheered again, and once more found myself looking toward Willis' mother. I couldn't bear to look at her so I turned, ready to leave. I made my way to the door but stopped when I spotted Babamon standing in the stairwell, listening to Agumon's pep rally. She looked kind of sad, and I felt bad for her, but not bad enough to stop. I pushed the doors open and heard Agumon shout something about leaving _now_ , and made my way toward the fog, making sure my barrier was on.

And then I was surrounded by the fog and in my own protective little bubble. Nothing could get to me where I stood and for that one moment I was allowed to stew in my own regrets and sadness. It wouldn't last long, so I would have to make the most of it.

It lasted less time than I had hoped even but I did not show my discomfort when Dracomon found me and practically attached himself to my side. He looked up to me with big eyes and I smiled down to him to show him I was going to be there with him the whole way. He wasn't much of an adventurer in terms of the virus. Aside from Palmon he was the most frightened by the mist.

We didn't waste any time in going to the Temple, and everyone was excited, not sure what the result of our mission would be. It was a weird feeling to just not know at all. Every time we set out we had a clear plan in mind. Go to one of the protected places, solve the issues there by bringing them food, and go home. But this wasn't the same as that. This was a mission into the unknown to find something no one could understand. It felt exciting. And it felt wrong. Spring, the crazed lady who was leading our group was bouncing up and down. We were staying close enough to one another that our barriers all overlapped and so we could keep an eye on the group as a whole. The way her hair sprung with each step was only more of a warning to me. She was a crazy person and we were supposed to trust her to bring us to a place she had never heard of? What if it was a place of ultimate death? What happened to the spirits after they died? What if that was where she was taking us, and what if there was no way to get back from there? What if everything that had ever died forever was there and we had to face the Great Evils again?

 _What if Lalamon is there?_

I felt my stomach twisting at my horrible thoughts. My mind betrayed me like that every so often, tricking me by giving me false hope. She was dead, just like my grandmother and just like Willis. Just like Miyako and Kiyoko. At least Hideto seemed to have lived. He was something. That was where my hope should cluster. Hideto was the only one that might still be alive.

"Everyone is relying on us so much," Taichi said quietly, he was running his hands through his hair like he wanted to scream. "I don't want to let them down."

"You can't let them down," Kurayami replied before I could. "They're stuck in a dirty building in the midst of a deadly fog. There's nowhere to go but up. You come back with no changes and they will cope easily because they will have nothing to adjust to."

"Maybe," Taichi agreed, "I just really want to save the day." He pressed forward at a quicker pace and everyone was forced to adjust to this because he wanted to stay at the back of the group. It made me wonder if maybe Taichi wanted to be the hero rather than have everyone be saved. Maybe he wanted to be the one to do it specifically, and that could be what he cared about. But I knew that couldn't be the case because he had trusted Daisuke to take charge—at the very least Taichi had moved past that prideful stint and was now forcing those feelings back. He knew to some extent that the world needed to be saved and it didn't matter if Daisuke did it, or if Kazuya Ichijouji did it, or if someone we didn't even know did it. It just had to happen.

"Your mom seems really upset," Agumon said from where he was jogging by Taichi's feet. He had to practically run to keep up with Taichi's brisk pace because his legs were so much shorter. Taichi looked down to Agumon and shrugged. "More than usual, I mean. Is she okay?"

Taichi laughed without humor. "None of them are okay, Agumon. They will be though. We can do this."

"Of course we can!" Agumon cheered, "You have to have faith!" He looked ahead and his eyes turned sad when he did not spot Gomamon, his friend. "And hope, and all of those other great things! We'll make your mom feel better. I'm sure we will." While Agumon did his best to cheer up his partner, I pulled my digivice out to look at it and noticed Daisuke and Jou heading out of Primary Village already. They had made good time and it looked like they may even beat us to the Temple.

Looking out to the crowd of digimon just made Taichi's feelings spread into my own chest, and it became clear just _why_ he was so worried that Spring could be wrong. Terriermon was looking around, into the mist, for Lopmon and whether he actually thought he would find her or not was his own secret. The way his face drooped with total sadness was enough to prove that we had to help him and find a way to solve the problem. The mist had kept everyone from their loved ones for far too long and we needed to get rid of it.

Kurayami seemed to see the anger piling up in my facial expression because she patted me on the back and smiled. "You okay?"

"Fine," I lied.

Finding the bridge to get to the Temple was a challenge again, but eventually we located the proper part of the moat and made our way across. The digimon all made their way in through the door, ushered by Spring who stood behind to count. "Forty-six, twelve, six, two hundred sixteen…" I rolled my eyes when I caught up to her. Kurayami slipped through the door and then Taichi gestured for me to go next. Inside it was clear that someone had set up a barrier. Someone should have done that a long time ago, but there was no one _in_ the Temple, so it was just pointless really.

Jou was standing with Patamon on his head, resting while Labramon and Veemon rushed off to greet Kurayami who was already being thrown around in the air by Daisuke's tight hug. Armadillomon was waiting with Hawkmon and Biyomon who looked a little shaken up from taking their first trip through the fog. They were excited to see their friends again since they hadn't seen them in a while. Biyomon hugged Gabumon while Wormmon hurried toward Hawkmon at his slow pace.

"Patamon!" Gatomon shouted, "You're Patamon again!"

"It feels so _good_!" Patamon groaned, relaxing into Jou's hair.

"So how do we leave?" Betamon asked, not bothering to conceal the excitement in his voice.

All eyes turned to Spring who was looking up to the sky and spinning in circles. Taichi cleared his throat and she sighed, spinning to face him. "We fly, of course." Taichi's hands found comfort in slapping his own face, but Spring wasn't finished. She frolicked along the smooth stone ground, sliding her dirty feet with each step, absorbing the new environment. "I think I like it here," she cooed as she hugged a wall to the best of her ability.

"You were tortured in that building over there though," Terriermon helpfully reminded her, pointing off to the council building. Hawkmon and Veemon rushed to his side to stop him from saying anything else, but it would do no good, she had already been reminded.

Spring's face tightened with rage and regret as she looked off to where Terriermon had pointed. She looked sad, and alone, though she was surrounded by so many. She shook her head in sadness. "That was not fun…"

"No, I'm sure it wasn't," Jou said, trying to comfort her, but she shook his hand off of her shoulder, "Daisuke saved me though, my little hero." Daisuke blushed as all eyes turned on him.

"We helped!" Terriermon interjected, annoyed by being discredited. "You humans always taking the credit." Hawkmon patted his head and Terriermon's words became more like irritated grumbles as Spring took a leap through the air as if she were dancing to a familiar ballet.

"Could you focus, please?" Taichi asked bitterly.

Warg and Melga were quick to get on his case, angrily shouting about how we needed to give her space to think and breathe. She seemed pleased to have someone come to her rescue, and spun in a circle for a moment or two and I found myself watching her dress fan out, spinning along with her. It was annoying that she had brought us all the way here to watch her dance, but it was also out of line to question her, I found. If she knew what she was doing, I'd sit back and let her do it. But I wasn't the only one annoyed it seemed. The entire crowd was filled with mixed emotions, but many faces were either confused or irritated.

Biyomon seemed to be enjoying this the most though because after clapping along to Spring's dance she actually joined her and the two began ballroom dancing.

"Seriously," Taichi interjected, stepping forward now in a threatening way. Spring jumped back, alarmed and dropped Biyomon who fell onto her bottom on the hard ground. "I want you to open a portal. You said you can do it, right? You made the Looking Glass, so make another. Make a way for me to get home. I'm sick of waiting around for this to happen. Your dancing is lovely, but completely inappropriate. Please help us. I need to find her." There was no way to know if we were referring to Hikari or Rei, or maybe someone else, but Spring seemed to understand the seriousness in his voice and she nodded, tossing her hair over her shoulders.

"I will try," she told him. "I am just scared for our survival." Taichi nodded, understanding, but wanting her to continue anyway. Spring clapped her hands together and rubbed them slowly, closing her eyes to concentrate. "I feel it well," she said quietly, "the new world is close here. I can find the path… I am close, I can feel it." The crowd had fallen entirely silent now as we watched her with bated breaths, "It feels peaceful," that seemed to be a good sign, "but also dangerous." And that wasn't. "I wish you to keep calm and together, or you will lose yourself in the confusion of the world. It is old… and yet new."

"Sounds great," Taichi said impatiently, "Can we go to it now?"

"If you are sure you're ready," Spring said. It was then that I noticed how serious she had been acting for the past minute or so, it felt weird to have her so understanding and calm. Taichi nodded eagerly and Spring looked to Daisuke for assurance. He held up two thumbs to show her he was on board and she closed her eyes once more.

Her hands were raised high in the air when she began muttering some strange language. Dracomon's grip on my leg tightened in his nervousness and Tapirmon moved closer to me. I held him in my arms as we watched Spring chant. A small light appeared in front of her and the anticipation was growing even deeper in the crowd.

And then in a sudden violent flash something had disrupted her concentration. She dropped her arms and looked around quickly to where a portal had seemingly opened. The light was brighter than any I had seen in so long. It felt like the sun—like daylight. It felt like something I had been craving for so long. A series of figures appeared in the light, but it was far too bright to make out who they are. For me at least.

Biyomon seemed to understand. "Sora!" She practically screamed.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Sparks Fly as Taichi takes over, and Jenna tells us what's going on back on Earth!


	26. Sparks Fly

**Y/N:** Everything's crazy right now, and it's all very exciting. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter, because I love action—and sad things, but this one's pretty much all action. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

 **U/N:** Jenna's chapter here was added much later than the others, in fact I think this entire story was completed and we thought "hm, well, that's a pretty jarring plot thread we didn't cover. What are they doing?" so we had to add it in for the sake of, again, telling a whole story. It was nice to get more closure on the ChiNa storyline too I think. At least for me. So this is the end of arc two, and yay the next arc is probably already up! We're actually uploading it on the Wednesday following this one, so the eleventh. Hey, that's Evelen's birthday, and Remembrance Day. So there's that. So my general thoughts of this arc are that we got to fight again which we've been kind of avoiding doing for a lot of reasons, and it was hard to get into that honestly, since we've gone so long without.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Digital World and Earth**

 **Chapter 26: Sparks Fly**

 _ **Jenna Washington:**_

"So your name isn't even Chi?" I asked in a hushed tone. Just because we were invisible didn't mean no one would be able to hear us. We were however in the same bubble of invisibility so we could see and interact with one another. Chi was sitting with his legs crossed and his heavy duty laptop was open on his lap, we were waiting together for the block to be dropped so we could hack into the system, and release the footage Katsue wanted us to broadcast.

Chi slowly shook his head, but then paused, and looked to me with his amber eyes, "Kind of," he decided. "I mean, I'm Chisikimon, but Chi is just the name I chose for the human world."

I nodded, but something still didn't feel right here. I was sitting next to him, but couldn't bring myself to hold his hand, or even let my leg graze against his. I didn't want to touch him yet. I wasn't mad necessarily, but there were issues we would need to sort out. "So," I said before I paused for probably too long. "Which should I call you?"

He looked up to me and shrugged his shoulders. "Whichever one you feel comfortable with."

I didn't answer then, and instead began running my fingers through my messy hair. Today had been a rough day, and throwing the idea that I was dating a digimon into the mix was only half of it. I had been kidnapped, nearly tortured, shot at, chased by monsters, one of whom bit my leg rather hard, and I'd even been in a very legitimate fist fight. I let out a long sigh and Chi looked up to me and reached for my hand.

I pulled it away sharply.

He looked sad and put his hand back on his keyboard, pretending he hadn't done a thing. "I'm sorry I wasted your time."

"What?" I asked, confused.

"I'm sorry I made you think you had found a nice guy," he said quietly. "When it was just me."

"You _are_ a nice guy," I said sharply. "And you haven't wasted any of my time."

"You clearly don't want to be with me anymore." His voice cracked, and it made me feel guilty for being angry at all. But he was wrong, I _did_ want to be with him—probably. It was complicated.

I shook my head and thought about taking his hand to make the problem go away, but I knew it wouldn't do anything aside from _hide_ the problem. "I'm not mad that you're a digimon, Chi. If that's what you think."

"Of course that's what I think," he said, his voice rising a little in frustration. He adjusted himself so he was facing me now and set his laptop on the pavement in front of us. I leaned back against the black metal fence and tried keep calm and mature about everything, but that really wasn't my style. "We were fine, and now you know I have wings and antenna and that I can spit poisonous gasses from my mouth, and you don't want to touch me anymore."

"Okay," I had been caught off guard. "I didn't know you could do that gas thing. That's awesome. And the reason I don't want to _touch_ you is because you _lied_ to me, Chi. We've been dating for only seven months, sure. But all of that time was fake. The first thing you learn about someone is their name, and I didn't even know that about you. You've mentioned your mother repeatedly—who the hell is your mother? Digimon don't have moms! You don't have parents—you could have _told_ me that! I know what it's like to feel ashamed of something and what it's like to not have someone there for you!"

"I—I didn't mean to lie," Chi stuttered, clearly taken aback by learning why I was actually angry with him.

"Oh, so you _accidentally_ failed to tell the truth for one hundred and seventy-nine days?" I snapped, crossing my arms in disapproval. "You know, for someone crafted from the general concept of the crest of knowledge, you're pretty stupid."

"To be fair, I was created by the void of knowledge," Chi corrected, looking ashamed of himself again. His eyes fell from mine and he looked to his clunky black boots. "I'm sorry."

"Why did you do it?" I asked flatly. Chi looked up and I could see him thinking, his eyes sort of glazed over as if he were planning what he had to say. "Stop!" I hit his leg lightly. "Stop planning out your stories. If they're the truth they should just come out."

He sighed, "You're right." I knew that already though, so I didn't say anything and waited for him to continue. "I met you a couple days into the new year, which you know. But what you didn't know was that I had been spending most of my time on Earth. Ever since the Yggdrasil invasion a few years ago. I found the way Earth used their technology to be fascinating, and they channeled their thoughts together to build empires. And they did the same to tear down those built by others. It was chaotic, and it was counterproductive as a whole, but it was still fascinating." He paused, expecting me to have some kind of comment, and sure I could think of a bunch, but for once I just wanted someone else to be talking. "I created this human form easily, mostly because people didn't trust me out on the streets... and I travelled across the world until I found New York. Everyone was always pumped full of adrenaline, either dancing or shopping or committing crimes—everyone was just... special. Then I went to this crazy night club and I found this girl who was the most beautiful person I'd ever seen—"

"Okay, yeah." I rolled my eyes. "Enough of that. Get on with the story."

He hesitated and then nodded, "Right, well, you were more energetic than anyone else. You had more fire inside you, and the way you danced, everyone had to watch either from fright, or astonishment. All eyes were always on you, and that bedazzled top hat you had been wearing."

"Yeah, I lost that," I said, blushing. "I think Michael stole it."

"I never told you I was human," Chi awkwardly said. "You made that assumption, and you asked me out. I wanted to go with you so badly that I just couldn't tell you the truth. Would you have gone on the date if I'd presented myself as a humanoid bug creature?"

"Maybe," I said, though I wasn't sure. "I've never had that opportunity present itself to me, so it's just really hard to guess how I might react." But I knew he had a point. A pretty good point too. And as he spoke, everything had slowly begun falling into place. The reason Chi had been so frightened to be in the EVOLVE meetings, and why he's refused to touch the tracking devices, and why he wouldn't come with me to Veronica's house! It hadn't been because he was _angry_ —well maybe it was a little—it had been because he _couldn't_ go. The barrier prevented him from stepping inside. He would never come with me to the Digital World because someone might recognize him, and he'd never let me come to his mother's house because it simply didn't exist.

I wanted to still be mad at him. I wanted to be furious that he had kept something so integral from me for so long, but I couldn't. He had kept his biggest secret from the person he trusted the most—at least I hoped that I could play that role for him—and that meant he had been truly ashamed or worried about what people would think. He had not lied in a malicious attempt to hurt me. He had lied to keep himself hidden.

I looked up to him and sighed as his amber eyes locked with mine again. They were glistening like he might start crying soon, but I wouldn't let him. There was no reason for that. I reached forward and grabbed his hand gently. It was still rough, still firm and still just as inviting as it had been every other time I'd held it. And honestly I didn't even care that he still had antenna's sticking from the top of his head. For a girl who had grown up rich I was surprisingly not into material possessions or the way someone looked. I still loved him even if he was a poor, homeless bug.

"I'm sorry," Chi said finally, and I shook my head, because it didn't matter anymore.

"It's okay," I told him. "Don't you ever lie to me again though."

He looked shocked and filled with joy at the same time and he was nodding his head fervently. "O-of course!" I leaned in to hug him but his laptop binged as the internet connection finally kicked in. We looked to each other one last time and then released each other, turning down to the computer. Then messages were flying onto the screen. They were from Katsue.

 _Don't post the video._

 _You didn't post the video did you?_

 _Dammit guys, why aren't you answering?_

 _Are you dead?_

 _Seriously. Seriously, someone answer me._

Chi somehow found it in himself to smirk at her messages and clicked in the response box and began typing, ' _No, Katsue, we did not post the video. We're coming back. Evelen has taken the block down_.' He clicked send just as someone came around the corner. I panicked but remembered we weren't able to be seen. But it didn't matter anyway, because it was Evelen.

She looked like she was _very_ nervous still, even after leaving the building and she was walking with her chest out, trying to seem professional and like she knew what she was doing. She was looking around though, frantically searching for the two of us. I reached for my phone and pressed the button to remove the invisibility. She caught sight of the two of us and hurried our way, glancing over her shoulder to be sure no one could see us.

"How did it go?" I asked her, taking in the sight of her frantic behaviour from up close and holding back my laughter.

"No one stopped me," Evelen said with a shrug. "I guess they recognize me from Arnold working with my dad. Either way, I walked right into his office and did what you told me to, Chi." Evelen's eyes trailed up to his antenna and she stared for a moment too long. "Anyway," she said, standing tall again. "You can post it now."

"We're actually not supposed to," Chi explained, getting to his feet, and folding up his laptop. He reached down a hand for me and I smiled up to him allowing him to help me. Evelen looked flabbergasted, probably frustrated that we'd asked her to do something that was useless. "Don't worry, I'm sure we will. And with the block down we'll be able to at any time. I think we're supposed to go back to our base now."

"Do you want to come?" I asked before I had thought it through. Chi seemed nervous about it and for good reason. We barely knew this girl... but she _had_ helped us just now, and it seemed fair that she was permitted to involve herself.

Evelen seemed to think it was a good idea in any case and she agreed to come, which was good because I couldn't _drive_. Evelen took control of Mantarou's car and Chi instructed her where to go while I sat in the backseat with the laptop. The drive took longer than I'd have liked, but every now and then Chi would reach back to hold my hand and it was cute. Eventually we were pulling up to the curb down the street from Mimi's restaurant and we were all getting out of the car.

Mr Ishida's van was parked outside of the restaurant, which seemed kind of like an obvious mistake, wouldn't it be easy for people to figure out where we were hiding if we parked our vehicles outside? Though it didn't overly matter because we walked right into the building from a crowded street daily. I shrugged my shoulders and threw the door open, stepping inside.

"Oh my _god_ ," Momoe snapped. "Where were you?" She flew around the corner into the entrance hallway and had her hands on her hips. Her eyes fell to Evelen a second later and she took a step back, worried.

"Are they here?" Katsue asked loudly, "I got your message, but who the _hell_ is Evelen."

As we stepped out into the open seating area everyone turned their eyes on us. Akira and Takashi were sitting with Natsuni's father, bent over the big law books, Mr Ishida was sitting with Katsue at the counter near the kitchen, each with a laptop opened in front of them, Mantarou, Natsuni and Chiziru were all sitting across from the two of them with notepads, apparently trying to solve something, and Yutaka was on the phone, of course. "That would be me," Evelen announced, hoping for the best.

"That means nothing, I'm sorry," Katsue said. "Who are you?"

"She's Neo's friend," I answered for her. "That's what matters now." Evelen looked thankful, but I did not respond. Instead I took Chi's hand and dragged him toward Katsue and the others. "Why weren't we supposed to upload the video?"

"Did you?" Katsue asked sharply.

"No, I told you that," Chi said, rolling his eyes.

"Good," Katsue said, relieved, but she returned to her computer without answering the question.

Mr Ishida looked up finally and decided to answer instead. "We've found that the gift from Tako may have more information on it than we thought, but we need a password. The file was protected on Arnold's drive, and it's protected here too. What happened to my son?"

I was caught off guard by his question, because he'd asked it so casually. "I—he, well..." My voice faltered and I cleared my throat. "Neo was shot, Sora and Yamato took him and Gomamon to the Digital World and that's all we know."

"They were followed by hideous creatures, and Director Arnold," Evelen helpfully filled in.

"And that," I added awkwardly.

" _What?_ " Natsuni asked sharply, looking right up at me. "How? What?"

Evelen reached into the bag she had around her shoulder and she pulled out the strange round device. "This can take you to the Digital World." Momoe moved quickly to get her hands on the machine, but Evelen pulled it sharply away from her. "But," she added with a clear voice, stopping Momoe in her tracks, "I don't really know how to use it. Your friend Sora and I simply pushed all the buttons we could find, and it worked."

"Do it again," Momoe demanded.

"Momoe," Mantarou said gently, "Keep in mind that there is a virus in the Digital World, if we were to open the gate in the wrong place, we would all _die._ " Even Momoe seemed to understand how dangerous that could be, and when she reached for the machine again, her expression was much less frantic. She was going to be careful with it now, and Evelen seemed to realize that, and she handed Momoe the device.

Evelen, Momoe and Mantarou moved off to start working on that, leaving me a free chair between Natsuni and Chiziru. I slipped into it without hesitation and Chi leaned against the counter to look down at Natsuni's work. "So you're trying to find Arnold's password," he said, reading down the list. Natsuni's list consisted of names and dates, while Chiziru's list was essentially the basic passwords everyone used.

"You should know that they're also intending to use their radar to locate all digimon on Earth," I told Katsue who had Monimon sitting on the counter next to her.

She looked sharply toward her partner who had panic written across his face—literally. "Oh no!" he exclaimed. "I don't want to die!"

"We won't let it happen," Katsue assured him. "I care too much to let you die." Monimon beamed up at her and she patted his head, and then everyone returned to their work.

I watched as Mr Ishida typed in random ideas every time one popped into his head, trying to solve the password issue. "Have you tried his name," I scoffed sarcastically. "He's pretty arrogant." Mr Ishida began typing, not hearing my sarcasm—or not caring and being open to trying anything at all. "Have you tried just hacking into it?"

"Yes," Katsue said, looking up in a panic as if someone was about to do something horrible, she looked around and saw that everyone was still again. "We nearly destroyed the file in our attempt. It's not safe."

"Okay," Chi said. "We'll just find the password then."

"It's not that easy," Natsuni warned him.

"Try, 'me'," I said, sarcastic again. Once more Mr Ishida typed the password in. "What about 'EVOLVE' or 'DWD' or his birthday, or—oh! What about 'Behemoth'?" Chi clapped his hands against the counter at that one, agreeing that it would be a good attempt. Mr Ishida typed away, but his face fell when it hadn't worked.

I thought back to everything I'd ever known about Arnold, because there had to be something in his past that could give his password away. After all of my research on him I knew he was born January 14th 1980 to a happy Christian family. His parents died, and he used the money he received from health insurance to pay for university and then started working at some mysterious place, which I knew was with the government, in the late nineties... then he worked his way to the top and was now in charge.

None of that was helpful, but I began firing of his parents names and Chi helped out with their birth dates, and then we both started listing off Christian figures, but none of them were correct.

And then an idea shot straight into the front of my mind, and I reached for Mr Ishida's computer and was immediately searching the internet. No one objected, but all eyes were suddenly on me, and I could only hope this was right. It would be pretty embarrassing if it wasn't. I couldn't remember the name of the man I was searching for. I needed to find the obituary of Willis' old boss.

"I don't understand," Natsuni said, reading the screen. "What are you looking for?"

"Arnold is just sick enough to think this way," I explained, opening the file and reading the name. "'George Adams'" I read aloud. "The man who died inexplicably, forcing Arnold into his role in charge of his office. Willis told me that everyone suspected Arnold of killing him. He's twisted enough to be thankful for this man's death, but human enough to be guilty about it, surely." I opened the locked file and clicked where it was asking for a password, and I typed in the name.

My finger hesitated above the enter button nervously, and Chiziru ended up pushing it for me. There was a moment of waiting as the little spinning bar loaded and then finally the bar turned green and the file opened. Natsuni let out a triumphant yell of excitement that washed right through me.

"Brilliant!" Chiziru squealed, patting me on the back as Mr Ishida tore the computer away from me, too anxious to find out what was inside. We all watched as Mr Ishida stared at the screen, scrolling through what we had discovered. Katsue was leaning over to get a good look at it as well, but the rest of us simply waited for them to finish. When it seemed to be taking too long for Chiziru's liking she finally spoke up. "What is it?"

Mr Ishida looked up to us and seemed speechless, "There's a lot," he said finally. He looked to Katsue and she seemed to agree that it was the best way to sum it up. "I'm sure we can use this too."

"Damn right we can," Katsue said, taking the memory stick right out of his computer and plugging it into her own. "I've got some editing to do."

The rest of us kind of backed away to make room for the Teenage Wolves who had become Katsue's little sidekicks and knew more about editing than the rest of us. Yutaka seemed to be really having fun with it, and the optimism that was building up in the others was enough to set us all over the edge. I was practically rocking back and forth, desperate to know what it was that we had found. Momoe, Mantarou and Evelen were working away with the world splitting device and arguing about whether or not they should take it apart to understand it first, but Momoe was adamant about keeping it together in case they couldn't piece it together properly.

After about a dozen reminders to Katsue that the blocked signal could easily be blocked again if they didn't finish faster, she finally seemed to understand the urgency and she finished up what she was working on. "Post it!" she demanded of someone who knew what they were doing. Mr Ishida stepped up and began typing away. I didn't think it was wise to be sending it from our exact location, but no one seemed to listen anymore. They were too excited.

I was too.

Finally, Mr Ishida stepped back and the laptop began playing the feed. Everyone in the room silenced and we stared, captivated by the video that was soon to be playing across all televisions in the area.

The video started with the usual opening sequence of Monochromon eating in the Digital World, and then of Garurumon peacefully playing with a Kapurimon that had been lost in the woods, with the soft acoustic version of one of the Teenage Wolves songs playing in the background.

And then it opened to Katsue's voice over a black screen. _"Today, the Digital Man is unable to speak to you all because he may be in serious danger. I, the Director, will be taking his place, until further notice._ " The blackness faded away to video footage of Biyomon attacking the man at the fashion show. _"I am sure you are all familiar with this footage, trying to paint this digimon as cruel. Now, watch what happened moments before this incident."_ The man was back, this time reaching for Hikari and pulling her to the ground where she smashed her head against the stage of the fashion show. Then he was hitting Sora with the stick he had brought with him, and later was trying to get to the baby sleeping in a bundle of clothes. _"Here you will see this bird digimon defending her friends, and this_ infant _that this horrible man attempted to harm. Are you all still sure he should have been let out of prison so easily?"_

It was clearly thrown together last minute, but it was sure to get the point across anyway.

" _Here you will see documented proof, signed by one Benjamin Arnold,"_ Katsue said as a photo of some kind of printed form came onto the screen. _"He knew that the weapons they had been creating were able to harm humans as well."_ Katsue's voice faded and a poor quality sound recording began to play instead.

" _EVOLVE,"_ Arnold's voice came. _"Everyone in their right mind knows I'm involved with them._ _I'm not ashamed of my involvement in such a prestigious and revolutionary movement."_ This was from the footage Katsue had recorded from inside Arnold's base!

" _Revolutionary, you say?"_ Katsue asked _. "I heard their goal was actually mass genocide. What do you say about those rumours?"_

" _They are vastly exaggerated,"_ Arnold dismissed.

" _And what of the two women that were hurt by a certain officer within the EVOLVE ranks? Jun Motomiya and Noriko Kawada,"_ Katsue pressed.

" _Yes, well, she would be fine if she hadn't jumped in the gun's trajectory. It was her fault."_ Arnold replied disgustingly.

" _You see, these rumours also state that you sent out a mass virus designed to destroy all life in its path, knowingly sending towards a mass of humans, therefore taking the lives of upwards of fifty people. What do you have to say to those allegations?"_ Katsue really was a decent reporter.

" _Yes!"_ Arnold snapped. I snorted, which seemed disrespectful and probably was, but I knew the recording pretty well, and I knew that Katsue was taking what she needed from it. Arnold would never have his own version of the recording and could never prove that this wasn't the exact conversation. It was sly, it was underhanded, but he deserved it. _"Of course we did. Everyone that lived there was scum, monstrosities that needed to be eradicated! The world needed to be destroyed._ "

" _As you can tell,"_ Katsue's voice was back. _"Arnold is cruel and spiteful. He wants only destruction and hate to fill the hearts of those on both planets. Are you sure you want to stand behind that? In addition to this, Arnold then invited me to his basement in attempts to have me killed."_

There was footage on the screen suddenly of the monsters in his basement. I was on the screen and I felt my face flush. I didn't want to be shown to all those people—and even if I did, I wouldn't want them to know that I'd broken into his workplace... But the footage was genius. Arnold shoved Sora and Yamato in with his Behemoth, and then he shot Neo. There was even footage of Willis being locked in the cage, and of Mari coming in to rescue him.

" _These creatures Arnold has created are not humane,"_ Katsue said sharply. _"But only because they are lead by a horrible man. He intends to rid the world of digimon, just to replace them with beings that obey his every command. Just like a certain chief of police Sakana Moretsuna. He obeyed Arnold's every command, including those that involved manslaughter."_

This footage was probably the worst that there had been so far, and I could barely make out what I was seeing, but it soon became clear as Noriko stepped in front of her partner before being _shot_ by the police officer who claimed to be protecting her kind. Then the footage changed to that of another store's security and Moretsuna was back, aiming his glimmering gun directly toward Miyako's stomach.

" _Arnold would have anyone that stood in his way taken out,"_ Katsue said from the monitor. _"He wants all those who fight for equality and goodness to be wiped from existence entirely."_ The footage was of Mari's parents suddenly picketing some kind of social rights group. _"You can either stand behind him and his barbaric ways of creating a peace that does not exist, or you can fight against him and stand up for what I know that_ you _know is right."_ There was a pause and the video shifted to some more peaceful digimon out in a field. _"This has been a broadcast from the Digital Man and his followers. We will be back with more information shortly. And thank you for your support._ "

The video then ended with our symbol, which was just a blue digivice on a black backdrop. "See what I did there," Katsue said proudly. "I thanked them for their support which makes everyone think they're already helping which is going to make them do more. Ha! If Arnold wants to manipulate people, I'll do it right back."

Natsuni tackled her into a hug. "While I don't agree with your methods and I find you highly aggressive, I'm so happy you're here to make these things!" Katsue seemed confused momentarily but decided she was pleased with the compliment and hugged Natsuni back.

 _ **Taichi Yagami:**_

"SORA!" Biyomon screamed as she flew towards the figure that was emerging from the split in reality. As the form got bigger, it became obvious to us that it wasn't _just_ Sora. Neo's arm was draped over her shoulder, his other arm over Yamato's, as they dragged him between them. I frowned, and Dracomon rushed forward to see what was wrong. Gabumon and Jou both raced ahead as well, having caught sight of their partners. I grinned at the sight of Yamato carrying Gomamon under his free arm.

But that grin was short lived.

There was blood staining a large portion of Neo's shirt, and none of them shared their partners' excitement. They all looked afraid. It didn't take long to figure out just why that was. They weren't the only ones that came through that portal. Deformed beasts followed after them. There were large ones, the largest looking like a bear crossed with an alligator, and there were small ones too. A fluffy one that had no eyes let out sharp, high shrieks as it chased after our friend, and was followed by a long, thin snake-like fox creature that's eyes glinted at the sight of the large collection of us. We were new prey, and he looked very hungry. Each creature was a mix of purple and black. A tiny, furry creature with big, black, beady eyes rode on the head of a two headed bird that looked like it was meant to be an ostrich, but somehow its DNA got mixed with that of a velociraptor. A large cross of a gorilla and a moose picked up the fluffy one without eyes and threw it ahead of Sora and the others. It crashed down on top of Dracomon, who had panicked, and stopped moving at the sight of them.

"Dracomon!" Warg shouted, appalled.

"We'll save you," Melga assured him as the pair raced forward. Warg let out a Pepper Breath, to match Megla's Blue Blaster, but Fluffy jumped over their attacks and shrieked like a banshee so loudly that it actually brought them to their knees. It almost brought _me_ to mine, but I was too far away for it to be quite so potent. Warg, Melga and Dracomon were all not so lucky. Sora and Yamato nearly went down too. Sheer force of will to protect Gomamon and Neo kept them moving.

Biyomon, still flying at Sora changed her course and flew over Sora's head instead, glowing brightly as she digivolved into Birdramon in one quick, seamless motion. Birdramon's great, fiery wings beat through the air powerfully, and she bellowed "Meteor Wing!" as she unleashed a barrage of small, flaming meteors that crashed loudly into the ground at the monsters' feet.

The monsters were distracted, working to protect themselves from Birdramon's quick thinking, and that left Sora and Yamato to bring the others towards relative safety. Gatomon and Tentomon flocked over to Sora, excited to see her, and Jou took Gomamon out of Yamato's arms just in time for Yamato to be knocked over by Gabumon. Patamon flew excitedly around Yamato's head. Agumon ran for him too. I would have, but I was too distracted by the sight of Neo's shirt. I heard Mari hiss and I knew that was where she was looking too. It looked bad. Really bad. Jou needed to look at it, because I didn't know how much longer Neo would be able to remain conscious without it being treated. As it was, he was slurring something. The words were all mangled, but I figured it had something to do with Dracomon—who was still out there with Warg and Melga at the mercy of Fluffy.

"Agumon," I called, but Yamato was faster.

"Gabumon, time to digivolve," he told his partner. Gabumon looked like Christmas had come early. I figured he'd thought he was never going to get to hear those words again. I might've spent more time being happy for the little guy if three of our digimon weren't being beaten by an overgrown pompom. Gabumon reached out and squeezed Yamato's hand before he started racing forward, digivolving on the fly just as Biyomon had. He started glowing and shifting, falling forward onto four legs as he grew in size. Yamato didn't waste any time, and started running after him, despite Patamon's calls for him to _not_ be stupid. Garurumon was in front of him, and he jumped up onto the wolf's back even as the wolf continued forward. It was quite impressive considering he'd been out of the game for the last two months.

"I can't let him have all the fun," Sora joked, before looking to Daisuke. "Give me a boost?"

Daisuke was confused, but latched his hands together. I took Neo's arm from her and propped him up against myself, as Sora put her foot on his hands and launched herself up into the air, using him as a stand until Birdramon flew over. Sora wrapped her arms around her partner's giant claw, and lifted herself into the air, contorting herself until she managed to get up into position seated on Birdramon's enormous claws. Sora leaned back and shouted out to Birdramon.

"Am I ever glad to see you," she called up with a teary eyed grin.

"I missed you Sora," Birdramon cried loudly, as they flew off towards the monsters again, sending down a rain of fire, as Birdramon used her Fire Flapping technique. The monsters screamed again, and I was getting a little more excited about our prospects of winning.

It seemed like forever since the last time we'd had a fight on our hands. But even now we weren't fighting against digimon. It felt strange to me, and Miyako's revelation was brought to mind. It shouldn't feel necessary for us to fight against digimon. It was so common place, and it really shouldn't be. She was right, but right now, I didn't know if we'd really get the chance to find out if these could be redeemed or not. I didn't know if they had functioning brains even. It would feel wrong to fight against something or someone that didn't understand what was going on. It felt like fighting against a child. I winced at the thought. Did that make us any better than any of our old foes? They'd fought against us when we didn't know anything either. I'd been eleven, pretending I could lead my friends in a glorious quest to save the world. I was way over my head. Even now I was over my head.

"Gomamon," Jou cried. "I don't _want_ you to fight. I just got you back."

"I know, Jou," Gomamon said, looking sad at the thought of fighting himself. Jou was holding him closely to his chest, and didn't seem likely to let go of his partner any time soon. Gomamon shouldn't have expected any differently. The pair of them had been separated longer than most. Gomamon had been legitimately kidnapped by the DWD—or EVOLVE, I supposed—and we'd pretty much given up hope that he'd ever make it back. "I gotta do it though. Think about the others. We got to see each other again. I gotta fight to make sure the others get that same chance."

"Don't you dare get hurt," Jou ordered, giving in. He knew he couldn't control Gomamon, no matter how much he desperately wished that he never had to let go of him again. "It's Emiko's birthday tomorrow and you can't miss it."

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," Gomamon said. "Do you think I can be my own present, or is she gonna want a toy or something. I'm afraid I don't have one of those on fin. Get it? 'Cause I don't have any hands? HA!"

Jou let out a strangled sigh, "Gomamon..." he said, shaking his head, but the grin on his face betrayed him. Gomamon raced out into the fray, heading towards Dracomon, Warg and Melga who were being assisted by Yamato and Garurumon. Jou watched him for a few minutes before impulse got the better of him. He shook his head and followed after his partner, unwilling to be separated after having just been reunited.

"You'll never take us alive!" Warg shouted excitedly, as he fought against the tiny, furry monster with the beady eyes. "Let's see how you fare against my Claw Attack!" He started swiping wildly with his claws, scaring the monster backwards...right into Melga's path.

"Keep your monster under control," Melga scolded Warg. "I've got one of my own to deal with!"

Melga was trying to wrestle with the alligator-bear, and was _not_ making any headway at all, even with Dracomon at his side. Melga's Horn Attack was paired with Dracomon's Tail Smash, but all it served to accomplish was to tick the alligator-bear off. It snapped its enormous jaw at them, and they dived to the ground out of the way. Veemon ran head on towards it, glowing as he did so, shouting out as he transformed himself, " **ExVeemon!** " " **AeroVeedramon!** " " **UlforceVeedramon!** " By the time he finished transforming, he was within striking distance, and he struck the alligator-bear with his saber, knocking it off its feet. The creature slammed into the ground, and Hawkmon flew overhead, dropping Terriermon down on it.

"Terrier Tornado!" Terriermon shouted, as he spun his ears around, creating a tiny wind storm that slowed his descent onto the monster. When he got within range, he shouted out "Bunny Blast!" as he shot a condensed ball of hot air into the monster's face. The alligator-bear was annoyed, and swatted Terriermon out of the way, sending the tiny _dog_ digimon crashing to the ground, where he rolled into the middle of a battle between Gatomon and a large octopus-crab. The monster wrapped one of its giant tentacles around Terriermon, lifting him up into the air. "Hey, lemme go!"

"I've got ya," Gatomon promised, diving forward with her claws extended. "Lightning Claw!" she shouted, slashing at the tentacle, causing the beast to drop Terriermon. Terriermon scrambled to his feet and let out another Bunny Blast, again not accomplishing much. Hot air wasn't going to get him far in this fight, but he was determined to contribute.

Patamon had made the same decision, and was fighting side by side with Garurumon. "You get that one," he suggested to the large wolf. They were fighting against a monstrous lizard with far too many sharp teeth. "I'll get the next one." The next one turned out to be some sort of skeleton-fish hybrid with wings, and Patamon unleashed the biggest Boom Bubble that I'd ever seen him let out, but all it managed was to turn the fish's attention onto him. And that fish turned out to be a piranha. He let out a howl, as he flew away from the fish's teeth. The fish followed after him, and was lead far away from Garurumon and Yamato. Patamon kept flying until Jou launched Gomamon into the air at the fish. Gomamon wrapped his limbs around it and its wings and the pair crashed down onto the ground, where they rolled to a stop.

"Oh, I wish I could call my fishes," Gomamon growled. "Maybe you'd learn how a _real_ fish acts. But for now I guess I gotta settle with my Claw Attack!" He started swiping at the fish, but the fish continued to flutter backwards, escaping Gomamon's claws.

"Beautiful, darlings," a man's voice called. I nearly dropped Neo in my quest to find him. Neo groaned painfully, and I tried to pay more attention to him and less to the battle going on around us. But it was so hard to do when a monster could jump on us at any given moment.

"YOU!" Sora screamed. "What're you doing here?"

"I had to see my children accomplish their orders, did I not?" the man asked, smiling at the many rookie digimon that were struggling against their foes. I couldn't see Agumon in the bunch yet. I was trusting in his skills, assuming nothing bad had happened yet, because I couldn't exactly get out there to find him. I was holding Neo. Neo who was injured… _was that a bullet wound_? My mind reeled. What exactly had been happening on Earth? I tried not to jostle Neo, as I looked for Jou. He really needed to get back here. What if the bullet was still in there? I didn't know anything about taking them out. Were you even supposed to remove them without surgery? They did it in the movies, but that didn't mean anything.

"You're a sick man, Arnold," Yamato growled. "Call off your beasts. You're not going to win."

"On the contrary," the man—Arnold—said, holding his hand out beside him. A beast with a long, narrow snout full of pointy teeth moved towards him, rubbing his head against Arnold's outstretched hand. A long, slippery tongue fell out of its mouth as its golden eyes scanned the Temple square hungrily. "With Behemoth on my side, I can never lose."

"We'll see about that," Mari snapped at him angrily. Her voice was so hostile, I was taken aback. I'd heard her angry before, but this was a new level. I realized that she knew him from somewhere, and when I took the time to try and piece it together, I guessed that this was Willis' boss. This was the man that used Willis' designs for Diaboramon to make a collection of creatures even _worse_ than Diaboramon. I tried to lift Neo higher without hurting him. I was pretty sure that this Arnold guy knew what he was talking about. I wasn't about to flee, but if it came down to that, I needed to be ready.

I needed to know where everyone was too. I couldn't leave anyone behind. I wanted each and every one of them to have their chance at a reunion. Daisuke and Kurayami had their son back at the Coliseum waiting for them, and Emiko, Bearmon and Monmon would want to see Gomamon and Jou again—not to mention Momoe on Earth. I wasn't going to keep their families from reuniting. I wanted to see Hikari again, and I would make damn sure I would get that chance before Arnold got one of his beasts to do me in. I held less hope that Rei was still out there, but on the off chance she was, it would be sort of nice to have the chance to see her again too.

Arnold wasn't going to take anything more from us then he already had.

Wormmon was climbing up the Temple wall, spitting out his Sticky Net, trying to coat a monster in enough of it to keep him from advancing further on Betamon and Armadillomon, who it had backed into a corner. Betamon looked terrified, but Armadillomon was trying to remain calm. When the beast was blinded by Wormmon's attacks, Armadillomon rolled tightly into a ball and shot out at the beast, slamming into him with his impenetrable shell, knocking the thing onto the ground. I couldn't figure out what it was meant to be. It didn't matter though. It was stuck in webbing and on the ground. It would be awhile before any of us had to worry about it again.

"Behemoth, it's time to feed," Arnold announced, and I held tighter to Neo.

"Urgh," Neo groaned. I winced, but I wasn't going to let him go.

"Let us rid the world once and for all of those meddlesome digidestined and their digimon pets," Arnold said as though the thought alone was delicious. Murder and mayhem weren't delicious. Apple pie and cinnamon buns were delicious. Those other things just made people's skin crawl. That guy needed to get his head back in the real world.

"Digimon aren't pets," Mari snapped. I looked to her this time, and saw that she, Daisuke and Kurayami were standing with Spring. Spring had her hands buried in her hair, and an agonized look on her face. These monsters were throwing off her concentration. She would never be able to get us through to a different world if she couldn't get her mind wrapped around the thought. I was happy to see that Tapirmon and Labramon had joined them, protecting them from the teeth and claws with attacks of their own.

"Nightmare Syndrome!" Tapirmon shouted, unleashing a collection of nightmares on the unsuspecting monsters. While they were distracted, Labramon raced forward and scratched at them. He sunk his teeth into a leg, but spit it out quickly, repulsed by the taste. Kurayami reached down and patted her partner's head, and he perked back up, getting his second wind.

"Electro Shocker!" Tentomon called, catching my attention. He was fighting alongside Birdramon, like he always did. He seemed to be in his element, and had obviously missed the camaraderie the two shared when they were fighting. They were effortless, knowing each other's intentions before they put their plans in action. I supposed it was a side effect of combining their data into one powerful fighting source. Koushiro and Sora really liked fighting with a combined digimon partner. Eaglemon came out to play more often than just about any of the other fused forms.

"Incoming," Birdramon announced as she swooped down and grabbed Behemoth with one claw—obviously the one without Sora—before chucking him into the air. Behemoth flew through the air, so close to the barrier's limit. My heart stopped, and I thought for a moment about what might happen if _only_ he'd been thrown a little higher. But I shook the thought from my mind. Miyako was right. We couldn't just kill things willy-nilly. Had Behemoth done anything yet, or was he just acting on his master's orders? I couldn't be sure, and I didn't want to make any rash decisions. It wasn't like fighting a digimon opponent. They wouldn't come back. We couldn't make mistakes. These ones couldn't be undone.

Morestuna was already dead, did we really need to add any more deaths to our tally?

No.

Not unless they did something to us first, where it was either _that_ or be killed ourselves. We couldn't stoop to Arnold or Morestuna's levels.

Speaking of Arnold, he was just standing there, smiling maliciously in Mari's general direction, which was really creepy. I kind of wanted to punch that stupid look of his face—and I thought for sure Mari was going to do it, but she stayed where she was, protecting Spring. It was probably a good decision, but at the same time, I really wanted to see her smack him around a little bit.

Beating him up totally didn't count as stooping to his level.

It just didn't.

I couldn't limit myself _that_ far. I couldn't keep the digimon from wanting revenge. I could just limit the extent of that revenge. It sounded better in my head than flat out killing the guy. He wouldn't have to face any justice if we killed him. If we did this right, if we played by the books and kept the casualties we'd caused to an absolute minimum—like, hopefully only Morestuna—we could probably turn the political situation around. We could sway the public onto our side. We'd killed once in self-defense—I was assuming, I mean, Kurayami still hadn't explained the circumstances surrounding his death, but I assumed that's what it was.

Behemoth landed directly in Garurumon's path. Garurumon snarled, and moved to send a Howling Blaster at the creature, but Behemoth was a lot faster than I think _anybody_ anticipated. He darted forward and sunk his large collection of teeth into Garurumon's leg, turning his head so that Garurumon went down, sending Yamato toppling to the ground. Garurumon glowed, and reverted to his rookie state. Gabumon, gripping his injured leg, looked to see Yamato was still on the ground. He wasn't about to let Behemoth get his partner, but I couldn't watch as Gabumon struggled to his feet and send a Blue Blaster Behemoth's direction. Behemoth seemed amused as he sauntered forward to kill Gabumon.

"Gabumon, run!" Yamato shouted, as he forced himself into a seated position. Gabumon glanced at Yamato who was still too close to the beast for comfort, and shook his head. He wasn't going to leave Yamato at the mercy of the monster—not that he would've been able to get very far even if he _did_ try to follow Yamato's advice. He was hurt.

"Poison Ivy!" Palmon screamed. I saw her launch Agumon into the air using her long vines. Agumon let out a loud whoop as he fell towards the creature. I felt my digivice warm up in my pocket and knew he was about to warp digivolve. Those digivolutions felt different, heating the digivices up and making them vibrate. The glow that encompassed Agumon was brighter than a typical digivolution too.

" **Agumon warp digivolve to… WarGreymon!** "

WarGreymon, still on his downward quest held his claws out in front of him, and started turning until he formed the perfect spiral. Behemoth seemed to realize the raw power my partner held within him, and jumped out of the way before WarGreymon could reach the ground.

"Fall back!" Daisuke called. I wanted to point out that there wasn't much of a point _where_ we were. We had to stay within the barrier, but I'd given the reigns over to him. And as much as I hated to admit being wrong, I realized his reasoning pretty quickly. The monsters were getting too close to Spring still, and she had started screaming—just one long, loud, high-pitched, continuous scream. Her mind was wild, and she needed something that could stabilize it.

"Look out!" Mari shouted, running at me. I was confused, and shifted Neo again, thinking _that_ was what she was yelling at me about. Neo just moaned again, and I sighed. Mari was still coming though, and I closed my eyes, not wanting to know what it was that was waiting behind me. But I couldn't just stand here doing nothing—even if my hands _were_ full with Neo. I turned around and saw a long, narrow monster that looked like a cross between a snake and a fox. It had snake fangs within its fox mouth, and it had its head reared back, ready to snap at me.

I cursed myself for focussing on everything except my own back. I'd really screwed Neo over on this one. I prepared to drop him to the ground before the fox-snake could bite him, but Mari arrived, slamming her heel into the monster's side. It slinked back a few feet, and Mari was yelling at me.

"Get a move on!" she shouted. "I didn't save you just to become that thing's lunch. Go, go, GO!"

I followed her instructions, and sort of dragged Neo with me. Daisuke and Kurayami moved aside for the three of us when we reached the barricade surrounding Spring. UlforceVeedramon had arrived already, clearly trying to lead by example. Labramon had joined too, though he wasn't Labramon anymore. He was Seasarmon.

"Neo!" Dracomon cried, flying at us from nowhere. I had just lowered him to the ground when Dracomon arrived. He leaned over his partner, and cried softly at the sight of all the blood. I got to my feet, letting Dracomon fret over him while I tried to figure out just where the hell Jou was hiding. I spotted him, trying to get Gomamon, Terriermon and Betamon over to the barricade. Betamon was having trouble keeping up with the others, and Jou picked him up, which caused Gomamon to complain, so he picked _him_ up too, and then Terriermon wanted a ride, so he hopped onto Jou's head. The two headed, dinosaur faced bird decided they'd be an easy target, and I shouted out to warn him. But he couldn't hear me over the dinosaur-bird's squawking. He was a sitting duck—and now that I didn't have Neo on my hands, I was moving forward to save him.

Jou was one of—if not _the_ —most important people we had among us right then. He was the doctor. He was the only one with any sort of medical knowledge. I couldn't risk losing him. Not with Neo as bad as he was. I was at the front line, ready to shove my way back out into the fray, but saw that I didn't need to. Armadillomon had seen it, and was causing a distraction for the thing by repeatedly knocking into his long, spindly legs. Eventually, Armadillomon was able to use enough force to knock it off its feet. Then Armadillomon joined Jou, circling around him until he made it to the circle.

I felt sort of useless, but I couldn't exactly take a page from Yamato or Sora's books. WarGreymon wasn't all that big. I didn't want to weigh him down. He was needed in this fight. He was still facing off against Behemoth—Behemoth just didn't like the idea, and wouldn't sit still long enough for WarGreymon to get a good shot in.

Warg and Melga were fighting an overgrown insect with a bird's wings. It also happened to have incredibly sharp pincers on its face. Melga wasn't fast enough when jumping out of the way, and went down. The insect refused to let go of its hold on Melga's leg. Warg wasn't happy at all. He let loose a Pepper Breath, and the insect released his partner in crime—only to turn his attention onto him.

"Oh no!" Tapirmon gasped at my side. He, Gatomon and Palmon were standing as a part of the barricade with Kurayami, Daisuke and their digimon. I supposed I was technically a part of it now too, but I didn't feel like it. Tapirmon wanted to rush forward, but I held my hand out to stop him. He glared at me, but Patamon was already on his way.

Unfortunately, Patamon's Boom Bubble was still pretty much useless.

The insect knocked Patamon onto the ground, and into Melga, who was struggling to move out of the way before anyone else could attack. The only problem with that, was that they were the only small fries still out there. Wormmon and Hawkmon had arrived together, just seconds before. Sora and Birdramon were collecting Gabumon so they could deposit him over in the barricade, where he could get a chance to catch his breath. Yamato was yelling at Arnold, who continued to try and call one of his monsters forward to eat Yamato, just so that he could be rid of him, but Tentomon was always there to deliver a shocking surprise to any that attempted it. WarGreymon was still trying his hardest to kick Behemoth's butt—to no avail.

There was no one ready to save them.

Once again, I got ready to run to them. I actually _started_ running, but I wasn't the only one, and not the closest by far. Kurayami ran out to get them. Daisuke and Seasarmon shouted after her.

"Are you insane?" Daisuke wanted to know.

"Be careful!" Seasarmon urged.

Kurayami reached them before the general population of manmade monsters decided to converge on them. She got Melga up, and was reaching for Patamon when Warg let out a terrified squeak. She looked up, and her eyes widened. Seasarmon _and_ UlforceVeedramon started to break formation, which would leave Spring wide open. Spring seemed to be doing better, but it wouldn't matter if she found the new world if we couldn't get all of our friends to safety.

"AHHHH!" Kurayami screamed, dropping to her knees. A darkness surrounded her, and she continued to scream. Then she looked up, eyes wide open and clear as day. Her face was pale and I could see thin red veins stretched across her cheeks, but she looked calm. She reached out with the darkness using it as though it were a dozen extra arms. She scooped the beasts into the air, wrapping her darkness around them like phantom tentacles, and she threw them into a pile in the corner of the Temple marketplace—not too far from Veemon's standard noodle-selling location.

"You need to put pressure there," Jou called loudly, I heard Dracomon sniffling, refusing to hurt Neo by putting the pressure on the wound. "Mari? Taichi? Can I get a little help?"

I fell back, putting my hands exactly where Jou wanted them to be as I watched over Gatomon's head as Kurayami completely owned the monsters with her freaky darkness powers. I'd actually figured they had been an extension of Fanlgongmon's powers, but it appeared that they belonged to Kurayami herself. It wasn't _too_ strange though. She'd been born in the Dark Ocean, and been gifted with the power of darkness—not _just_ the crest—just as Hikari had been given the power of light. My sister actually lit up like light bulb sometimes. Being able to do _this_ was much cooler—and much more useful.

Kurayami stopped screaming and started to laugh instead. It wasn't a chilly laugh, it was bright and happy. I might've been concerned for a second or more, because of the sheer _joy_ that was coming out of her mouth after utilizing her darkness, but she really seemed like she had it under control.

"A witch!" Arnold screamed, furiously. "How _dare_ you flaunt your demon powers against my children? The digidestined are meant to be pushovers. When did you develop abilities of your own? This isn't right. Children, fight harder. If you want to eat, hunt down your meal!"

His words might've been a decent motivation for his monsters, but they were too thoroughly wrapped up in Kuayami's darkness to be able to move. Kurayami stared at them with a smile on her face. Seasarmon started glowing and digivolved into Cerberumon. It was rather symbolic really, as Kurayami had finally found a way to embrace her crest as she once had. She wasn't afraid anymore. It was kind of amazing. Her hair was dancing wildly around her face, and she looked very much at ease. Daisuke tried to say something to her a couple of times, but the words never quite made it out. He took a deep breath though, and tried again.

"You okay?" Davis called tentatively.

"I'm kind of Superwoman right now," Kurayami said breathily, like she couldn't believe it was happening. "I just used darkness for good. I'm not inherently evil."

"I never thought you were," Daisuke assured her, in awe of his amazing wife.

"I know," she said nodding. "But I needed to prove that to myself."

"But you got there?" he clarified.

"We'll see," she said, and she turned to smile at him. He grinned back and it was all a very touching moment—or it would have been, if we weren't in the middle of being attacked by a collection of monsters that this man decided to piece together in his spare time. No, it was worse than that, because this guy actually got _paid_ to create these abominations. They weren't digimon, they weren't animals. They weren't anything, except bloodthirsty.

"I can do it," Spring announced. "I've breached the barrier between the worlds."

"Then let's get going," Daisuke suggested. He was still happy over his wife's declaration. Spring shook her head though. "What's wrong?"

"This world isn't all that I'd imagined," she whispered, but I still heard her. She was actually a terrible listener. "It is empty. Your friend needs medical attention. Can we really risk taking this journey without knowing what we'll find on the other side?"

"Then don't send _us_ ," I suggested. "If this world is as empty as you think, it won't hurt anybody." It wasn't until after I'd spoken that I realized I'd been eavesdropping. Spring sent me a disapproving look, but she also winked at me. I was kind of getting mixed messages from her.

"If my beasts can't get you, I'll do it myself," Arnold snarled, as he took off at a run towards Kurayami. She was too wrapped up in restraining Arnolds monster to be able to do anything. Patamon fluttered forward to send another Boom Bubble out, this time aimed at Arnold. It had more of an effect against Arnold than any of his creatures, but he didn't stop. He tackled Kurayami to the ground, and we all let out a startled gasp as the darkness disappeared in her moment of shock. The monsters were free once again, and Kurayami was fighting off Arnold on her own.

"Send them away," I ordered to Spring. "NOW."

"Okay," she said with a shaky voice. But as she was preparing her magic for their transportation, the flying skeleton-fish flew over the barricade and attacked Spring. She screamed, flailing her arms around, and then things got a little strange.

I knew right away that she'd messed up her spell. The beasts were disappearing, but so were my friends. Cerberumon, Gabumon, Birdramon, Sora, they all disappeared one at a time, until there weren't any left, aside from Neo—whose wound I was still applying pressure to—Spring, WarGreymon and myself. Jou had even disappeared. But then WarGreymon left to join the others, and then Neo. I shared a look with Spring, but lost sight of her after only a second.

I couldn't see much of anything, actually.

It was just an endless sea of white.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Michael is Enchanted in Sidhendor, as he starts the next arc, between Sidhendor and the Dark Ocean. (With also Cody?)


	27. Enchanted

**Y/N:** This arc was probably my favourite to write. The Dark Ocean was different, and while it _should_ have been my least favourite, since it's just so unlikeable, but I really enjoyed it. I wrote it all in one fell swoop of course, which probably helped matters.

 **U/N:** So here we start the next arc and I'm just Michael and Tatum here, so my sister carries the rest of the arc. Which is unfortunate because it was fun to write in this world. I mean, I didn't get to do anything in the Dark Ocean, but she had fun there too. I don't REALLY know what goes on in this chapter, just that it's Michael and that two months have passed since the virus, because we've gone backward to where the last arc began.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Sidhendor and the Dark Ocean**

 **Chapter 27: Enchanted**

 _ **Michael Washington:**_

It had been four full weeks since we'd moved out of that horrible woman's house, the one that had treated me like her servant and forced me to sleep in the ashes. She had treated all of us ridiculously, and even, oddly enough, convinced herself that Mimi and Hideto had been her very own children. Then, when Tatum explained to us that we were living amongst crazy people who thought they were living fairy tales, everything had started to make sense. It became more and more apparent that her theory was true when we walked through town and were able to point out who was living which story. Hideto, for example found himself in the role of 'Jack'. He'd fallen down hills, jumped over candlesticks and even climbed a giant beanstalk.

Essentially we were stuck in a repetitive loop and unless we were careful we would continually be sucked into the desperate hands of those who required us to play pretend with them. Everyone here needed someone else to function properly, and they were unable to think, do or say things on their own accord, so desperate for others approval that they literally read from a script. So basically, it was like my daily life.

The moment we had moved out of that woman's house we had used Hideto's newfound golden eggs to purchase a house outside of the city. Mimi wanted to be close to everything, but when Tatum reminded her that the further we were from the city the less likely it was that we would run into people who wanted to use us as their dolls, Mimi agreed that we should move as far away as possible. But we couldn't go too far. Tatum's only theory was that the Queen was somehow behind what was going on. She was a constant in the stories, but playing roles she was not meant to be playing. So we lived in a nice wooden cabin in the hills a fifteen minute walk from the city. I was scared that maybe the wolf might come and blow our house down and insult us for building such a weak house, but logs weren't sticks, and it seemed that he knew that, as no wolves had shown up just yet.

It was kind of weird to be surrounded by the characters that my parents had read to me while growing up. Tatum and the others kept saying the same thing, but what I don't think any of them realized, and I'd never bothered to tell them, was that my mother lived here too. My mother was born in this world, and proceeded to read me and my sister the stories that took form here, never saying a thing. It was weird. More so when I thought of how I always requested Cinderella, because that was my favourite story, and then the first trap I'd fallen into was that of the evil step-mother.

It was freaky.

The whole thing was freaky.

And so for two full months now we'd been living in this world, doing our best to make the most of the supplies they had for us. For instance, there was no indoor plumbing, so that was gross, but we obviously had to _go_ , so... And we had to bathe in water we brought from our very own water pump, and later boiled over our wood stove.

It was very different from the life I lived back at home, and I'd never realized how much I'd taken for granted, but I didn't even mind this world. I could do with a working toilet, but aside from that, I was enjoying myself. It was where my mother grew up. It was her roots, and her story, and I was learning a lot. Well, okay, nothing about her specifically, but I figured if I could figure out _where_ she grew up, I'd learn more. Tatum had gone shopping for an atlas, but the only maps she found were those that pertained to this particular continent, and it wasn't a large one either. As far as we could tell, there was nothing else in this world aside from what we saw before us.

That could only mean that my mother grew up in the ridiculously large, white stoned castle with all the towers and turrets and flags and guards. My mother's home was towering over me every day, and I wasn't allowed to go see her childhood bedroom, or where she ate dinner, or anything. I wished I could go see more.

But even so, I wasn't letting it get me down! I had two of my closest friends living with me, and also Hideto who I got along with well and my brother's partner digimon. I was having a blast. The others couldn't say the same, but I figured that was because they were focusing too much on the negatives. I mean, yes, Palmon, Warg, Melga, Willis, Terriermon, Monodramon and Betamon were all back in the Digital World. Sure, Koushiro and Kiyoko were gone too. But they had to be alive. Wouldn't it be true that they would have _felt_ if they died? Connections were very real.

At least I hoped they were.

Either way I often thought about how the others were faring without us. For instance, had they gotten rid of the virus? Were they trying to find a way to the other worlds to come find us? Had they destroyed Marshall, the great evil of Earth? We would find out sooner or later I was sure.

We could keep going a little longer at the very least. We'd done it for _four_ weeks on our own so far. Four weeks since we'd moved out of the woman's house. And that was why it was so odd to me that she was standing before me, her arms crossed and her hair pulled back tight, all the while keeping her face looking like she had just smelled something horribly filthy. She was standing amongst the people of the town that I'd gone to. Hideto wanted me to bring back some food for Mimi to cook for dinner, but instead I'd come face to face with possibly the most frustrating of people. Slowly she pulled one hand out and pointed down to her feet and smirked, "Polish my boots, wretch."

"Uhm, no?" I said, confused. She looked offended and started marching toward me, "Do as I say!"

"Look," I said, holding my hands up in defense, nearly hitting her with my basket of groceries. "I'm not your servant anymore. Back away and find someone else to enslave. Eventually their hard work will pay off and once again you'll be left alone with nothing."

I decided to leave it at that, and was off a moment later, heading down the hill toward where I would find our new home. I hummed to myself, bouncing with each step as I looked to the hills, and trees. I could see large colourful birds above, swooping with the strong winds and sighed. The entire world was so tranquil and everything New York never could be. Not to say that I didn't love my own home, but this world was just so different. The sky was clear, never a cloud in sight, which was actually kind of sad, because clouds were often very pretty, but the sky rarely lit up enough to look like a morning sky anyway. At most it became a subtle blue colour before returning to a navy or midnight blue, and yet somehow it always felt like it was day time when the sunlight that came from nowhere in particular shone down on us.

I wondered why my mom left this world at all. It was so calm, and sure the people were crazy, but so were the people of Earth, just differently so.

When I got home I saw Lucy, our money making goose splashing in a puddle in her large pen. There was another egg lying in the mud so I set my basket down and hopped the fence, pulling the gold from the dirt, patting Lucy on the head. "Good girl," I smiled at her, grabbing some food from the back just out of the pen and placing it in her trough. She rushed over excited and began eating.

I heard Hideto inside talking to himself again when I started pushing through the wooden front door and when he spotted me he acknowledged me with his signature eyebrow raise, and silenced his voice. I didn't find it weird that he was talking to himself, because I did it all the time, and he was doing it for a good reason. He was scared he would find himself wrapped up in a fairy tale without his knowledge, so he talked to himself and narrated everything he did just to ensure it would not happen. "Got the food?" He asked.

"Yeah, where's Mimi?" I asked, setting the food on the dining room table. The house wasn't much, but it was enough to keep us all from going insane. The bottom floor was all one large open space with whatever Mimi had found in the market place to decorate it. There was a hideous red and purple rug for the living room with some mildly comfortable chairs surrounding the stone fireplace. The dining room was filled with mismatched wooden furniture, but honestly we weren't too worried about aesthetics. We didn't want to be here long, even though we'd already been here two months...

We were all looking like it too. Even now, just looking at Hideto I could see what this world had done. He had always been thin, but he looked even more so now that we had very little resources. We had all essentially become vegetarians, eating meat only when we could manage to catch a fish or trade with a hunter. Hideto had once found a rabbit and tried to catch it, but Mimi cried, so he let it run off. She didn't want her friends to become rabbit killers—besides, Lopmon sure wouldn't have been happy to know we had eaten a rabbit for dinner. Hideto's skin was greyer now because now that we had enough money he had gone off to buy clothes that fit the world, we all had actually. Hideto's consisted of a thick hood though that he wore over his head at all times. His dark hair was longer now than it had been before, and he'd never bothered to cut it. Not that any of us particularly knew any convenient barber shops to go and get our hair done.

I probably looked like crap too. I hadn't had face wash in such a long time, my face had burned and peeled, and my hair was a constant mess, growing in messy curls, and having only a strange wooden device to brush it with. But at least I didn't look like the grim reaper, wearing Hideto's black clothing. I'd gone for some more presentable green clothing that looked way more regal than Hideto's. It was more fun that way. My mother was a princess here, and I wanted to know what it would be like to be in her shoes, even if I was living in a log cabin as opposed to a giant castle.

As I was putting the groceries away I caught sight of the city in the distance and sighed. It was literal magic that we were seeing, I was sure of it now. The way the city lit up with yellow and orange light was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen, and with the castle towering over it all... I groaned, wishing we could move closer, but knowing it wasn't safe.

"Saw your mom today," I told Hideto as I placed a bag of rice into the cupboard, "She says hi." Hideto looked up with a bemused sort of smirk, but said nothing, "she actually wanted me to polish her shoes."

"Please tell me you didn't," he pleaded.

"No, of course I did." I said, shrugging my shoulders, "They were filthy." He raised one eyebrow and I caved, "Fine, I didn't. But I kind of feel bad for her. She's delusional."

"And horrible," Hideto added, "as far as I can tell, people fall into the roles they are most suited for. You're kind and everyone likes you, so she had to hate you. You were her Cindermichael. And I have long legs, so obviously I feel the need to jump over tiny wax produced flames." I laughed, and he smirked, turning away from the kitchen and bringing the broom to the living room to clean up in there. "Tatum is out again, by the way."

"I don't know why," I sighed, "She isn't going to find anything. The Looking Glass is hidden. It has to be."

"If it even exists in this world," Hideto said. I knew his theory well. My mother and her sisters had created the Looking Glass as a portal between the worlds, and since they all left this place, never to return, why would there have been a Looking Glass here?

"I already told you," I said, countering his theory, "Miyako used the Looking Glass here once to talk to the bitter fairy. Winter. She came back with all kinds of information about the Great Evils. It's here somewhere, we just don't know _where_." Hideto didn't respond immediately, and instead continued cleaning. We had exhausted the conversation over the weeks we'd been here and there was nothing left to add. Not really.

I was back to staring out the window when I'd finished with the groceries, and barely looked up when Lopmon walked through the door, angry. "I lost. _Again_." She complained a lot about losing the races to this turtle who was way slower than she was. Although we'd agreed to not get caught up in any fairy tales, we figured it wasn't hurting Lopmon any to go play in the fable territory by racing a turtle. She simply took a nap and came back later in the day, and it kept her from thinking about Willis or Terriermon. She was taking the separation harder than anybody, even Mimi who still sometimes cried about Palmon. "I'm going to sleep right now. That way, I'll be so rested, I couldn't possibly sleep tomorrow during the race."

"Good luck," Hideto was amused again. Lopmon just didn't seem to understand that no matter what she tried, she was always going to lose. That was what happened on this world. There was no cure to the curse that was the repetitive loop.

As the sky started to turn darker again, Mimi stormed through the door, her green and brown dress was torn straight down the side. "It happened again!" Mimi said loudly. "I was almost _eaten_. I can't go out there alone. I just can't."

"I keep telling you that!" Hideto insisted, rushing to Mimi's side to help her with her hair. She was hyperventilating and on the verge of a panic attack, pulling at the twigs that had caught themselves in her dirty hair. When he managed to get the twigs from her hair she sat down where she stood in the doorway and leaned back against the door, trying not to cry. "Are you okay?"

"I'll _be_ okay," she admitted. "But no! I'm kind of traumatized. That jerk of a wolf nearly got me, and I was wearing _green_. I'm not Little Red Riding Hood if I'm wearing _green_!" Mimi started running her fingers through her matted hair, trying to tame the mess, her eyes squinting harder with frustration all the while.

"What were you doing in the woods, anyway?" I asked her quietly, "You should keep out of there. He won't come for you if you stay in the clearing."

"But what if the Looking Glass is in the trees?" she whined, "I just feel like it is. Something has to be in there! It's so protected by so many things! Wolves, bears, witches..." she began listing everything she'd ever encountered while trekking through the trees when she wasn't supposed to be doing, and was interrupted only when Tatum opened the front door causing Mimi to fall forward a little. She groaned, pulling herself to her feet to make room for Tatum to come inside and then fell to the floor, lying on her stomach by the dining room table. "I'm going to take a nap, right here."

"Be careful," Tatum said nervously, "I just did that very thing."

"Oh no," I joked, "don't sleep!"

Tatum turned on me seriously, "You don't understand." She pulled a chair out from the table and sat down, her head in her hands, "I was so tired. I just wanted to sleep, so I went into a house—I thought it was ours... I found a bed but it was too hard. Then another was too soft. And then I found a perfect bed—it was just like ours from home, but without the bathroom next door... and then I woke up—and—"

"Bears?" Hideto guessed. Tatum nodded. "Okay, it's official. No more running off alone. Apparently everyone is falling asleep in random places and it could be dangerous."

"Does that mean I can't race my friend anymore?" Lopmon asked, swatting a fly from her nose, irritated.

"That's exactly what it means." Hideto was very serious. I was still looking out the window, somewhat paying attention, when I saw a kind woman appear over the top of the hill. She was dressed in a fancy blue robe and was looking at our goose with a kind smile and wide eyes. Her hair was white and clean, and I was jealous. "We can't fall prey to any more of these tales. It's getting more and more dangerous."

I leapt to my feet to answer the door before the lady even bothered knocking. "Hello! Welcome to our home," I said with a great big smile. She seemed really kind, and I wanted her to know that I was kind too. She looked to me though and an unpleasant look crossed her face. Did I look _that_ mangled and horrible? I mean, I knew I looked like crap, but _that_ bad? "What can I help you with?"

"I was just wondering if you were interested in trying my new product," The lady said kindly, reaching into the bag she had brought with her. She held up a golden comb with rubies encrusted into the edges and I nearly died with excitement. "It's a comb made from the finest gold in the land."

"I want it so bad right now," I whined, "how much do you want? I have eggs! I have golden eggs!"

"Michael, who is it?" Tatum asked, pulling the door open wider. Her eyes popped when she saw the comb and she growled at the lady, "We're not interested. Have a nice day." She then slammed the door shut in the lady's face, spinning on the spot. "Michael, we _just_ said to be careful!"

"I just wanted to comb my hair!" I said, flabbergasted. "It was a _comb_ , Tatum!"

"A poisonous comb!" she argued.

"How could you be sure of that?" I asked, annoyed, but it was likely true. Tatum certainly knew these fairy tales more thoroughly than I did myself. The most I really knew was that wolves and step-mothers were bad, and to leave a path of pebbles, rather than bread crumbs, for a bird will eat my bread crumbs and I will be lost.

I learned that the hard way.

"Just promise me to _never_ eat an apple again," Tatum said, very serious, "like, ever."

"Okay," I agreed when I saw how serious she was. I was never fond of the Snow White fairy tale, but I figured that's what was going on here. I couldn't think of anything else that involved an apple. I shuddered realizing that the woman had come specifically to poison me. What if she decided to stray from the story and instead crept into the house and killed me in my sleep? It wouldn't be hard to break into a house like this...

Mimi was suddenly in a rage again, running her hands through her hair, "There is so much sweat in my hair. It is so hot. I am so sticky." She suddenly jumped to her feet, "I'm bathing."

"Mimi," Hideto said, "It's going to take you hours to fill the tub with hot water."

"I don't care!" she cried out, "I can't handle this anymore. My hair won't stay up with those stupid ribbons, and it's making me go insane."

Hideto responded without missing a beat, "Have you thought maybe it isn't your hair that's causing you to feel insane, but rather being trapped away from your family, friends and home in a world that rotates plotlines like a bad sitcom? And that you're simply using your hair as a cushion for all of your pent up frustration, sadness and desperation to feel normal again?" Mimi blinked in his direction, she looked like she was expecting any response other than that, "It seems possible that you're simply pushing aside your feelings, unprepared to deal with them or find answers so instead you're covering your problems with ones that don't really exist?"

"There is more mud on my head than hair right now," Mimi said, still staring directly at him, "mud, sweat, leaves—my head is a constant disappointment, and I'm going insane because of my hair. Nothing else. It's just my hair. I have my other emotions completely under control thank you very much. I am sane. I promise."

"I didn't question your sanity," Hideto said awkwardly.

"But that's what you meant..." Mimi said slowly.

"No," Hideto said, "That's what you thought I meant, because you've been questioning your own sanity, so it made sense to you to draw that connection."

"Could you _stop_?" Lopmon groaned, falling back against a wall and falling to a heap on the ground, "Your incessant need to analyse everything is ridiculous and tiring." She groaned, "If you want to be a therapist go help the crazy people outside. I'm so sick of you trying to convince us all that we're crazy."

"I'm just trying to cope in my own way." Hideto said bitterly.

"We all are," Tatum said, tossing her braid over her shoulder. "As long as you all keep from falling into the traps that are set up everywhere, we'll all make it out of this alive."

"Why do you keep making it seem like _we_ all make mistakes, but that you never do?" Mimi asked, staring to the ground, "Did you _just_ become gingerlocks with your three bear friends? What with your perfectly neat, thick red locks of beautiful hair?"

"I make mistakes too," Tatum said, "stop being jealous of my hair though, green isn't a good colour on you, Mimi."

"Well if I don't wear green," Mimi argued loudly, "everyone will think that I'm Red Riding Hood! And I just don't want to be eaten!"

"Then stop running into the forest," I said casually.

"I want to go _home_!" Mimi cried out, actual tears in her eyes now, "I want p-pretty hair, I want a warm shower, I want my m-m-mom, and Palmon and Koushiro! I w-want to be outside looking at the stars, but they don't e-even _exist_ here, and I just want to see them again—and I just want to find that stupid Looking Glass!"

"We will," Tatum promised, "we will keep looking, no matter how long it takes."

"Or maybe we could think of a separate plan," I said, but no one really listened, because Mimi was still emotional, and I guess I could understand that.

"It just seems so hopeless!" Mimi sobbed as Hideto moved to comfort her.

"Well, you can't lose hope," I told her, "I mean people have left this world before without the keys, there _is_ a way." Hideto looked up to me from where he was hugging Mimi, his face filled with annoyance. "What?" I asked.

He shook his head like he wasn't going to respond, but then decided he couldn't do it, "You're just so positive, like you're stuck in a bubble that doesn't even exist. You're in your own world and we're all here trying to form a team, but there's a piece missing, and it's you."

"I'm not going to fall into depression just so you're not alone down there," I said, hurt, "I'm sorry, but I don't want to worry every minute of every day. There are so many things in this world that I've always wanted to see and to know, and now I get the chance. I'm sorry you don't feel that way, but I can promise you we'll find a way out."

"You've been saying that for months now," Lopmon pointed out, annoyed. "We're still here."

"For now!" I insisted, "We'll get out! I promise. We will!"

"Please stop arguing." Mimi's defeated voice came from somewhere in Hideto's arms. "We're all getting on each other's nerves. I get that." She sniffled loudly and swallowed, "I just don't want us to hate each other because we think differently. Michael, you be happy all you want, and Hideto, brood in the corner. We can't judge each other for how we want to handle this new lifestyle. That's what this is. It's a lifestyle that we just have to get used to because there's no telling how long we'll be stuck here. It's been two months already, and I want to make sure we all get out of this sane and alive."

"Mimi is right," Tatum nodded, "I'm sorry for pointing fingers earlier. We're all in this together."

"And we're going to get out of it together too," I added only to receive a glare from Hideto. He sighed, but then nodded, agreeing to play along. We could do this. Really, we could. Together.

 _ **Miyako Ichijouji:**_

Six months.

I'd been pregnant for six months. More really—six months and five days, but _still_ , I was six months pregnant. And I was still in the Dark Ocean. Winter had promised me that I wouldn't have my baby here, but it had been two months already. Two months of staring at the grey stone walls of her castle. Two months of looking out the window only to see nothing but grey grass and grey sand and grey sky. Everything was so grey. My dress—a loose, flowing sun dress—was so worn now, that it wasn't nearly as bright blue as it had been before. It was starting to turn grey too. I washed my hair as much as I could, trying to keep _some_ colour to me. My skin was getting paler with each day that passed.

Soon I would blend in with the landscape.

My hair was the only thing keeping me from doing just that. It would stay purple until I couldn't possibly keep it that way anymore.

I wasn't the only one that was starting to match our surroundings. Bengoshi had faded ages ago. He had also been here longer than I had, but it was painful to watch as his colour, his _personality_ , fade away leaving nothing but bland, boring, disheartening grey. Iori was just as grey as he was, but only on the outside. He was still the same person on the inside. He just didn't seem to mind what he looked like anymore. His skin was so pale, and his hair looked darker than it was with the limited light. There was such a drastic contrast to him, and he looked like a different person.

It didn't help that we weren't really eating enough. Well, _they_ weren't. Winter refused to allow me anything less than what my baby needed to stay healthy. I was very thankful for her decision, but it was so hard watching Bengoshi and Iori eat less than they should, just because I needed it.

Iori hadn't complained even once, which was worse, I thought, than the way Bengoshi had whined and pointed out how unfair it was. He'd stopped doing that lately. He'd become withdrawn and quiet. It was a rare thing to hear a word slip through his lips.

It scared me.

The Dark Ocean was so overwhelming, such a powerful force on its own, that it had taken everything from that man. He wasn't able to get out of bed some days. He'd been here longer than I had, I kept reminding myself that, but I couldn't help but fear that I was looking at my future each time I looked at him.

He was seated opposite me at the long, grand table that we used to eat off of. Iori was next to me, stirring his soup without thinking about it. He was watching Bengoshi, the same as I was. Winter seemed to think he was a lost cause at this point. He shouldn't have drunk the water. I was afraid it was my fault. I hadn't _known_ we shouldn't, but I should've assumed. I should have kept him from doing something so stupid. I had to hope that we could get him out of the Dark Ocean before what little was left of him was taken away.

There wasn't much more I could do to help him though. I played card games with him and the Armadillomon each day. We spent _hours_ looking at playing cards. I taught him to knit too, and he took to it like a fish to water, desperate for _anything_ that could distract him from the world we were trapped in. He'd knit my baby a beautiful gender neutral sweater, and went on to make a matching set of booties and a hat. I was ridiculously upset about how much _better_ his turned out, but I didn't let him know that. He was so proud of himself, and it was the most positive I'd seen him be in ages.

But the yarn had run out, and it wasn't something that the Dark Ocean had any supply of.

I'd nearly run out of my prenatal vitamins too. There definitely weren't any places I'd find _those_ here either. I didn't know if they were doing anything anyway, because there weren't any doctors. I had to rely entirely on the single pregnancy book I'd had in my backpack when I'd opened the gate to this horrid place. I'd read it daily, nearly religiously. I read it aloud to the other castle inhabitants. I _needed_ to know my baby was okay, but it said right in the book that mothers would start feeling their baby move between sixteen and twenty-two weeks. I was on my twenty-fourth week, and my baby hadn't started moving yet. I was panicking. I was terrified.

And no one could confirm that there was nothing to be afraid of.

Winter was seated at the head of the table, carefully spooning soup into her mouth. She made it seem like the most elegant thing in the world. It was ridiculous. The Dark Ocean didn't affect her the way it had any of us. Her skin still shimmered blue, her hair was always perfectly placed, a bold navy colour. Her dress sparkled in the flames that kept us from being entirely in the dark.

I wished that I could look so unaffected by the world.

She was a fairy though. She was also tasked with being the queen of this world. It made perfect sense that the world would drain the niceties, the _kindness_ , from her personality, but would leave her unharmed physically.

I tried not to be jealous.

I also tried not to let it show that I was actually _relieved_ that her kindness had been drained from her. It was hard enough being around the ever helpful Armadillomon. They were so sweet and kind, and in any other situation, I would love them to pieces.

But they reminded me of Ken.

I winced, and looked down into my soup. I wasn't allowed to think about Ken. I didn't know what had happened to him. I didn't know if he'd found an escape route or if he'd ended up like Moretsuna. I wasn't allowed to think about Moretsuna either. Thinking about them made my stomach churn. There was so little food here I couldn't afford to waste it by making myself sick.

We only really saw Winter during meals these days. In the first few days, she played the part of a good host, but she had become more desperate with each passing day. She wanted us out of this world, and she was having trouble finding a way to do that. She would slip away after each meal, only when everyone had finished. There was a laboratory somewhere within the castle that she worked in. I _imagined_ it was like a mad scientist's version of heaven, but I couldn't confirm my theories. I wasn't allowed to follow her. There were too many things that could potentially cause me harm.

In my more whimsical moments—which were growing fewer and fewer as time passed—I imagined her crouched over a table, stirring a large cauldron murmuring strange magical words as she added each sample she sent Iori out to collect. I imagined her in a dark cloak as she used dark magic to help us escape from this dark place.

Iori was the only one that went outside anymore. _Someone_ needed to collect whatever it was that Winter needed for the magic she was trying to perform—whether my potion fantasy was _accurate_ or not, I didn't know—and Iori _refused_ to let the Armadillomon out to do it. Evidently, he wasn't the _only_ one that the shadows had captured in order to perform sacrificial rituals.

The others hadn't been as lucky as he was.

I tried not to think about that either. It made my heart hurt, like Ken and Moretsuna did. There were many topics I wasn't allowed to think about. I couldn't let myself. Takeru. Hawkmon. Wormmon. There were far too many topics that made my heart and stomach sick with worry, fear, longing...

And every time Iori stepped out of the safety of the castle, my fear amplified. I was terrified that one day the shadows would get him again. I was scared that Winter was too wrapped up in her science project to keep an eye on him with her magic. All the Armadillomon that had been successfully sacrificed happened on her watch. Iori could at any moment join their numbers.

He'd be alone when— _if_ —it happened, and that made me hurt so much more than the fear.

But I was six months pregnant. With each week that passed, I was feeling less and less able to keep the promise I'd made to always take care of him.

"I'm not making much progress between the gates between the Dark Ocean and the Digital World," Winter announced, before taking another spoonful of soup up to her lips. She finished with that, before speaking again. "I'm having trouble with the gate to Earth as well. I'm not giving up. I just felt like you should know where I stand."

A whimper filled the room, and I was embarrassed to find it was _me_ and not Bengoshi that sounded like a wounded animal at the news. Bengoshi's eyes were on me. They were haunted, and nearly lifeless. He was so miserable. I couldn't bear to look into his eyes for long periods of time, because they reminded me of Moretsuna—who reminded me of Ken. It was all a vicious cycle. I rubbed my stomach gently, trying not to cry at the news.

Two months without a word, and now I learn that she was no closer to getting us home than she was on day one.

"We'll be alright," Iori told me. He frowned, wiping the soup that was dribbling down his scruffy chin. There were no razors in the Dark Ocean. The closest Winter had been able to find was a straight blade, and those were so creepy that even Iori wasn't going to risk it. It looked cursed after all. Bengoshi was scruffier than him, but Iori seemed to be the only one of the pair to be _uncomfortable_ with his facial hair.

I could understand that. I hadn't been able to shave my legs in a _long_ time either.

He reached over and squeezed my hand, and I squeezed back. It was nice, to see him without so many bruises, or cuts. His nose had healed up well, and the subsequent black eyes faded away. He looked just like himself now, except for the whole Dark Ocean draining his colour thing. It had been extremely hard to look at him all ripped and torn and bloody. But he'd bounced right back, dedicating himself to helping me—and thusly Winter, who was also working on the same mission. It was why he was always leaving the safety of the castle. I didn't think it was healthy, the way he never thought of himself, but I couldn't convince him to _stop_. I didn't want the Armadillomon to be in danger any more than he did.

I wasn't exactly in a healthy state—emotionally at least—myself.

I told my baby stories of our adventures. I told the baby all sorts of inconsequential things too, like how Sora liked her tea, and how Mimi's chazuke was the best I'd ever found. Daisuke could make delicious yakisoba out of just about _anything_. I told the baby about the way Neo pinched his nose like he's got a headache any time anyone of us does something that irritated him—it was a frequent occurrence. Natsuni and Michael bonded over movie references, and Jou was always spouting off facts about six year olds, because Emiko was his pride and joy. Taichi got wrapped up in work so completely that he didn't take care of himself properly. Rei was as committed to hobbies as Chiziru—meaning they both switched up every week or so. Yamato had a habit of stealing his brother's burgers, and Takeru always let him. Wormmon watched animated movies every day. Hikari was the nicest person ever, _always_. Mantarou always called me squirt. Hawkmon was strict, but he loved so deeply.

The baby learned about all of them.

But not Ken.

Never Ken.

"Eat Miyako," Winter told me. My stomach was getting queasy, but I swallowed another couple of spoonfuls, forcing thoughts of my husband from my mind. I looked up to show Winter I was listening, and was met with a meaningful look. I flinched, and looked back at my soup. The only time I saw her other than meals, was when she hunted me down to warn me about "the lawyer". She wanted me to be _wary_ of the lawyer.

Her warnings just made me mad.

 _Both_ of the guys were lawyers, and the last time I assumed she meant Bengoshi, she _really_ meant Iori. I wasn't about to be wary of Iori though. He was my friend. I'd babysat him since I was six years old, only stopping when he was old enough to watch himself—and even then I'd never really stopped. I was embarrassed to know that Iori had realized this.

I angrily slurped at my soup, knowing that it irritated her to no end. She _hated_ improper etiquette. I gave her a defiant look as I slurped slowly. Her eye twitched, but she kept her mouth closed. Good.

"I need a few of the dark spores in order to continue my work," she said, pursing her lips and turning from me to Iori. He nodded at her instructions and slipped his fingers out of mine, standing to go collect his shoes. They were in a small pile by the door with mine and Bengoshi's. Winter insisted that we didn't need to remove them, but it was a habit that was hard to break.

As Iori bent down to tie his laces, I gave him a once over. He needed new clothes, but again, the Dark Ocean didn't have many options. His once nice pants and shirt were now tattered and covered in a thick layer of dust that wouldn't be removed no matter how many times I tried to clean them. He looked back at us, and waved once, before heading to the front door so he could get out into the unsafe world. I moved to the windows, wincing at the thought of shadows. There weren't any, but I always felt like we were being watched.

I saw Iori heading down the beach. He held no weapon other than his digivice. When fighting against shadows, fists worked best—according to Iori. He'd taken a staff of some kind the first few times he'd ventured into the grey lands, but it hadn't helped him fight off the shadows, and he came back bloody and angry when they'd got the best of him.

I jumped when a hand was placed on my shoulder. Winter murmured an apology, and removed her hand. She looked to Iori with me until he was out of view.

"He'll be back," I told her. She didn't answer. She stood there for another minute, remaining silent. And then she had the _audacity_ to say "be wary of the lawyer" to me— _with one of the lawyers in the room_! Anger flooded me in that moment, and I snapped. "I'm not helpless," I told her. "And you will _not_ tell me to be afraid of my friends."

I stormed over to the pile of shoes and slipped my little ballet flats on, wishing I'd been wearing hiking boots or something when the virus had come. But I hadn't been, and these little flats were all I had. If nothing else, they made my dramatic exit more convenient. I stalked off down the hallway, ignoring Winter who was calling after me, desperately trying to convince me to stay inside, but it was too late. She'd made me _so_ mad, I couldn't bear to look at her.

My friends were just that, _my_ friends. She didn't have any right whatsoever to tell me I had to be afraid of them. I wouldn't let her tell me what to do. I was an adult. I was pretty responsible, all things considered, and I was well aware that following after Iori when I didn't actually know where I was going wasn't the smartest idea I'd ever had. I was pregnant, but I wasn't useless. I actually had _two_ digivices at the moment, so I was better protected than Iori was.

I hurried along the path he'd taken, and raced as quickly as I dared. It took me all of six minutes to catch up to him. He was creeping along, and turned quickly, raising his digivice to defend himself from the shadow he thought I was.

"Hi," I said brightly.

"What the _hell_ are you doing here?" he demanded as his shoulders relaxed and he put his digivice away.

"I'm going to help," I said simply. "I want to save my baby, and Winter doesn't seem to be able to do anything right now. I feel like I'm useless, and I can't stand that."

"I get that," he said, with a smirk—which was hard to see, thanks to his scruffy face. "I remember being treated like I was useless for _ages_ , back before you finally realized I could look after myself."

"Are you going to make me go back?" I asked, ready to argue with him if that were the case, but he sighed and shook his head. "Really?"

"I trust you," he said as if it explained everything. I smiled brightly at him, and that was it. I let him lead us around, since he'd had two months to get to know the terrain. He knew this place better than anyone now, except for Winter, probably. He spent nearly every day, _all_ day out here, after all.

"Do you know where the spores grow?" I asked, just to clarify.

"Yeah," he said. "I saw the spores on Yggdrasil's tree."

It made sense in a weird way. Yggdrasil had tried to create peace in all the worlds, but had only found destruction and corruption. It wasn't too much of a leap to find that he'd created the dark spores that had caused so much pain to my husband's childhood.

I pushed thoughts of him out of my mind.

It was heartbreakingly easy for me to do after all this time. It was habitual. I didn't necessarily need to _think_ of doing it anymore. I knew that at some point I would need to confront my fears and sort through my thoughts and feelings, but I wasn't ready yet.

"I don't see how they'll help," I commented. "I can't see how anything will help. I don't have much confidence in Winter's ability. I don't think we'll ever get out of here."

He opened his mouth to contradict me, and I steeled myself for my rebuttal, but he just sighed, shaking his head. "Yeah, me either."

"I don't want to be here forever," I told him. It was unnecessary to say. _No one_ wanted to stay in the Dark Ocean forever. "There's so much I wanted to do. So much I _should_ have done."

"Me too," he agreed. He seemed to realize I was terrified by our surroundings, and gave in to my not-so-subtle suggestion that he talk to me, to calm my fears, because he didn't stop there. "There's lots of stuff. I wish I'd visited Grandpa's grave more. I wish I spent more time with Meiyomon. There were a lot of things Armadillomon and I planned to do, but never actually did." He took a deep breath and looked at his feet as he continued to lead the way to Yggdrasil's tree. "I should have talked to Mom more. I feel childish, you know, about my absolute hatred of her new marriage, and my step-brothers, but I _still_ can't find it in me to accept them. I feel bad about that. But it doesn't change how I feel. I don't hate _them_. But I do not support the marriage. I don't think it's a good one. They depend on each other too much."

"What about Natsuni?" I asked, wincing as soon as the words left my mouth. I couldn't believe I would ask him that. I couldn't even _think_ about Ken without getting queasy—thoughts of him were forced from my mind.

"Natsuni," he said wistfully. "I don't regret not marrying her. I _wanted_ to. I still do. But I can't help but feel happy that we hadn't quite gotten to that step. She's not tied to me in any permanent way now. She'll be able to move on without any legal problems."

"I doubt Natsuni is thinking the same way," I told him sadly. He winced, and looked to the ground. He was upset, and I knew not to continue pushing. He wanted Natsuni to be able to move on and be happy again—when he couldn't. "I wish I'd just told Mantarou that I hated his girlfriend, even before I knew she was DWD," I said, changing the subject. He cast me a thankful glance. "I wish I'd taken care of Masa, when I promised myself I would. I left him at the Coliseum, and hoped for the best. That's not what a good aunt does. When I left the Temple, I went to find Neo, instead of taking care of that little boy. I don't regret searching for Neo though. No one else seemed bothered by his absence. _Someone_ had to look for him, you know?"

Iori nodded.

"I wish I'd had time to talk to Hawkmon even just _one_ more time," I added, knowing not to stray into _prohibited_ trains of thought. Iori winced. I ignored it the best I could. I refused to let go of the hope that Hawkmon was okay—even if Iori refused to tell my why he flinched whenever he heard my partner's name.

"We're here," Iori said, before I could ask _again_.

I glared at the rotting, black tree. It was gnarled, and leafless. Big chunks were rotted right through and looked like insects had been working their way through the remains. Where the leaves ought to be, the bare branches housed hundreds of little black, spiked spores. This tree was responsible for creating the Digimon Kaiser, for turning the Digital World upside down. Daemon had been so interested in these too. They were evil little things—literally evil. I hated them.

"Noriko had one of these," Iori commented, as we stepped closer to the tree. "If she'd never been affected by these stupid things, I never would have met her. If she didn't have a dark spore, she wouldn't be gone, would she?"

"I don't know," I said. "We can't change the past, even with the key. So little can actually be changed. Each small piece of the past works to create the present we have today. It's like a tiny ripple in an ocean that grows into bigger and better things. If Noriko had never had the spore, she never would have met you, and you would never have fallen for her, true. But if you never fell for her, and had your heart broken, and she hadn't decided you were the guy for her, you never would have met Natsuni when you hid in that bathroom. She never would have gotten her Punimon or ever got a chance to meet Impmon. If she was never obsessed over you, she never would have gone to therapy where she got the help she needed in order to form solid, proper friendships, and then she never would have managed to become a teacher or meet Tomotsu."

"I guess so," he said. "She was a sickly kid too. The dark spore is what made her healthy enough to do the things that regular kids got to do."

"Exactly," I told him. "These spores caused horrible things to happen, but without them, Noriko wouldn't have had any of the things she loved most about her life. She might not have survived as long as she did either."

"The same could be said about Ken, you know," he commented. I winced, but he kept talking. "You glare at the spores too. I saw you. They hurt him. They changed him. But if he was never the Kaiser, you never would have gotten to meet him. We went to different schools, he lived in a different district. He never would have been on your radar at all, without the spore. It made him more athletic, more intelligent. It was the only reason anyone knew his name. He wouldn't have been famous without it. And without it—and subsequently without the Kaiser—we never would have gotten the call from the Digital World to take up the duty of being digidestined. We never would have met our partners."

I knew that was only partially true though, because we were all _destined_ to become a team, but his basic point still stood, if Ken hadn't become the Digimon Kaiser than I would never have had the same experiences and maybe never fallen in love with him. And then I wouldn't hurt so much right now. "But MaloMyotismon and Oikawa were responsible for a lot of that," I reminded him, once again forcing my mind away from my husband.

"I know," he said. "But we were brought in to keep the Kaiser in check. The others would have been able to deal with the one fight on their own. They just couldn't dedicate as much time as was needed to keep the Kaiser from taking over the world."

"Maybe," I said, though I still didn't believe him completely. It was hard to fully feel comforted by his words, because he kept mentioning a certain someone who I was trying not to think about. My stomach was churning something awful by the time we got close enough to the tree to actually harvest the spores.

Iori wouldn't let me touch them, and I didn't complain about that. I didn't _want_ to touch them anyway. He pulled a little cloth pouch out of his pocket, and turned it inside out. Using it like a glove, he systematically removed five or six spores. As he picked the spores I paced around the tree, thinking about how the roots were connected to the other worlds. Perhaps if we were to follow them we could find our way back home. Iori then stopped, and turned to me. "How many do you think she'd need?" he asked.

I didn't answer him.

I was a little preoccupied by the large, very protective spirit that rose out of the ground behind him, angered by Iori's blatant theft of the spores. He was clearly here to protect the tree, and Iori had overstepped his boundaries. My eyes were wide and I pointed behind him with a shaky finger. He quickly tied off the pouch and threw it to me with one hand pulling his digivice out with the other one, as the shadow moved in for the attack.

The shadow was fast, despite his size. Iori was able to blast one of the shadow's hands with his digivice, but the shadow was large enough that one hand was _all_ the digivice was able to counter. Iori was blindsided by the second punch, flying through the air, skidding through the sandy ground when he crashed down.

"IORI!" I screamed. The shadow looked to me, and I panicked. But just for a second. In that one second, I forgot there was something I could do, forgot that I was a capable digidestined, and not just an expecting mother. I grabbed _both_ digivices, keeping a firm grip on the bag of spores, and flashed my digivice at one of the shadow's hands, and Moretsuna's at the other. "IORI RUN!"

He didn't. He came to my shoulder, and blasted the shadow's face with _his_ digivice, blinding him temporarily, before he grabbed my hand, dragging me behind him as we raced to get out of the shadow's reach. The shadow didn't like that, and the next thing I knew, Iori was spinning me around in front of him, scooping me into his arms, carrying me like a child.

"Don't stop blasting him," he ordered. I kept my arms extended behind us, one wrapped around his neck so that I could reach, and continuously blasted the giant shadow that didn't seem to want to give up. He wanted us to return the spores, but we'd already gotten _this_ far, and I wasn't going to give in to the whims of a shadow.

Not when Winter thought these things could help.

 _Did_ she really think they'd help?

She had to know that the shadow was there. She sent Iori to go and get the spores, calling after me to stop when I followed after him. She'd just reminded me to be wary of the lawyer. My heart was thudding quickly in my chest, as I continued to blast the shadow with both digivices. Had Winter knowingly sent Iori to this shadow just to get rid of the "pesky" lawyer she didn't want me to associate with?

We weren't going as fast now that he was carrying me—and I tried not to take offense to that—but it was safer, and I took my job seriously. I wasn't going to let that shadow hurt my baby _or_ Iori. I would protect them, because it was my _job_. I growled at the shadow any time it thought it could take a swing at us, and willed my crest to shine brighter. It did. The shadow stumbled backwards, just a couple of steps, but it was enough.

Before I knew it, Iori set me on the ground, ushering me into the doors of the castle, taking the spores from me, and slamming the door closed behind us. He kicked off his shoes, and I followed suit. And then I was following him through the hallway to the throne room, where Winter was waiting, hand open, waiting for the spores she may or may not have even needed. He tossed them at her, grumbling something about getting a drink before he stalked out of the room again.

I was going to go with him, when I caught sight of Bengoshi sitting in the corner, rocking back and forth, humming to himself. My heart went out to him. I wanted to help him, but I didn't know how. Winter was still there. I tried to ignore her, but I could feel her eyes on me.

"The darkness of the Dark Ocean is getting to him," she told me, as if I _wasn't_ mad at her—as if I _cared_ what she had to say anymore. But I _did_ care.

"He's going to be fine," I snapped at her.

"I believe you," she said, giving me a look of pity as if I were some naive child. It just made me angrier.

"When are we getting out of here?" I demanded. She looked away from me.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I told you, I can't get through the barriers to Earth or the Digital World." My heart broke at the thought. "I'm not done trying. I haven't used every trick in my arsenal. I _will not_ let the baby be born here."

"I believe you," I said. I was tired. I was an emotional mess. Winter could play me like a fiddle, and she knew it. She knew exactly what to say to make me angry, but she could always make me trust her just as easily. I was _tired_ of being tugged in different directions.

"I'm not _trying_ to be cold-hearted, or cruel," Winter assured me. "I don't mean to be."

"It's just the Dark Ocean, affecting you," I said, because I _did_ understand that much.

"I'm holding up a lot better than anyone else would in my position. It might be my magic, actually—" Winter said, starting into her theory. But she was cut off when I held my hand up in her face, trying to silence her. She raised an eyebrow at me, unimpressed, but I didn't care.

Bengoshi was crying.

I turned to him, intending to give him a hug and to comfort him, like usual. But this time his cries sounded different. I saw him, still curled up in the corner, but he wasn't rocking anymore. He was staring in absolute horror at his hand, which he had raised in front of him. I had to hold back my scream. He didn't need to hear that.

But his hand...it wasn't _his_ hand anymore. It was entirely black—a _shadow_ hand.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Tatum and Cody are Sweeter than Fiction. Just kidding. They're really not.


	28. Sweeter Than Fiction

**Y/N:** Cody is a lot of fun to write in the Dark Ocean. He's also fun everywhere else. He's one of my favourites. This chapter was written later to bridge the gap between this one and the next one, because Urazamay felt that the plot was a little rushed. I concurred, and ended up piecing this together. I hope it's not stiff, or awkward in any way. I kind of enjoyed the absurdness of it.

 **U/N:** So here I wrote as Tatum, and that was kind of cool, Tatum is my friend and she is half Irish. Sometimes she forgets, and sometimes I do too, but she is and that's cool. I don't really know what to say because I don't remember this chapter, but I DO remember Lopmon, so I think she's in it. :D

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Sidhendor and the Dark Ocean**

 **Chapter 28: Sweeter Than Fiction**

 _ **Iori Hida:**_

The light was dim. It was always dim, as if it was always bordering on dawn, but could never quite get there. Every once in awhile I would still forget where I was, and expect the sky to light up with bright colours, and wait to see the sun rise, but a few minutes would pass and the light would stay the same, and I'd kick myself for every getting the idea in my head in the first place.

I rolled my shoulder, testing it. I'd just finished fighting off a solitary shadow that thought he could get the jump on me. I'd very nearly had my shoulder dislocated in the fray, but I'd escaped his grip just in time. I was sure my shoulder would be plastered with bruises by morning, but for now it only burned pleasantly. I loved the feeling I got whenever I was victorious in a fight against the shadows. It was just about the only thrilling aspect of this world. I couldn't get enough of it. Winter didn't even need to send me on a mission, sometimes I just went down to the ocean for a walk. The Ocean was the best place to find the shadows. They lurked there.

The sand under my feet shifted into black beach grass, and I sighed, knowing that I wasn't going to get a second fight before getting back to the castle. I'd promised I'd be back in time for lunch too, so I couldn't just hang around to see what happened.

There was a path worn through the beach grass that led directly to the oversized door that led into the castle. I'd walked the same path a couple of times each day. I couldn't stay trapped within the castle walls. I needed to keep some semblance of freedom, and so long as I didn't expect Winter to come to my rescue, she didn't care one way or the other what I did during my stay here.

I pushed the big door open and shoved it closed behind me, kicking off my shoes, and tossing them towards Miyako's and Bengoshi's. My shoes were getting worn out, with blood stains and holes scattered through them. My clothing wasn't fairing much better. I didn't have a plan for whenever the fabric finally gave out. There weren't exactly a lot of options to work with here. I supposed I'd be able to sew new clothes out of the curtains if I _had_ to. I didn't actually know how to sew, but I figured I could learn. I'd need to if I didn't want to walk around naked.

Turning at the next opportunity, I headed towards the dining table that was set up in the throne room. Winter had finally emerged from her dungeon, I saw. She was heading towards me, having come from a different direction. I stopped, waiting for her to catch up—mostly to be polite, rather than a desire for her company.

"Good walk?" she asked me dryly. Her eyes darted to my shoulder without any prompting. She was always able to do that. It was like she had a sixth sense for locating injuries. I rolled my shoulder again, showing her that it was fine. She didn't press any further.

"Not long enough," I said, to answer her inquiry.

"Not _fun_ enough, you mean," she commented. I smirked at her. She knew me so well. _Too_ well, really, considering I hadn't known her before coming for this extended stay in the Dark Ocean. She was determined to get us out before Miyako gave birth, and I was giving her the benefit of the doubt. Knowing I wasn't going to be here forever was actually going a long way to keep me from falling into the same traps that Bengoshi had.

Not being stupid enough to drink the water was a big help too.

"How's your work coming?" I asked. I didn't want to inquire about Bengoshi's well being because I didn't want anyone to make the mistake of thinking I liked the guy. I actually loathed him. That didn't mean I wanted some strange shadow virus to destroy him though. I didn't want him dead. Winter had been doing her best to find a way to reverse the process. She hadn't had long to work though, and I wasn't expecting any miracles.

"Slowly," she said bitterly. "Much slower than the infection is spreading. The Armadillomon have been keeping me updated on its progress. His arm has been compromised. It's not taking its time."

"We might lose him," I realized. I furrowed my brow, knowing that we would eventually have to tell Miyako. She wouldn't be able to handle the thought. She wasn't dealing with any of this very well.

"We very well could," Winter agreed solemnly.

I wasn't particularly thrilled with the direction of our conversation. It had shattered any illusion of a good mood that my victory over the shadows had given me. I felt the need to change the subject, and floundered for _any_ other topic. There just weren't very many options. The Dark Ocean wasn't exactly bursting with activity.

"You might've warned me about the spirit of Yggdrasil's tree."

It wasn't the greatest of alternative conversation topics. It wasn't any more pleasant than Bengoshi. I considered it _less_ pleasant actually. I resigned myself to the loss of my good mood. I sighed.

"And here I thought you might _like_ the surprise," Winter said with a smirk. We were coming to the end of our journey. The entrance to the throne room was within sight. I held out my hand, to stop her. She quirked her eyebrow at me, but complied with my silent request. She glanced towards the throne room. Her smirk fell from her face as she remembered just who'd accompanied me. "I _am_ sorry that Miyako was placed in danger."

"I know," I said. "If I would have known how dangerous it was, I would've insisted she go back."

"I tried to tell her to stay behind, but I'm not a jailer, and she's _not_ my prisoner," Winter assured me. I sighed again, and nodded. She reached out and pushed my arm out of the way, and proceeded on her way. I wasn't nearly as comforted by her declaration as I'd hoped to be.

It took me a minute to compose my thoughts and head on to the throne room. When I got there, I noted that Bengoshi wasn't there. I knew what that meant. He had locked himself in his room, afraid of what was happening to him—and allowing the darkness to fester within him as he let the sadness and fear and anger overwhelm him.

Miyako was there though, looking down at her soup with unfocussed eyes, stirring it aimlessly with her spoon. Her sandwich looked like she'd only nibbled on the bread before disregarding it. My soup was set up across from her, and I sat down, looking at the lumpy liquid. It wasn't horrid looking, but I was getting tired of soup. I wasn't about to complain though. I wanted what was best for the baby, and Miyako needed the extra nourishment that her sandwich would provide. I was well aware of the fact that there was only _so_ much food available at any given time. We were in the Dark Ocean—in _hell_. Miyako, Bengoshi and I were three extra mouths that Winter hadn't been prepared for, and Grandpa had taught me better than to turn my nose up at her kindness. She couldn't just order in extra supplies. I didn't actually know how she'd gotten what little she _had_ , but I didn't want to inconvenience her.

Though I couldn't help but wonder why she couldn't get us _out_ of this world if she could get food _in_.

I didn't want to doubt her dedication. She had personally chosen Miyako to be a digidestined. She'd been invested in Miyako's well being and happiness since Miyako was a child. I didn't _think_ she would purposefully neglect that option of escape. She might've been exhausting all her methods of bringing us to Earth first. Maybe the world that this strangely colourless soup came from wasn't much better than the Dark Ocean was. She had to have her reasons.

I wasn't going to ask though. I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer, just in case I was wrong to give her the benefit of the doubt.

The Armadillomon were playing with a pile of pots and pans in the corner, banging on them like they were drums. It was loud, and I predicted a headache in my future, but it was an excited sound, upbeat, _happy_. It didn't have the same eeriness that the silence seemed to drip with. The Armadillomon were also laughing. I couldn't understand just how joyful they managed to be despite their lodging. They'd been living in the Dark Ocean for ages. I didn't even know how long it had been since they'd been taken into this world from the Digital World. They'd been used as slave labour by Dragomon and been sacrificed by the shadows. They were treated much better by Winter, but I couldn't imagine living through even a portion of what they had. Yet they were here, laughing despite it all.

It was a testament to their strength.

"Eat, Miyako," Winter ordered. Miyako's eyes jerked away from her soup, wide and searching. She was surprised to notice that Winter and I were even there. She'd been spacing out since she'd first seen Bengoshi's hand being plagued by the darkness. I was getting increasingly worried. She hadn't bothered to seek me out the night before, and she'd spent that first night—after discovering the shadow virus—sobbing into my arms until she passed out of sheer exhaustion. "You might not feel hungry, but the baby probably is."

"Eat," I agreed. Miyako nodded jerkily, and followed our instructions. She kept her left hand on her stomach. Between bites, she chewed on her bottom lip. More than once I'd seen her looking towards the door, hoping to catch sight of Bengoshi, no doubt hoping that the virus would heal itself, and he'd magically return to normal—maybe play a few card games with her and the Armadillomon. I didn't want to be the one that had to tell her that wasn't going to happen. I couldn't shatter what was left of her spirit. She was so fragile now. I couldn't bear it if I had to watch her break.

Winter dabbed her lips with a napkin, and got to her feet, excusing herself. I continued to put spoonfuls of my lumpy grey soup as she left. I wanted to escape too. The Armadillomon's drumming was the only sound. Miyako wasn't up for conversation today. She was sitting there, acting like a zombie, and I couldn't let her stay that way. I wanted her to help her, but I didn't know what she needed.

"I think I might stay in for the rest of the day," I offered, just to see if she'd hear me. She looked up to me instantly, showing me her wide, watering eyes. "Miyako?"

"I'm scared," she whispered, letting the tears fall down her cheeks.

"You're not going to be like him," I promised her. "You didn't drink the water."

"No," she said, shaking her head causing tears to splatter the table top. " _Ken_ drank the water, Iori. He drank it and the baby came from him too. Does that mean the baby's going to be infected? Does that mean my baby is more susceptible to the darkness? Is _that_ the reason that I haven't felt the baby move? It _should_ have moved. It should have moved _weeks_ ago! I should have felt that, but I haven't. I don't know if it's okay, and there are no doctors and I'm so _scared_!"

She wasn't the only one that was scared. I was so worried about that child, and I didn't know how to make it better. I'd gone through school for law. I didn't have any of Jou's training. I didn't know what was wrong, or if something was.

"The baby's fine," I said, with confidence I didn't have. I had to put up a brave front for her. She was already unstable emotionally. "Of course it's fine, it has _you_. It's probably waiting for some dramatic moment to make its first move. It wants it to be memorable."

She didn't smile, not even close, but it seemed like she was a little happier than she had been before. My hypothesis (because it could not be proven one way or the other) wasn't enough to lift her mood. I pushed back my chair, realizing she'd eaten all she was going to be able to, and walked around the table, holding my hand out to her. She zeroed in on my hand, and pursed her lips in confusion.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. My other hand went to her waist, and I spun her around, feeling her pregnant belly pressed against me. She stumbled, but my grip was firm enough that she remained upright.

"What are you doing?" she asked me, when I started rocking back and forth somewhat awkwardly. I lifted my arm up and spun her under it, before pulling her close again, and dipping her slightly.

"What do you think?" I asked. "We're dancing."

"Why?" she asked, nearly laughing. I didn't dare praise myself for it. I didn't want to jinx it. I could at any second ruin things, and send her back down towards her downward spiral.

"The Armadillomon are playing for us," I said, forcing a large smile on my face, to make it seem as though I was bubbling over with happiness. Miyako had a tendency to take on the emotions of those around her when she felt lost. I had to mask my own fear to bring out her hope. I was acting like a goofball—something I wouldn't typically care to do—for the sake of her happiness. I could handle looking like an idiot if it meant I wouldn't need to see her so miserable all the time. "They deserve to be appreciated, don't you think?"

I pressed our cheeks together, and stuck our joined arms out straight, pulling her even closer than before. We strutted down alongside the table, and I realized that we had an audience in the Armadillomon—who were still playing quite loudly with their makeshift drums. I spun her, twirled her, and dipped her. I pretended I was able to tap dance, and lifted her in the air once. It took some time, but eventually, I was able to break through the walls she'd put up, and she cracked a smile. It wasn't long after that first smile that she was grinning and laughing as I whirled her around the room, much to the amusement of the Armadillomon.

"Do you think, when this is all over, you'll be teaching Armadillomon the drums?" she asked, with a laugh. I grinned at her, feeling incredibly lighter, seeing her happiness.

"Only if you have Hawkmon learn the harp," I teased her.

Her smile dimmed, and she stopped dancing, the furrow returned between her brows. I mentally kicked myself. Hawkmon was a sore subject between us.

"Do you know what happened to him?" she asked me in a strained voice. She didn't leave me any room to escape answering. She was still holding my hand, and she squeezed my shoulder—a warning in case I was thinking of running.

"No," I told her honestly. It killed me, not knowing what happened to him. I'd waited as long as I could, but I hadn't been able to find him, and I couldn't risk waiting any longer. I didn't allow my face to betray any of my thoughts though. I kept it bland and emotionless.

"Were you with him?" she asked. I cursed her keen eye and observing nature. Of _course_ she would have caught on to that.

"Yes," I admitted quietly.

She wanted to ask more. I could _see_ that she did. The questions were at the tip of her tongue, but she held herself back. She knew I wasn't going to answer. I _couldn't._ And I was fairly certain she was afraid of the answer. She let go of my shoulder, and stepped back. I let her hand fall from mine, and watched as she walked out of the room, not looking back. I clenched my fists, and headed to the door.

There were shadows that wanted to find me, and I could use a good fight.

 _ **Tatum Jefferson:**_

Michael had been going on for hours about his plan to break into the castle. Sometimes I wondered if he was actually worried about going home, or simply wished to explore more of the world in which his mother had been born. I couldn't call him out on this though, because I needed him to feel comfortable telling me the truth, and also, it was entirely his decision to feel whatever emotions he wanted to feel. He belonged no more to Earth than he did to this world, and if he wished to remain here when all was said and done, that would be his own decision. His duty was to be true and honest with himself and do what was best for himself. All else would fall into place around him when the moment came that he was perfectly content with the person he had become and the choices he had made.

That did not stop me from wishing he would come back with us, however. I cared about him more than almost anyone else. We were essentially an old married couple now. We had been dating officially for just about eight years, and that was a _long_ time. Not only that though, we had lived together for three of those years, gone through hell and back together, fighting for the world, and while it wasn't explicitly my fight to be joining in on, I always had, because I wasn't a horrible person. I could see right and wrong, and ignoring this to let my boyfriend go off on his own to fight was both degrading to women everywhere, and also cowardly. I was _no_ coward. Which was also why I was not scared to continue my life without him were he to stay here to live his life.

I did not _want_ him to, but if he were to choose this hot, stinky world with no plumbing over the rest of us, I wouldn't stop him. It wasn't my place to do so.

We had only just escaped his rants though, and although they sounded logical when he spoke, somehow, whenever we walked away from him we realized the flaws in his plans. It was as if his energy and positivity were blinding us from the holes that could potentially get us killed, but it almost didn't matter just because he was so excitable. But we couldn't pass the guards, if we were seen we would ruin our entire lives here because we would either be on the run, or be in prison, or worse. We could be _beheaded_. Hideto had said that Morganna once threatened to remove his head if he were ever to set foot on her private property again, and that was horrifying simply because there was no way of knowing if she was just being dramatic, or genuine.

Aside from the obvious flaws in Michael's planning, we also could not leave through the Looking Glass, because it would kill us the instant we landed in the Digital World. I knew Mimi would want to go there, and the Looking Glass could very well take her wish over the rest of ours and then she would have killed us all. There was too much risk.

Not that we weren't already in a continuous state of danger. Hideto continually slept walked, and while he remembered nothing throughout the night, he always did wake up near the beanstalk, as if his subconscious mind _needed_ him to climb it, and if he didn't, the story would never go the same way. He, as Jack, was supposed to climb again, and again, and eventually chop the tower down. We all went together to skip the middle steps, taking axes in an attempt to take the beanstalk down, but it refused our axes, not allowing them to even make the tiniest of marks. It was not ready to be chopped down just yet.

Lopmon, though we tried to keep her back, continued to race her turtle friend, and still never won. It seemed that she liked taking the nap more than the racing now though. She had trouble sleeping at night, and often cried, thinking about Terriermon, and of course Willis. She often became frustrated also, because of that fly that simply would not leave her alone. Michael and I trapped it yesterday, knowing that killing it would do nothing to help. So far, the fly was still underneath the glass on the mantelpiece and he yet to bother her.

Mimi was taking our new life the hardest, always becoming fed up with the simplest of problems, stressing out and crying often. It was not her fault, and no one blamed her, though it could get annoying. Her roles in this world were dangerous though, and so it was understandable. She had decided to ensure that someone kept watch of her to ensure she never went anywhere aside from home and the village ever again. I could relate to that, because if I ever walked back toward the forest it was possible that I could fall into the same patterns I recently had and resume my role as Goldilocks. Other than that one slip up, I had yet to find myself in any particular character's role, at least since I had tumbled after 'Jack' on the way to get some water. It was nerve-wracking. What if I was already living a fairy tale without knowing? I couldn't possibly know every story, and it was possible that I could die, very soon in fact. There was no way of knowing until I could recognize something specific.

And then there was Michael, who had taken it pretty rough from the start. He had been thrust into Cinderella's life and then continued to find himself in more and more danger and unpleasant situations. I had essentially kept a close eye on him for weeks, but still things slipped up.

Right now was one of those times that I let him be alone. I was not trying to be controlling or pushy, I was simply trying to keep him safe, and since that wasn't completely possible, I knew I would have to give him _some_ space. So Mimi and I decided to take a trip out to town together, because that was our only other option aside from our living room. We hadn't come with any exact _plan_ , aside from to get our mind off of things.

Lopmon had insisted on coming with us, not wanting to be alone with Michael and Hideto who often sat in complete silence when left on their own. She was sitting in my arms, wrapped around her to keep her safe. Today was the first day in a full week that she had decided to skip the race with her friend, and she seemed lighter—not in weight, but in spirit. She didn't seem so worked up or frustrated, but rather pleased to know that not everything in her life had to revolve around one specific thing.

"Why don't we get some candy?" Lopmon suggested, pointing toward a house that appeared to be entirely made of candy.

"I think we should avoid that _particular_ house," I said nervously, "just in case." I knew the stories better than the others did, and that was stressful on its own. It was good that at least one of us knew what was going on, but also troubling because I could not keep an eye on all of them at every moment of every day.

The town today was less busy than it usually was, because, as it seemed, there were no festivals happening today. Most days there was _something_ going on, whether it be a ball, or a party, or just a wedding. Something was most always going on. Today though, I could actually see through the crowds of people like I'd never been able to before, and see shops and other buildings that I'd never gotten a good look at before. The town really _was_ magical. Michael was not exaggerating in his adoration of this place, it was just that it also seemed fake. To me at least. The way everything glistened in light that wasn't even there seemed to be an eerie sign that we were not even _alive._ And everyone just seemed _so_ sure that this was the only continent in the entire ocean, which seemed ridiculous. If this world was just in a parallel universe to the one in which Earth resided, wasn't it true that it should have _some_ similarities? I'd spent much of my time in the Digital World learning the lay of the land and about the digimon, and everything there matched up to Earth. It was never a perfect match, but there were enough similarities to draw the assumption. Here though, everything was different.

"Is that a spa?" Mimi asked suddenly, her voice weak with a timid sort of excitement. "I-is this real life?'

I followed her gaze and saw a beautiful white building made of stone, towering over many of the others, stretching across the rooftops in every direction. The windows were large and round, and people seemed to be inside enjoying themselves. It certainly seemed like a spa... and I could certainly not think of any fairy tales that explicitly taught me to avoid a pedicure... "Let's do it." I said, determined.

Mimi's face lit up and she ran off, her violet dress flopping around, restricting her movement.

"You picked a spa over candy?" Lopmon asked, suspicious.

"I picked relaxation over being eaten, actually." I told her. She gasped, and decided it was the right choice, so I followed Mimi into the spa.

It seemed so odd to be _here_ after everything we'd been doing in this world, but it felt better than any of that too, so I had not a single care in the world. I did not get a chance to completely relax though, because every time something was brought to us, my mind went on hyper drive, searching endlessly for any warnings. Weird purple fruit were being rubbed on my feet, and at first I was skeptical, but it _was_ relaxing. Now, what fairy tales involved purple fruit? None that I could recall, but I wasn't going to stop watching, I needed to make sure we all got home alive.

Lopmon did not have that worry, she was nearly asleep as a man with strong arms massaged her ears. "Would you like a bow for your..." the man stopped speaking, thinking about what to call Lopmon, "Dog?"

"I'm a rabbit," Lopmon said calmly, "My brother's a dog. I want a bow. Gimme."

The man smiled to her with such kindness that it nearly tricked me into a sense of security, but I couldn't be calm. I needed to keep watch and keep a hold of reality, even though it felt _so_ good to feel this clean. Bathing in mildly warm water in a dirty tub was just not ever going to be enough for me—this though, this was good. I could get used to this.

"Where are your other friends?" the woman who was massaging my scalp asked me, "The other two?"

"They stayed home," I said, relaxed. She'd probably seen Michael and Hideto around town as well. We were well known as the people who lived in the house on the hill and paid for things with golden eggs.

But _Mimi_ , was having serious troubles with relaxing.

The woman who was trying to massage her shoulders kept getting frustrated that Mimi's hair would not stay out of her way, and as a result she accidentally pulled it whenever it fell back over her shoulders. Mimi winced, frustrated. The woman decided finally to put Mimi's hair up first, but the hair was too knotted and tatted. It looked a bit like a lion's mane at this point, messy and frayed. The woman could not run her hands through the hair enough to put it up so she pulled a silver comb from a drawer behind her.

"Hey," I said sharply. The woman stopped and looked to me, "Is that poisoned?"

"N-No?" She stuttered, "I do not think so."

"Okay..." I decided, too comfortable to fight her. She seemed genuine. Mimi trusted my judgement in any case, so I hoped that I wasn't wrong on this one.

But Mimi didn't want the comb—not after the pain she experienced anyway. She was actually _crying_ because of how messy her hair was. The comb tried to pull through the knots, but simply could not make any headway and as a result, always pulled sharply on her hair.

By the end of our session, Lopmon looked clean, fluffy and content, I felt more relaxed than I had been in _months_ , and Mimi had tear stains on her face.

"I'm sorry you didn't enjoy that," I said, ashamed of how good I felt. "I'm sorry it sucked."

"No, don't be," Mimi insisted, trying to stay positive as we made our way back toward the exit to the town. We had already been gone for a couple of hours, it was only fair that we returned to the others now and to make sure they didn't do anything horrendously stupid, like steal a magical harp from a giant and cause mass mayhem and possible death. "I'm glad you're happy. I had a good time." It was the least convincing lie I'd ever heard.

Lopmon seemed to realize that too because she climbed out of my arms and into Mimi's to give her a great big hug. It seemed to help, at least a little because Mimi let out a sigh and followed it with a smile. Her fake-contentedness lasted until we came across the gates that led out of town, they were shut tight, and when we pulled on them, they would not budge.

"What the heck?" Lopmon said loudly, looking upward, "Do we have to climb?"

"I'm not climbing this thing!" Mimi insisted, "it's like twenty feet tall!"

A gentle clearing of someone's throat cause the three of us to look sharply to the left where a man was smiling up at us, "The gates are closed because of the date. It is therefore advised that anyone wishing to leave town use the back entrance."

"There's a back entrance?" Lopmon asked.

"Why is this date important?" I asked.

"It is the date the giant always comes." The man said kindly. "When he comes to the gates and sees we are not open he will turn back."

All three of us stared back at him in shock. Did he _really_ think that these gates would keep a giant away? Besides, we knew that the giant wasn't going to be heading this way because the resident Jack was smarter than that. He had to know not to climb that beanstalk again. But we couldn't be sure unless we got back to the house, immediately. "Where is the back entrance?" I questioned.

"In the back," The man said kindly.

"Whatever," I said, grabbing Mimi's arm. "We should get going." I dragged Mimi through the town, weaving in and out of the streets. There were even _less_ people now than there were before, and it now made sense. They were all in hiding, afraid the giant might come for them if the gates proved to be no match for him. It was probably a bad thing that my mind thought it might be a good thing. If we could get the giant into the town to disturb the people, it might serve as enough of a distraction to get back into the castle. But was it worth it?

Mimi pulled hard, stopping me in my tracks when we made our way through the marketplace. She held up a wicker basket and thrust it into my arms. "Hideto made me promise to bring back some fruit." Mimi then began loading all of the bizarre fruits that this world had to offer into my basket. The swirly ones that Hideto and I enjoyed, and the spiky purple ones Mimi liked. Everything about this world was abnormal, and it was for that reason that I did not enjoy it at all. It wasn't that I had anything against things or people that were different, I was just bitter and wanted to go home. When Mimi began questioning the man about which fruits had _just_ enough sweetness to compliment the bitter green berries in her hand, I decided it was time to go.

I paid the man quickly and took Mimi's hand, dragging her through the streets again. "Why are we in such a hurry?" she asked.

"I just want to make sure Hideto doesn't do anything stupid." I said, clutching the basket close.

"You don't think he'd—" Lopmon started, but when I looked down to her sharply she looked horrified. It wasn't always our own choices that led to our decisions. Sometimes we found ourselves falling into the trap without our consent. Mimi's pace quickened, thankfully, and we arrived at the back entrance quickly.

It was a stone bridge that led straight out of town and across a small stream of water in the ditch below. How were we supposed to get _back_ across the ditch to get to our house though? I figured we could solve that problem when it came to it, because this was obviously the only way out of the town right now.

We set foot onto the bridge, making our way across the long stone path. Something about it all seemed familiar, but it wasn't until we reached the end of the bridge when things turned sour.

Mimi screamed when we heard the growls from below and her pace quickened even further, but we did not make it in time. A large fat blue creature had climbed up onto the bridge with such grace it seemed unrealistic. His rolls of fat were draping over his tight pants and nearly reaching the ground. Every inch of his skin was covered in disgusting pustules and his face was long and droopy. Again, Mimi screamed, this time in disgust.

"Who goes there?" The creature asked, bending forward so that his stubby legs trembled under the shifting weight. "Who trespasses on _my_ bridge?"

"A troll," I hissed under my breath, I cleared my throat and looked up to the big blue troll nervously. We certainly could not follow the story of the goats who tried to cross the bridge. I was not strong enough to easily push the troll aside. My eyes slowly turned to Lopmon. Perhaps she was the Papa goat. She could use her fighting skills to knock him aside and we could cross.

"Give me one reason I should not eat you!" The troll bellowed, his wretched breath wafting over us as spit flew from his mouth with each word.

"B-b-because t-there are b-bigger goats!" I stuttered, horrified.

The troll turned to me, confused, and I couldn't blame him. It made no sense. We could run back maybe, sure the bridge was long but the troll didn't look as though he would be too fast. "I do not need a bigger goat," The troll said, his voice quieter now, but spit was still flying from his mouth. "I have three goats here."

"We are _not_ goats, you big _oaf_!" Lopmon shouted, jumping from Mimi's arms. "Get out of the way or I'll beat you up!" The troll simply laughed at her, his large belly jiggled and rippled with his laughter. "Blazing Ice!" Lopmon shouted, sending shards of rose tinted ice toward the troll. Most of the shards bounced from his stomach and flew into the water below, hardly phasing the troll at all, but one soared toward his cheek and sliced his skin.

The troll looked shocked and angry, turning toward the three of us with a horribly unsettling expression, "How dare you!" The troll's voice was so loud now that I could feel my bones vibrating with the bass tones. Mimi whimpered, but Lopmon seemed to hold her ground. She had faced worse before.

"BEGONE!"

We all looked back quickly to see a beautiful woman with long locks of silver hair. She was wearing a long black and green dress and both of her arms were raised high above her head where an orb of light was shining.

The troll let out a loud scream of fear and when I looked back to him he had begun toppling over, running from the woman who I knew to be the queen of this world. There was a splash from below, and he was gone, just like that.

"Thank you!" Mimi said, her voice breathy and nervous, "You saved us!"

"It was the least I could do," the queen said with a heroic sort of voice. She looked to the three of us with a stern, but caring face and then stepped forward to inspect each of us. "Are you alright?" She asked Mimi. She nodded and smiled, grateful for the assistance. The queen turned to Lopmon and crouched down gracefully, patting Lopmon on the head, "I am pleased to see he did not harm you." Lopmon seemed pleased, but when the queen turned to me I saw no flash of evil in her eyes as I had expected to, she simply walked toward me and embraced me. Something was up, that was for sure. The last time I had seen her she nearly ripped my head off for yelling at her. She _had_ kissed my boyfriend though, and that wasn't the first time a royal member of another world kissed my boyfriend in an attempt to take him from me. I wasn't going to let that happen again.

When the queen finally let go of me I took a nervous step away from her, "Thank you," I said, though my suspicious mind had not been put to rest, "for saving our lives."

"It was my pleasure," she said kindly, "really." She then looked off into the distance with a worried expression, "You might want to hurry home. Danger could arise very shortly." She then turned her back to us, and said, "Good luck in your attempts to locate the Wizard. Though he no longer exists, and I suspect you might wish to get used to your lives here."

"Thank you again!" Mimi shouted as the queen began to walk back across the bridge. When she was out of earshot Mimi sighed, "Well she sure has had a change of heart."

"I don't trust her." I said quietly, "I really don't."

"Me neither." Lopmon agreed, jumping into my arms.

"I don't know," Mimi said with a shrug, "she seems nice."

Both Lopmon and I turned to Mimi with annoyed faces and she looked frightened when we had. Lopmon suddenly gasped and was very careful with her next words, "Mimi, don't freak out." Mimi was already freaking out, she was shaking and whipping her head around nervously to find whatever it was that Lopmon had. "You have troll spit in your hair."

Mimi's face lost all colour and she let out a scream as she tore across what was left of the bridge and took a very sharp turn. I followed her as quickly as I could but she had already made her way down the ditch, away from where the troll seemed to live. I was halfway down, following after her when she had dunked her head under the murky water to wash the spit out of her hair. I watched, feeling immensely bad for her as she scrubbed her hair. Then she froze and let out another scream, whipping her hair out of the water, splashing both Lopmon and myself.

"A _fish_!" Mimi's scream came loud and clear and she wasn't wrong. In her hair was a long slender black fish, gripping tightly to her hair with its mouth. It was hanging in front of her face with the rest of her hair and she began slapping the fish, screaming all the while.

"Mimi!" I hissed, nervous about the troll hearing us, but I moved forward to help her. She flung her head around to try to make the fish release her hair, but it wouldn't budge, so I caught it and began prying at its mouth. The fish appeared to have human teeth which was _horrifying_ in itself, but its jaw was strong. Eventually, with Lopmon's help we managed to pull the fish away from Mimi's hair. "We've got it!"

"Oh my _God_!" Mimi sobbed, rushing up the other end of the ditch, practically crawling the whole way up. I thought we could keep the fish to eat later, so we would have some actual meat, so I ripped a piece of my dress from the bottom and wrapped the fish, tossing it into the basket with the fruits where it nearly knocked an apple out. I balanced the fruit and set off after Mimi, Lopmon in tow. Mimi had tripped, so we caught up quickly, helped her to her feet and continued on our way to the house, with Mimi acting a _bit_ more calm, but still shuddering every few minutes, still disgusted by what had just happened.

When we reached the house, Mimi flung herself toward the floor and leaned against the counter, feeling entirely defeated. I set the basket of fruit on the table and moved the fish to the kitchen where Mimi or Hideto could prepare it for dinner. "Michael?" I called out. I heard movement upstairs, and soon Michael had appeared in the kitchen, looking like he'd had quite a relaxing day. "Where is Hideto?"

"Oh, he left," Michael said, shrugging it off.

Mimi let out a horribly loud groan of despair as she pulled herself to her feet, and flung herself toward the door, "Hideto you _idiot_!" She screamed, rushing off toward the beanstalk.

"Should we go after her?" Lopmon asked.

"She'll be okay," I said, though there was no way to be sure. I moved toward the living room and sat on the most comfortable chair we owned. I missed the spa and wanted to retain what little relaxation I had left in me.

"Woah!" Lopmon gasped, leaping up to my shoulder and pointing to the fireplace, "The fly!" I followed her point and saw that inside the glass Michael had used to capture the fly there was a large black monstrosity. It looked as though the fly was growing to exponential sizes simply in an attempt to escape its prison. "If that thing comes for me, I'm _out_ of here." Lopmon said nervously.

"Yeah, it grew," Michael said, waving it off. I looked over to him and he was examining the fruits in the basket, looking for something to eat. "Creepy right? Hey I love apples!"

I looked back to the bug, and he wasn't wrong—it _was_ creepy. It was like no matter how unrealistic it was, the fairy tales _craved_ conclusion, like it would not stop until the story was over— "Apples?" I gasped, jumping to my feet, there were no apples in this world.

I spun around in time to see Michael's face turn pale as he fell to the ground, collapsing as the poison from the apple rushed through his body. "Michael!" I gasped, rushing toward him, nearly tripping on the apple that rolled from his loose grip as he lay on the wooden floor. Tears were in my eyes already. I'd been _stupid_ to think this wouldn't happen. How had I let something so trivial slip through? "Michael, I'm sorry!" I gasped, bringing his limp body toward me and into a hug. The stories _had_ to end. There was no other way. Not unless we escaped this horrible world. Mimi would be eaten and Hideto would have to face a giant.

"Kiss him," Lopmon whispered, fear taking over her voice, "K-kiss him. Do it."

"True loves kiss..." I said nervously, looking down to Michael in my arms. Was that possible? Would it work? It was part of the fairy tale—surely it had to! I leaned down and pressed my lips to his. They were cold, and stiff, death already had taken him. Was it too late? I pulled away slowly and Michael's eyes fluttered open immediately. Relief washed over me as I stared down to him, slowly waking up. He looked to me, his eyes filled with adoration and I knew he was going to be okay. "You dumb ass!" I growled as I slapped him across the face.

"Ow!" he gasped, "Tatum— _ow_!"

"Don't eat apples!" I snapped, "I told you that!" He looked upset with himself, so I leaned forward and hugged him, more relieved to have him alive than upset that he didn't heed my warning.

It was then that the door burst open again and Mimi and Hideto strode through the door. "I wasn't even _close_ to the beanstalk," Hideto was saying, "I was just wandering around!"

"Alone!" Mimi clarified, "In the forest. You could have gone there!"

"But I _didn't_!" He insisted. "I just needed to get away from Michael."

We all turned to Michael who looked hurt, "Why?" He asked nervously.

"Because the queen told me to rip out his heart!" Hideto exclaimed, "I was scared I'd do it!"

"Why does she want my heart?" Michael gasped.

"Because you're the prettiest in the land apparently," Hideto said awkwardly, "I don't know."

"She really said that?" Michael asked, flattered.

We all turned sharply at the sound of shattering glass and looked to the pile of broken shards on the ground near the fireplace. Lopmon let out a horrified shriek, spotting the bug before any of us and she leapt toward the door, slipping through it, but the bug wasn't going to let her get away that quickly. It was now the size of a ping-pong ball and was soaring straight toward the doorway where Hideto and Mimi still stood.

But then it got caught in her hair. "NO!" Mimi sobbed instantly, too fed up with this nonsense to put up with it any longer. She reached into her hair and grabbed the massive creature. She held it in her palm and threw it toward the door where it soared out into the night air. She then turned toward the kitchen without any hesitation, the most intense frustration plastered onto her face as she reached back and held her mess of hair together into a ponytail. She then grabbed the sharpest knife from our collection and in one swift movement, sliced straight through all of her hair, cutting the ponytail off completely.

"Mimi!" Michael gasped, stifling laughter as Mimi dropped her removed hair to the counter in front of her. "What the heck?"

"I can't do it." She said, turning to us. With the way her voice sounded, I was surprised her eye wasn't twitching. Her hair now fell to a place between her jaw and shoulder, and luckily didn't look horrible. "I can't live like this anymore; we have to find the Wizard. We have to find him _now._ "

"We don't know where he is," Michael said, annoyed as Lopmon slammed the front door, slipping through to escape her bug. She hopped around the room ensuring each window was shut tight. "We can't just keep looking, what if he doesn't exist?"

"He does," I assured him, "The queen wouldn't be so adamant about throwing us off our course if he didn't. She's not nice, she doesn't have our best interest in mind. He's here _somewhere_."

Hideto ran his hands through his hair, in taking a long breath, he seemed to realize something, "The woods," he said nervously, "he's in the woods."

"How can you be sure?" I asked, "It seems dangerous."

"No one goes in there," Hideto confirmed, "No one knows where the wizard is. The queen was the lady I found in there when she was telling me to turn back. She was going to remove my head for stepping on her property—but why would she have property in the woods? He's there! He has to be!"

"We're going." Mimi said very seriously, "Right now."

"It's getting dark," I objected.

"I want to go home," Mimi said, her voice calm but emotional, "We're going tonight." I looked to Michael, remembering his near death experience. The story was over which simply invited him, and myself as I had been the prince all along, into another story that could be much worse. Hideto could at any given moment release a giant from the sky, and Mimi could be eaten by a wolf. As long as we protected her in our journey through the trees it should be okay.

"Let's go." I decided. "To the wizard."

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Michael learns the dangers of the dark ocean and avoiding contact with everything without ever setting foot in the world. :O Untouchable is the next chapter btw. And Cody's there too—but he's actually _in_ the world that Michael learns the dangers of.


	29. Untouchable

**Y/N:** Cody again, which means it's awesome! I love it. The end.

 **U/N:** Michael again?! Woah! I love writing as Michael. But right now I'm super tired and feel like I can't comprehend words which I guess is why these author notes are sounding more and more ridiculous. I hope you like this though, and I hope you don't think this whole arc is too ridiculous or pointless because it really isn't xD

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Sidhendor and the Dark Ocean**

 **Chapter 29: Untouchable**

 _ **Michael Washington:**_

"Really?" Mimi asked, running her hand through her hair, "You don't think it looks horrible?"

"I don't," I promised, tossing whatever I could into my bag. Rope, we might need it if we were to fall into a hole, and there was no telling what was going on in the forest here. Extra water, because who knew how long we'd be searching. Matches, what if we needed to start a fire? "Besides, it'll grow back."

"Oh no it won't!" Mimi said, determined to never have long hair again. She already had it brushed out and so far nothing horrible had happened to her in the past hour, and her mood had already begun rising. My hair was getting kind of long too, but I couldn't have a big dramatic cutting hair moment, because when _my_ hair got long, it was like, three inches at most.

Tatum came rushing back into the kitchen from upstairs, and she was now wearing ridiculous leather pants and a tan coloured tunic overtop. Her red hair was still braided down her back as she rummaged through the brown wicker basket at her side. She looked up when she spotted the two of us and she half smiled, "Ready?"

"Of course," I nodded, "Are you?"

She nodded, "Where's Hideto?"

"I'm right here!" We could hear Hideto from outside the kitchen window, "I'm with Lucy." Oh, right. Our goose.

Lopmon in a frenzy, slammed the window that Mimi had opened, and glared at her. "Keep all the windows shut!" Lopmon insisted, "I don't want that monster of a fly getting back in here _ever_. It's freaking me out!"

With the window shut, which wasn't going to be important soon because Lopmon had decided to come with us, so the fly would find her one way or another, we continued getting ourselves ready. I pulled on the black boots that actually looked good on me, and threw a blue jacket over top of my clothes. It was kind of troubling how _stiff_ all of the clothing in this world was, but it was really fun to wear and it looked really authentically old. So that was cool. Mimi grabbed the red cloak and threw it over herself, deciding that if the wolf was going to chase her anyway, she may as well make it easier. We would deal with him immediately, and get that over with. Tatum was waiting by the door for us and when we decided we were done, she opened it up and the four of us stepped out.

The air was cool, and the grounds were darker than the sky for once. It looked like, were there to be a sun in the world at all, it would be setting just now, preparing for dark. I also subconsciously expected mosquito's simply because of the way it all reminded me of a summer night, but there were none here, and if that didn't convince anyone that this world was amazing, I didn't know what did. The ground was kind of soft tonight though, like it had recently rained, and the dirt had turned to mud, but it hadn't rained. I wasn't even sure if it _could_ rain here, I certainly couldn't remember it happening.

"We're leaving?" Hideto asked from where he sat on a fence post, patting the goose. I noticed that he had fed her extra this time, just in case we didn't come back. Luckily, if we didn't, she could just fly out of her pen and resume life elsewhere. Tatum nodded to him and so he spun his feet around and stood up, outside the pen. He was wearing, once again, that black hooded attire with the loose fitting pants. "To the wizard!" he said, pretending to be enthusiastic.

"To the wizard!" Mimi repeated with a thick sarcastic tone.

As a group of five, we began marching toward the dark, spooky forest in the distance. It had been a place we'd all agreed to stay away from for so long, and it now seemed that we were either facing our fears, or disregarding them, and either way it sent chills down my spine. The trees, that stretched out as far as I could see in each direction, were all tall and jagged, pointing to the sky with their marled branches where they stood as dark silhouettes against the deep blue sky.

"Okay," Tatum said, taking the lead, "Remember, the creatures in the forest are _real_ and they are dangerous. There are many stories involving animals, and not many of them end well." Lopmon shuddered at the thought, "So remember, if a bear tells you he's a prince—he is. If a wolf tries to eat you—he _will_. Just keep an eye out."

"Sure thing," Hideto agreed.

"And," Tatum added, "Stick together. We can't go splitting up in a place as dangerous as this. Especially not when a wolf specifically wants Mimi, or when I could easily be swayed into those bear's house again, and Hideto might want to climb the beanstalk."

"I guess that puts you in charge, Micahel." Hideto said calmly.

"Oh no," I shook my head, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Sure it is," Lopmon assured me, "You're smart enough, athletic enough—would it help if we went and bought some goggles?"

"No," I said adamantly, "I'm just not a leader type. I'll keep an eye on you all, that's what I can promise."

"Fair enough," Hideto decided, as if he wanted the conversation to end right then. I couldn't blame him. At the moment, I wanted to focus on nothing aside from the forest that was growing ever nearer. It wouldn't be long before we had placed ourselves within its darkness. Honestly, it would have made infinitely more sense to go inside the woods in the day time, but with Mimi being so serious and determined to get home, no one wanted to go against her wishes. We probably wouldn't find anything and end up going home to start search again in the morning. But taking a look around wouldn't hurt... unless it did.

"Here we go..." Lopmon said, her voice thick and twisted, like my stomach. We were on the edge of the woods now, with the first of the trees falling in line with our steps. Soon we would be in the thick of the woods, trapped inside the dark, likely horrifying home to so many animals. Well, at least one animal. One ferocious, girl eating wolf. "Anyone ready to go home yet?" Lopmon's voice was cold and distant already.

"Not a chance," Mimi said, actually sounding brave, but the look on her face didn't say the same. She, just like everyone else, looked nervous and like this was going to be a bad idea. Maybe she'd call it off and we could actually do it in the morning when it didn't look like the setting for a crazed psychotic horror movie. "We've got to do this. We can't be scared. It isn't an option." Or not. She could just get _more_ determined, and we would all continue heading into the total darkness that was before us.

I understood though. She wanted to see Palmon, and to know if she was okay. That was something I could definitely relate to. I had no idea if Betamon, or Jenna, or Willis were okay. It was a little different than Mimi with Palmon because she had actually left her _in_ the virus, but it was generally the same feeling. A horrible pain in our hearts every single time one of them came up in conversation, or just in thought. There was no proof that any of them had survived. We could very well be the only ones alive at all. It had been two months after all. What if the others _had_ survived, the war had continued and all _hell_ had broken loose, destroying both of our home worlds. It was a possibility, and we'd never know until we found the wizard, and got home. So yeah, I could understand her determination, I guess I had just been hoping that her drowsiness would kick in instead. One extra night of waiting couldn't hurt that much, could it?

"Did you hear that?" Lopmon asked sharply, just as we'd entered the thicker parts of the woods, where there were trees more than ten feet apart from one another.

"Don't," Hideto warned, gripping his woodcutting axe tighter in his hand. "Don't scare us like that. My mind is already scared enough. I can barely think straight because of that damned beanstalk. I can't stop myself from wanting to go over to it. It's like I'm not allowed to use my own brain anymore—I may as well be completely brainless."

"Don't say that," Mimi comforted, "You've got to think positively. Come on, let's keep going. Maybe if we get further away from the beanstalk we can leave." It just dawned on me now that I'd never actually _seen_ the beanstalk, or knew where it was, I supposed that was all for Hideto to know and for no one else to hopefully ever find out.

We walked in total silence for a few minutes until Lopmon tightened her grip on my head and then leapt over to Tatum nervously. "I heard it again."

"Lopmon," Hideto tried to reason, "You have to under—"

"No!" Lopmon gasped, fear overtaking her as she jumped off of Tatum's head, landing on the ground. I could tell the others had reacted the same as I had, in fear. My stomach seized up and my heart began beating faster as I prepared myself to run from whatever it was Lopmon had heard. Then, as something zoomed past my head, my heart skipped a beat. "Get away!" Lopmon shrieked in horror as the enormous fly attempted to get to her.

"Oh my God!" Mimi gasped, relaxing, nearly letting laughter take over, "I thought—"

Just then, a blur of fur and claws had leapt through the air, grabbing the fly in its great jaw. With a rough and clambered landing, the great beast had turned its head slowly to lay eyes on Mimi. Large, round amber eyes had focused with so much hunger and lust onto the girl in the red cloak.

Everything happened very quickly after that as Hideto had pulled his axe up, prepared to fight, and Tatum did the same, but with the small knife she had brought, but Mimi set off running, faster than I'd ever seen her run. But instead of running back, like a normal human being might do, she ran deeper into the woods.

"Blazing ice!" Lopmon shouted loudly, sending shards of ice toward our new enemy.

I wish I had thought to bring a weapon. All I had was rope that, if I were a cowboy might be useful, was entirely useless. Hideto didn't waste a second, reaching forward with his axe arm, and swinging toward the beast, ready to strike, but the wolf turned sharply and snarled at him for taking his attention away from Mimi. He snapped and bit in the air toward Hideto who jumped back, nearly tripping on a trees root.

I nervously pulled out the matches I'd packed and lit one up tossing it to the dead leaves around the wolf's feet. In seconds there was a small fire around him and he whined, stomping the fire out.

"Go!" Tatum shouted as the wolf was distracted. "And _never_ do that again!" Tatum insisted as we all set off running toward Mimi, wherever she had gone. I was now running as fast as my legs could carry me, silently hoping that the fire could somehow kill the wolf, and then _not_ burn the whole forest down, but it didn't seem likely. The fire would only temporarily distract the wolf and we were in for a horrible surprise when he showed up again.

And, just like I'd said, a horrible surprise popped up. Hideto had tripped, throwing his axe through the air dangerously. "Watch it!" I warned in a panic. Tatum rushed toward Hideto as I hurried to collect his fallen weapon, but when I heard screams I turned back to see the wolf had begun dragging Hideto by his foot, the long yellowing teeth had sunk into his flesh. I could practically _feel_ my face turn white. I couldn't let Hideto be eaten!

I got up and turned toward the wolf, but he released Hideto, he never wanted him. And then, with one swift movement he had leapt through the air, landing between Tatum and I.

"Run!" Lopmon, who was on Tatum's shoulder insisted. Tatum and I locked eyes and decided what we'd need to do.

"Hey!" I shouted, using the axe to hit the wolf over the head, "Come with me! I know where Mimi went!" I then set off at a run, not looking back for a moment. I could only hope that Tatum was able to take care of Hideto, and that Mimi was actually _not_ in the direction I was running. Also, that _someone_ had put out that fire, because that wasn't one of my best ideas.

I knew the wolf was following me now, I could hear his breath and his footsteps, and when I looked back I could see his great big form, following me with a horrible look in his eyes.

I was pushing with more might than I knew I had with each step, running faster than I knew to be possible away from the four legged monster who surely had to be catching up by now. I was a mere human against a wolf the size of a bear. There was simply no way I could be faster than him.

When I risked a look over my shoulder I panicked. I didn't see him at all.

I stopped running immediately and spun around to see every side of me. There was nothing there. Darkness and trees was all I could see now. Where had the wolf gone? Had I led him to Mimi by mistake? Was she now being _eaten_ by the horrible monster that had been trying to do just that for the past two months and never succeeding? Had I caused the downfall of my oldest friend?

And then I heard a soft whimper and relief washed over me. It had to be Mimi. I rushed toward the sound, weaving in and out of the tall, twisted trees, practically dragging the axe around behind me. I had to find her to be sure she was okay and not being eaten.

And then I found her, silver robes lay in folds, draping across the ground as she sobbed into her arms, laid gently over a perfectly sized boulder. This wasn't Mimi, I realized when the silvery hair came into view. Mimi was still out there somewhere, and as much as I wanted to be afraid of this mysterious ghostly figure sobbing in the dead of the night in the middle of some insane forest, I knew I had to keep strong and go find Mimi.

"B-boy!" the whimpering stopped the moment I turned away, and I froze, agitated. I couldn't deal with this right now. I was busy. Couldn't she haunt me later? "I need your assistance!"

"It has to wait," I said, not bothering to look back. Mimi was more important right now. Hideto and Tatum too. Lopmon could handle herself, but for how long?

"It cannot!" the woman pleaded, "I am dying!"

I sighed as the guilt sunk in. I couldn't leave a dying girl out in the woods all alone. I was selfish sometimes, sure, but not heartless. I turned to her and moved quickly, there wasn't much time to waste. "What happened? Are you alright?" she didn't bother to look up when I spoke, and kept her head pressed against her arms, like she never wanted to stop crying. I tried to get close without stepping on her elegant silk robes that were just far too long and had the entire area surrounded.

"No," she said annoyed, "I'm dying."

"No need to be snippy!" I insisted, kneeling down next to her, using the axe for balance, resting my one arm on the handle. "How can I help? Can you stand? Let's get you back to the village." The woman didn't answer immediately, like she might be toying with the idea of going to safety, like it wasn't a _great_ idea, but it would have to do. Slowly she lifted her head and looked to me, her hair was draping over her face, her eyes were cold and distant, and even though her face didn't look the same, those eyes told me who I was speaking to. "Hey!" I shouted, jumping to my feet. "You're the queen!"

"No I'm not!" the woman insisted, but it wasn't enough to persuade me. I'd seen enough craziness in this world already to know that this was just another trick.

"I know who you are," I told her with a cold growl, "You're the crazy lady who told my friend to rip my heart out."

Her face looked so innocent, so pure, that for just a _second_ I felt bad for calling her out, but it didn't last long for she saw that I was going to give her no more sympathy. "It was just so _pure_." Her voice was suddenly bitter and angry. Her face shifted back to the face I had seen when I went to the ball—the face that had kissed me. "Just like your mother's heart. Pure, and warm. It granted you with beautiful skin, beautiful _hair_ and a beautiful _soul_." I wondered if I should thank her or not, but it didn't seem like it was coming from a place of genuine kindness, "I wanted it for _myself_."

"Okay," I said awkwardly, "That's creepy." Then I paused, "Wait, how did you know my mother?"

"Who didn't?" The queen drawled, throwing her head back as her long locks of silver hair reflected the moonlight that never was. She set her hungry eyes on me, and pulled herself to her feet. "She and her sisters were known across the land, thanks to their wretched parents."

"Well, see there we agree," I said slowly, trying to plan my escape route, "Sigma was a dick."

The queen's eyes flashed with anger and I panicked. Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best choice of words. Had she enjoyed Sigma's company? I didn't know. I was confused, and I wanted to go home now. Just to the cabin on the hilltop—that was good enough for me. Just somewhere I could feel safe. "But they're all gone now," the queen said quietly, "They're all gone and dead. We made sure of that." I knew they weren't all dead. I had seen three of them myself—well, four including my mother, but she was actually dead. I also knew though, that it would not be intelligent to point this out to her, so instead I said nothing at all. "Royal blood runs through _your_ veins. I cannot allow that to be exclusively yours. I cannot allow the heart in your chest to belong to someone who does not fully understand what it means to be beautiful." My heart seemed to know something was up, because it began beating faster than even before, and I thought maybe I was about to have a heart attack, but I couldn't, now wasn't the time. I needed to get to Mimi—to save her.

Then, out of nowhere, the queen lunged toward me, her pale hands outstretched to reach for me. In a panic, I swung the axe toward her, hoping to just take her head off, or something maybe less dramatic and gory, but I missed entirely, and she slapped my arm with such force that the axe fell from my grips. She pushed me down, toward the ground and knelt over my body as the long, draping silver fabric covered my whole body. "Get _off_!"I shouted, kicking at her to the best of my ability as her cold hands wrapped around my wrists, pinning them to the ground.

"I think I love you," The queen said as her hair fell around her face and to the ground around mine, creating a sort of tunnel of silver for just our faces. It was disturbing, especially with the way her face was twisting into a wicked sort of grin. "You're the one. You're the only one—after him. I have no one left."

"S-Sigma?" I asked nervously.

Her eyes flashed again, this time with longing, or hunger, and I knew that she had been in love with him. "I love you, yes," she said again, "but you cannot live. You cannot continue to go on with the heart you have. I must take it from you and keep it as my own." She leaned in closer to me and for a second I thought she was going to kiss me again, so I struggled harder, but she was too strong. She pressed her face against the side of mine and whispered, "Will you grant me the love that's in your heart?"

"I already gave that to someone," I said stubbornly, "I gave it to Tatum, who I'll never stop loving, even if you _do_ take my heart."

"Good answer!"

It wasn't the queen who had spoken. It had been Tatum's voice that I'd heard and in a second, the queen had been tossed off of my body and relief shot through my wrists with the loss of her weight. I rolled away and used the rock to pull myself up, grabbing the axe to be prepared. I could see that Tatum had shoved the queen away, but she had been accompanied by a limping Hideto and Lopmon who was ready to fight, her fists in the air.

The queen looked to Tatum and her eyes flashed with the purest of hatred, "How _dare_ you take that from me?" she was genuinely furious now, as if Tatum had actually done something the queen had not expected her to do. Had she expected her to let her take my heart? "I'll get you, you stupid girl!"

She tried to step forward to get Tatum, but I was quick to intervene, the axe in my hand. "I don't think so."

"Back off, Lady!" Lopmon growled.

The queen stepped back again, angry now as she slowly moved back further and further until she had pressed her back against a tree. She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, sighing in frustration. "I'll get you. And your little rodent too."

She swished her robes and for a second I thought that she was about to vanish, but instead a spark of light shot through the air as fast as a bullet and it hit me square in the chest.

"Michael!" Tatum shouted, dropping to the ground as Hideto turned to watch the queen disappear from the forest.

I slammed against the ground, but didn't feel dead. I panicked though, because I could feel something happening to my hand. I looked to the axe I had been holding and watched as it turned to pure gold. My eyebrows pressed together as the leaves under my other hand became uncomfortable. I looked to them and saw that they too were turning to gold. I heard Tatum curse under her breath so I looked to her, "What's wrong?" I asked nervously, "What's happening?"

"You have the curse of the golden touch."

This time, it was the queen whose voice had startled me. It was coming from nowhere in particular now though. It was simply echoing from every tree, and also none of them. Her voice was just _there_. "Everything you touch will simply turn to gold. Good luck with that love of yours now." I turned to Tatum nervously, "If you ever touch her again, she'll turn to a statue, and be as dead as your dear old mother." I started growling, grabbing a handful of leaves and throwing it into the sky to wherever the queen would feel the most present at the time. "If I can't have that heart," she said bitterly, "no one can."

 _ **Iori Hida:**_

I hated my beard. I didn't _want_ a beard. Not once in my entire life did I sit there and think _hey, I think I'd like a beard_. Nope. I didn't want one. I had one now, because my choices were being decapitated by a cursed blade, or to suck it up.

Miyako made the choice for me, because I'd debated just a second too long, and she'd panicked.

I missed my razor. I missed the _sun_. I was so pale it was ridiculous. It wasn't even a _nice_ pale. It was grey. I was grey. My hair looked pitch black next to my skin, even though I _knew_ it wasn't. I didn't look anything like myself. And I kept getting beat up. I'd been a good fighter, before getting locked in the Dark Ocean—or at least I _thought_ I had been. I was better now. I got beaten less when I went on Winter's stupid and pointless missions. I was eighty percent sure the only reason she sent me out at all was because I had a tendency to brood when I was bored, and she didn't like it.

I didn't actually _mind_ spending all day out exploring the Dark Ocean. It wasn't my dream vacation by a long shot, but it wasn't absolutely terrible. It was relaxing almost. I could close my eyes and walk along the sand, listening to the waves gently roll onto the shore, and it was damn near pleasant.

That's usually when the shadows decided to show up and ruin things though, and I'd have to open my eyes and see the monosyllabic scenery, and remember that the water looked like black sludge. I'd take my frustration at all the grey out on the shadows though, usually blasting them with my digivice as a last resort. It wasn't as cathartic as kendo, but beating on shadows was pretty fun. It was cheap entertainment in any case.

It was really my _only_ form of entertainment.

I knew that Miyako played games with Bengoshi and the Armadillomon, to fill her day, but I couldn't be bothered to play a card game. I was inherently angry. It wasn't quite the same as when Daemon was infecting me with his wrath, when he and his sin digimon were playing their games, but it felt vaguely similar. I could tell that this was the way the Dark Ocean was going to affect me.

When I compared my results with Bengoshi's or with Winter's, I'd gotten off lucky. My anger was providing me with a lot of fun. My knuckles were still pleasantly burning from my latest encounter with the shadows. There were only three today. It was hardly a challenge anymore. I blew on my knuckles before taking the bottle Winter had given me and filling it with the sludgy, black water. I was disgusted that Bengoshi had ever even _thought_ this was passable as a beverage.

I put the cap on the bottle, and started walking nonchalantly back towards the castle. I tried really hard to ignore the way my moustache tickled my nose when I breathed. Miyako might be distracted by Bengoshi, I couldn't help but think. If she was distracted, she wouldn't be able to _stop_ me from trying to shave this mess off my face.

But I wouldn't do it.

I didn't want to worry her. She was already freaking out enough about Bengoshi's transformation. His hand had spread, and his entire right arm and half of his torso was already full on shadow. I knew he was trying to keep the others from noticing that the shadow had spread up half his neck and down his legs. One leg was entirely infected; the other wasn't quite as bad. He never seemed to remember I was there—probably due to my daily absences.

We shared a room though...so I got to see more of him than I ever wanted to. I knew exactly how far the plague was spreading. I wasn't afraid of it. I was almost anticipating the moment that it took him over entirely. When he was gone, I could just toss him back outside, and Winter could finally focus her energies on her original mission, instead of swerving off course to take care of this new mess.

If she had bothered to keep on track in the first place, and _actually_ figured out a way to keep the promise she made to Miyako, then the darkness wouldn't be spreading through Bengoshi at all. We'd be on Earth or in the Digital World by now, and this wouldn't have been an issue. But she was stalling. She couldn't figure out the barriers.

I was about _this_ close to telling her to send me to the Land of Dreams instead.

I trusted Summer a hell of a lot more than I trusted Winter. I didn't care that the pair were sisters. Summer was kind and giving and she lived in a world that _wouldn't_ infect Miyako or her baby with pure darkness. It just seemed to be the easier option to me, but Miyako was insistent that I not bother Winter, so that she could get her work done. I figured it was just some sense of loyalty to _her_ fairy queen.

The bitter part of my mind couldn't help but notice that _I_ was closer with Summer than Miyako was with Winter. I didn't know if Daisuke had even _seen_ Spring since he saved her from her laboratory prison. It didn't matter though. We weren't allowed to escape from the Dark Ocean into a happy, wonderful world of possibilities unless it was _Winter's_ idea.

And she didn't seem to _want_ us to leave, with how easily distracted she was.

I was aware that I was being unfair to Bengoshi, but I couldn't bring myself to care. I wasn't even deluded enough to assume it was just the influence of the Dark Ocean talking. I was willing to do just about _anything_ to ensure that Miyako's child was born in a world with sunlight. I wanted to make sure the baby was born in a world where it was safe to be outside, preferably with an extensively developed medical facility. I wanted the world for that kid.

But not _this_ world.

I wanted that baby to have a long and happy life, and I was fully willing to live my entire life protecting that small child. I would fight thousands of shadows if it meant he—or _she_ —could walk outside without fear.

It would be _better_ though, if the baby could grow on Earth or the Digital World, where he—or she—could find his—or her—partner, and they could grow and live together, learning to love and cherish the digimon that was his—or her—other half. I really didn't want this baby to miss out on the pure and beautiful relationship that partners have. I couldn't imagine not having got that chance at meeting Armadillomon.

It was hard enough to bear the idea that I wouldn't be able to see him again. It was heartbreaking, to be ripped away from him—from _everyone_ really—but at least I'd gotten a chance to know him, to _love_ him. Would this baby even get _that_ much?

If Winter couldn't figure it out and keep her promise, the answer would be no.

I wouldn't get to see Armadillomon again.

I wouldn't get to spend another night lounging in front of the television with Gatomon curled up on my lap, watching whatever movie Goblimon picked at random, trying to catch popcorn in my mouth that Hikari was throwing from across the room. I wouldn't get to hear Natsuni laugh as I failed or have Armadillomon jump in the popcorn's path and snatch it up mid-air.

I wouldn't be able to take Meiyomon back to the Land of Dreams to have another family picnic with Summer and Kotemon. I wouldn't get the chance to invite Yuk and Huh to join us. They meant a lot to Grandpa, and I'd neglected them. I couldn't make up for that anymore.

I wouldn't have a chance to talk to Mr Ando, asking for his daughter's hand. I wouldn't get to bend down on one knee in a carefully crafted cliché movie moment proposal. I wouldn't get to find out whether Natsuni would cry like they do in the movies, or if she'd just laugh at my dramatics. We would never get the chance to laugh as we told her mother of our pending nuptials. I'd never get to ask Jou to be my best man, or have Emiko cheer at being the flower girl.

I'd never get to tell my mother that I loved her, no matter how I acted. I would _always_ love her—even if I didn't like her at times. I _loved_ her. And I didn't know if she knew that.

Miyako's coping method was tears. She would cry long into the night, and the next day she pretended that it had never happened, and I played along with her. My method was anger. No matter how upset I was, it always translated into anger. The Dark Ocean was actually _helping_ me cope with my situation by providing me with so much excess anger, and an outlet to rid myself of it.

I'd meant what I told Miyako. I was _happy_ that Natsuni and I hadn't gotten married. I wanted to. But it would make things easier for her to move on, if we weren't. There was a lot of legal tape that needed to be cut through if a husband went missing. There couldn't be an actual divorce, without both party's consent, and it would take seven years before I could be legally declared dead.

Legally it would be easier for her this way.

I didn't want to underestimate her feelings, but it _hurt_ to even _think_ that she could be hung up on me for years, never being able to find happiness because she was waiting for me. I couldn't understand why people would _want_ that from their loved ones. I couldn't bear the idea that she could be in pain. I knew she missed me. I missed just about everyone. But I wanted to believe that she'd be able to move on, if she had to.

I couldn't.

Miyako, Winter, the Armadillomon's and I were the only non-shadows in this entire world. And Bengoshi, I supposed. I loathed Winter most of the time, and Miyako was my babysitter. I wasn't remotely interested in either of them. And with the rate the darkness was infecting Bengoshi, I wouldn't have _time_ to want to move on.

I'd probably become a shadow by the time the year was out.

The upside to that, was that I wouldn't have too long to keep avoiding Miyako's eye whenever she so much as mentioned Hawkmon. I didn't want to be the one that needed to tell her that he might not have made it. I couldn't do it. If I _knew_ for certain that he hadn't, then I would've told her. I had enough honour to do that. But I couldn't bear causing her untold pain only to find out that I'd been wrong.

The reverse was true too.

I pushed open the large doors and stepped into Winter's castle. I kicked my shoes off, kicking them towards the other shoes, not waiting to see if they landed properly before I shoved the door closed and brought the bottle of sludge to Winter, who was waiting in throne room. She no longer did her work in a secret chamber. She didn't trust Bengoshi to be alone with the Armadillomon or Miyako anymore.

Miyako was playing Go Fish with four Armadillomon on the floor. It was still so strange to see her this way. She was six months pregnant. She was also the kid next door that babysat me. It was hard to put the two images together in my mind. In three months she would be a mother.

It was mind blowing.

It was hard enough to grasp that Kurayami was _already_ a mother—and Daisuke a father. Sometimes it still struck me as weird that _Jou_ had a kid, and his daughter was already six years old.

She would remain six forever in my memory too, because I wouldn't have the chance to see her get older. I'd be trapped here, and she'd be stuck in the Digital World with her cousin Masa and her father. Thankfully, she would have both Masa and Haruki to grow with. She wouldn't be the _only_ kid, the way Miyako's would.

"Go fish," Miyako murmured, looking up from her cards and glancing over to Bengoshi who was lurking in the corner. He was just standing there, arms at his side. The light from the torches on the walls cast spooky shadows on his face periodically, and he kept an eerie grin on his face.

He'd completely lost any sense of himself.

I brought the water to Winter, who didn't bother to thank me. I didn't need the thanks, so I didn't press the matter. I "casually" ensured that I was standing between Miyako and Bengoshi, leaning on the back of a chair watching as Winter started doing some strange magical test or whatever on the water.

"The darkness is starting to affect Miyako," Winter murmured, moving her mouth as little as she could. I quirked my eyebrow at her, silently asking her to elaborate, keeping any worry off of my face, so as to not alert Miyako. "She's growing withdrawn. The lawyer did the same to start, now look at him."

"She won't get so bad," I muttered masking my mouth's movement by running my hand over my beard. I still hated the damn thing, even if it _was_ useful sometimes.

"No," Winter agreed. "We won't allow it."

I reached out to the table, picking up a random fork. "Are you any closer to finding a way out of the Dark Ocean?" I asked, as I slowly stood up again, spinning the fork between my fingers, as if I was bored, rather than intensely interested in the answer. She glared at me. "It's the only way to keep her safe," I reminded her. She looked over to Miyako, casually, not drawing attention to her movements, and then looked to the creepy, lurking Bengoshi. She shuddered at the sight of him, grimacing in distaste.

"I've been breaking down the barrier of a world I located in the midst of the others," she admitted. "I've been working for awhile, but I still don't know what this world is. I don't know that it'll be safe to send you there or not."

"But it might be?" Miyako asked. Winter and I both jumped in surprised. Miyako _would_ have laughed, before the Dark Ocean started getting to her. The sight of Bengoshi fading into a shadow had scared any happiness that had remained out of her. Instead of laughing, she just looked to Bengoshi, subconsciously rubbing the scars on her arms through the sleeves of her faded dress. She was seeing Sigma instead of her friend when she looked at him now. It was making her more susceptible to the darkness.

"Perhaps," Winter admitted, grudgingly. She was embarrassed at being caught unawares. I could tell, because I was too. I stared at the fork in my hand, before dropping it on the table. It wasn't needed as a distraction anymore.

"Is there a way..." Miyako started softly. "Um...can we...is there a way to ensure the darkness can't infect us?"

Winter looked to her sadly. I tightened my hands into fists. Winter took a deep breath. "There is," she told us. Miyako looked to her, desperate for a way to protect herself and her baby. "The only way to keep the darkness from affecting you is to simply not show your emotions. The crests of light and darkness are, essentially, simply balances for emotion."

"I'll be fine then," I said. It was pretty much my default setting anyway. It would've been a relief, if it wasn't so bad for Miyako. I didn't _say_ that Miyako wouldn't manage. There was no need to say it. It would just scare her. She was scared enough. She was breathing faster, falling into a panic attack. I reached out my hand for her, but she collapsed before she reached me, and Winter took her into her arms, petting Miyako's hair, whispering softly.

"You won't turn into him," she promised my friend. "I won't let you. You didn't drink the water. It _has_ to be the water. You will be fine. He made a mistake, but you didn't. You will live. You will stay safe."

"I am really sick of you talking about me as if I'm not here," Bengoshi said calmly, his eerie grin still permanently plastered on his face. He stepped out of the dark corner. He clenched his shadowy hands—both were shadows now. It was good to know that. The shadows were curling up his neck, reaching in swirls onto his face, they reached up and one swirl curled around his eye. His eyes were wide and bloodshot, and wild. "I'm not damaged," he said, still smiling in that creepy way. "I can show you how much I've improved!" He let out a yell, and started running towards the table, arms raised to attack.

The Armadillomon ran towards Winter and Miyako, who were too close to me for comfort. I couldn't let Bengoshi get to Miyako. I grabbed the back of the chair, lifting it in the air, and raced forward to meet his attack. I swung the chair around me, breaking it as I slammed it into him, but he didn't relent. If he were more human still, he might've cried out, or fallen to the floor in pain. But he wasn't _just_ human anymore. He was more shadow than anything, and they didn't _feel_ the pain the way a human would. They fought until they realized they weren't going to win, and then left to regroup before trying another attack later.

The chair wasn't enough.

Weapons weren't much use against shadows. Having wasted my first attack, I'd left myself wide open for a quick one-two punch from Bengoshi. The darkness fused more strength into each punch than Bengoshi probably had in him naturally. The first landed solidly on my right cheek, causing me to clench my teeth down on my tongue, but in the two seconds before the second fist hit, I was able to move enough that it landed only on my shoulder in a way that caused me little to no damage. And while he was busy, thinking he was getting a second good punch in, I was able to wind up and deliver my own to the only human part of him left: his face. I slammed my fist into his nose, feeling the crunch under my fingers. I didn't flatter myself into thinking that this would be enough though. I brought my foot up and kicked down on his knee.

It was a stupid idea though.

If he were human, it would've been enough to get him where I wanted him, but as it was, he just stood up, walking on a crooked leg, as it slowly healed itself as he came at me. He swung his leg around, kicking me in the side, knocking me onto the ground. He lifted his other leg up to smash down on me, but I swept my leg under his, knocking him off balance. As he crashed to the floor, I jumped on him, slamming my fist into his face time after time.

He grinned at me, and then started laughing, reaching out to the side and grabbing a piece of the broken chair and smashed it into the side of my head. I saw stars, and in my moment of surprise, he grabbed my shirt, pulling me down, rolling us over so that _he_ was the one on top. I got a taste of my own medicine as his fists crashed into my head. My cheek, my forehead, my chin, my nose— _damn_ , it had _just_ healed from a break. A second good punch to my nose, and it broke again.

I saw red, brought my knee up, pushing him higher, catching him by surprise and knocking him off balance. I threw him to the side and jumped to my feet in one swift movement. I kicked him swift and hard just as he'd gotten to his feet, knocking him down again. It wasn't particularly honourable to kick a man when he was down, but Bengoshi wasn't much of a man anymore, and Miyako was screaming in terror, so I didn't really _care_. I kicked him as hard as I could as he lay in a lump on the floor. He was still laughing though. I caught sight of Miyako. She was behind Winter, who was holding her arms out to keep Miyako from rushing into the fight. The Armadillomon stood in front of their queen.

"Look out!" Winter shouted, and I ducked down.

Just in time too, if the fist that was now above me was any indication. I swept my leg back again, but he jumped before I could knock him down, landing hard on my leg. A pained scream found its way out of my throat. I didn't think it was broken, at least, but it hurt like hell. I pushed him off of me, and got to my feet. My eyes bulged as I tried to put weight on my leg.

Sprained maybe, but not broken.

That was a small comfort, not that it lasted long. Bengoshi was coming at me again, grabbing my throat in both hands, and pushing me back until I slammed into the solid, stone wall. He pulled me forward and bashed my head back into the stone. He did it a couple of times, before I was even able to really grasp what was happening. Bright splotches were appearing before my eyes, and I could feel blood dripping down my neck.

"IORI!" Miyako screamed. "Stop it, Bengoshi! STOP IT!"

I brought my elbows up and slammed them down into the crook of Bengoshi's own, grabbing his shirt on the downward thrust, bringing his head towards mine, crashing our skulls together, before crashing him into the wall, kicking him hard in the stomach, before unleashing a rather impressive barrage of punches—if I do say so myself.

He swung his own fists around wildly, getting a lucky hit in across my jaw. I grabbed his neck, bending him over my knee, which I jammed into his stomach, repeating the process a few times, just to release my anger, using the moment to spit out the mouthful of blood that was building up from my bleeding tongue.

My anger was starting to take complete control, and I was screaming out yells and grunts like I was some martial arts movie star. I stopped kneeing him in the stomach in favour of flipping him onto the ground, so I could kick him in the stomach instead. I landed a good kick to the side of his head too, before he opened his mouth to start screaming in a strangely familiar way.

"He's calling for backup!" I growled angrily, kicking him again, wiping the blood off of my forehead—thanks to his lucky hit with a chair leg—and out of my eyes.

Winter, I saw, raced to the windows. Miyako went with her, for protection, and Miyako screamed, terrified by the sight she saw. I _had_ to look, it was instinctual. A giant storm of shadows were flying towards the castle. Winter started chanting her magical words, reinforcing the protective spells on her home.

And I was being knocked to the floor because I'd gotten distracted for a second time. He slammed his elbow into my stomach and I screamed out, nearly choking on the blood that was pooling once again in my mouth. I spluttered and coughed and Bengoshi just did it again. I shouted again, but caught his arm, bringing my knee up, slamming it into the side of his head. His head came crashing down against my own, and instinct led me to wrapping my arm around his neck, bringing my other arm up to secure it, putting him in a basic sleeper hold. My legs wound their way around him, trapping his arms at his side, before he could even attempt to free himself.

It didn't stop him from _trying_ though. He flailed his hands around, trying to break free of my legs. He kicked wildly, somehow thinking that would help him. He knocked his head around too, continually bashing it into my own. I had to turn away, so he couldn't keep hitting my newly re-broken nose. One hit caused my lip to explode open, and blood poured down my face.

Internally, I was berating myself for becoming overconfident. Just a half hour ago, I was praising my newly refined fighting ability, and now I was in an even match. He _was_ stronger than an average shadow—something I assumed came from the fact that he wasn't _dead_ yet—but I wasn't winning as easily as I wanted to.

I wasn't even sure I was _winning_ at all.

Bengoshi went rigid in my arms, and I hesitated. I couldn't figure out what his plan was, but I wasn't letting go, I wasn't going to loosen my grip only to have him gain the upper hand again. I held tightly for a few more moments, before realizing that he really _wasn't_ going to move.

"You can get up," Winter drawled.

"What did you do?" Miyako asked in horror.

"He was trying to kill your friend," Winter said.

"Is he still _alive_?" Miyako wanted to know.

"Technically speaking...yes?" Winter guessed. I looked to the man in my hold, surprised to see a nice, glazed wooden statue instead. Awkwardly I untangled myself from the carving that had at one point been a moving organism whose sole desire was to _kill me_. I pushed myself away from him, trying to catch my breath. Winter held out a handkerchief to me, which I took, trying to staunch the blood flow from my lip, using my sleeve to wipe my forehead again.

"We just can't take you anywhere," Winter said, rolling her eyes at me. I realized this was the _second_ time she'd saved me—though this time it _could_ be argued that I was winning by myself anyway—and the _second_ time in as many months that Miyako had had to look at me all bloodied and bruised. She fell to her knees over the wooden Bengoshi, and gently ran her fingers over his wooden face, crying softly.

"We can't stay here," I grunted, spitting blood onto the floor. "We _can't_.

Winter nodded, looking to the cowering Armadillomon—the fear had caught up to them. I feared they were in shock. "I _might_ be able to use much of my remaining energy to move us all to the nearest world. It won't be Earth, or the Digital World, like you want. It won't even be to the mysterious world I've been investigating."

"Doesn't matter," I said, gasping for breath still.

"I can't promise we'll survive the trip," Winter cautioned.

"I don't care," Miyako said. "That's still a _chance_. It's more than my baby has if we stay here. I will not let my baby be turned into a shadow. _I won't_."

"Very well," Winter said. "Gather the Armadillomon. I won't leave them here unprotected."

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Mimi demands that Merlin Tells them Why everything is so messed up, and we finally start to get some answers.


	30. Tell Me Why

**Y/N:** This was definitely an interesting chapter, because there was so much that needed exploring and Mimi is the perfect character to get the stories, because she's _always_ the one that gets the big long explanatory chapters. It's just tradition by now. :D

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Sidhendor and the Dark Ocean**

 **Chapter 30: Tell Me Why**

 _ **Mimi Tachikawa:**_

I was running again.

I was _always_ running lately.

And it was always this wolf that I was running from.

I was actually really glad that Tatum had figured this place out, even if it _had_ taken an incredibly long time for any of us to catch on to something that seemed so obvious after the fact. Hideto was always called Jack, and Michael was a prince here, so he got delegated all princess roles, leaving Tatum to rescue him every time. I still couldn't place the fly, but it was probably a story from _somewhere_. I got to be Red Riding Hood. I _hated_ Red Riding Hood. More so now that we'd realized that the stories would _always_ be trying to finish themselves.

Red Riding Hood got eaten in her story.

I was _not_ about to get eaten by this freaking wolf. So I kept running. My feet were moving much faster than they ever used to. I'd gotten so much exercise and practice in the last two months. There weren't any distractions in this world. There weren't any televisions that I could spend days camped in front of. I couldn't get lost in the paperwork for my restaurant here. I could do chores, or I could dwell and wallow in my fear and grief and sadness.

Chores actually were the preferable option.

I tended our garden and cooked our meals. I took my turn dragging large buckets of water into the house. I cleaned clothes, and I searched endlessly for the Looking Glass. It was during my searches that the wolf typically found me.

But he didn't usually start chasing me when I was with the others.

He liked to find me when I was by myself. He needed to. It was how the story went. The story also included him eating my grandmother—who I assumed was still that woman's mother, that I delivered baskets full of food to—and getting cut open by the woodcutter—presumably Hideto. Hideto wasn't anywhere near me now though, and neither was my grandmother. The wolf _couldn't_ possibly be trying to eat me _now_.

It wasn't fair.

But I could hear him growling right behind me, snapping his teeth and snarling like mad. I could _feel_ his warm breath on my legs. I couldn't possibly trip now. If I tripped I was lunch. My hair tangled in the branches around me, but it was easily ripped free with each passing step. I was incredibly happy that I'd hacked at my hair now. I didn't want to think what might've happened to me if I hadn't.

I didn't like to think about how it would feel to have the wolf biting into my skin and eating me while I was still alive. There was no way that the wolf could eat me in one large bite. There would be no happy ending to this fairy tale. Hideto wouldn't find me resting in the wolf's stomach when he cut it open.

Even I couldn't hold onto that fantasy.

I gasped in relief when I heard the wolf stumble over a branch, and pushed even more energy into getting a head start on the beast. I weaved around random trees, trying to jump over a stream, only to land in it, splashing water everywhere, cursing myself for weighing myself down. My wet clothes were heavier, and my red cape was ridiculously heavy, and I _should_ have ditched it, but I couldn't risk the time it would take to stop and untie it.

So I ran on.

I couldn't hear the wolf anymore, but I didn't rest. I knew he was still there. I could imagine his large ears quirked in the air, listening for any missed footsteps, any branches I might've stepped on that could trip me up. I could feel his eyes on me, large and angry following my every movement, watching his desired prey—who continuously escaped his every attempt. His paws would be snapping twigs and branches, pounding on the ground, thrusting his big, hairy body forward after me. His mouth, filled with large, sharp teeth. He was probably licking his lips at the thought of eating this tasty morsel.

He wouldn't listen to me when I told him I would taste terrible.

I didn't even know if he could understand Japanese or English. I'd tried in both languages, desperate to get him off of my tail. It didn't work. I hadn't really thought it _would_.

Tree branches continued to rip at my hair, scratching up my face as I kept running, not slowing down for anything. I stepped wrong on a rock, and my ankle twisted out from under me. I didn't stop. It didn't hurt bad enough to risk certain death. I tackled my way through a bush, practically rolling over top of it, nearly losing my footing on the other side, almost falling flat on my face. I caught myself with my hands and pushed myself back up, using it as a platform to gain some more speed, like athletes did at the start of an Olympic race.

That's what this was: a race. There just wasn't a medal waiting for me at the finish line. My life was motivation enough to keep me moving.

My heart pounded quickly and strongly in my chest. I could feel it in every part of my body. I could hear it banging loudly like a drum in my ears. It was beating erratically. My breaths came in ragged gasps. I had to force the air through my gritted teeth. I let out a cry as I ran into a tree branch that nearly took my eye out. I closed both eyes tightly, _just_ in time. Instead of getting my bare eyeball, I felt it rip into my brow. The blood came quickly, warm and wet, dripping down my eyelid. I raised my hand and wiped it away, so that I could open that eye again. I couldn't run without it. Not if I wanted to stay ahead of the wolf that was toying with me.

He could've caught me at any point in time.

He was a _wolf_. They were faster than humans. _I_ was a human. He was, therefore, faster than me. Why then, hadn't he caught me already? It was simple. He wanted to toy with me. He wanted me thoroughly exhausted and terrified. He wanted me to lose completely. I'd been prolonging his fairy tale. I'd been keeping him waiting. He wanted me to be absolutely destroyed. I knew he did.

I wasn't going to let that happen.

I sucked in another long, jagged breath at the sight before me. The trees were moving passed me so fast, and the ground was a blur beneath my feet, made up of greens, greys and browns, with grass, leaves, moss, rocks and twigs making a collage on the floor of the forest. But it changed in front of me. There was a large rock, and then nothing.

I was moving far too quickly to have any hope of stopping, and didn't want to, even if I could. I wasn't going to let the wolf catch me. I would _not_ be a part of a fairy tale. Instead, I braced my leg as I stepped on it, and jumped rather dramatically into the air, my speed causing my cape to flutter behind me. It was amazing.

It was also stupid.

It hadn't been a cliff at all, like I'd though, just a rock ledge to prevent travellers from falling down the steep incline on the other side. I fell through the air, trying to land in a way that would let me stay on my feet, and I almost managed it, except for the tree that came out of _nowhere_ and slammed into my shoulder, knocking me off balance.

I fell, head over feet, slipping through wet leaves and mud, without any control over my movements at all. I wondered if this was what it felt like to be Jack—or Jill—but didn't have time to really think it over, because I was too busy trying to angle myself away from any trees I managed to catch sight of. I hit three more trees in my descent, and was thoroughly dizzy by the time I reached the base of the incline.

I got to my feet and stumbled from side to side, holding my head, trying to get the world to stop moving. The wolf could be here at any time. I needed to keep going. My skin prickled, and I knew his eyes were on me again. I squinted my eyes, looking around me, trying to find him and sighed in relief when I spotted him. He was still at the top of the steep hill.

My relief was short lived, however, because he stepped over the rock ledge and started down after me. I screamed, loud and clear, before I started running again. I no longer got too scared to move. That wasn't a luxury that I had been allowed to have since we'd been trapped in Sidhendor. This wolf had plagued me daily.

I ran, focussing on what was in front of me, knowing that it would only slow me down to look back at the wolf. I looked directly in front, not even letting my eyes wander to the trees or ground that was passing me by. It was a distraction. I counted my breaths, to keep my mind occupied, so that I couldn't lose track of what was important: I needed to keep moving.

I let out a scream though, at the sight in front of me.

It was a cabin. He hadn't just been toying with me. He'd been trying to herd me, like a sheep dog did to his flock. He wanted me to continue the story, and since I wasn't coming on my own, he had to bring me there himself. My heart stuttered, missing a beat or two. No matter what I did, this wolf was determined to get me.

But I didn't have to _let_ him.

Maybe I couldn't escape the cabin, but I didn't have to let him in.

I raced up the path, noting that "Grandma" had gotten a shiny new gate. It was green, _really_ green. Like _emerald_ green. It was so much nicer than anything else she owned. But I didn't think too much about it, because there was a wolf chasing me down, and I didn't have _time_ to worry about her expenses. She wasn't my actual grandmother anyway. What did _I_ care what she spent her limited money on?

My hands quickly grasped the handle, pulling sharply, expecting it to fly open with my effort. It didn't. I jiggled the handle, and pulled harder. Nothing. My heart was beating faster now. The wolf wasn't very far behind me. I didn't have time for this stupidity. I pulled once more, kicking the door with all I had when it wouldn't open.

I didn't _want_ to save "Grandma" anyway.

Guilt washed through me when I heard the wolf growling again. He was too close. I couldn't waste time trying to save this sweet old lady whose only fault was that she'd brought _that woman_ into the world. She didn't deserve to be eaten by the wolf, but I couldn't risk waiting here anymore. With any luck, he'd keep chasing me and would ignore her.

I headed to the gate, only to turn around. The wolf was _right there_. I raced around the house instead, jumping over the fence, incredibly thankful that I didn't trip, and landed upright.

My muscles were turning to jelly, from the beating they'd taken during my tumble down the hill, and the way I'd been pushing them. I wasn't going to be able to keep this up much longer. The wolf's angry snarl reached me. I'd inconvenienced him when I'd got him trapped in the gate. He could jump over, probably, but there wasn't enough room for him to get a good run up to it.

He was angry because I'd tricked him.

I was spiteful enough to be amused by my handiwork. I knew it was bad. It had just made him angrier, but I didn't care. I was spiting _mad_ at him too. He was an incredibly large thorn in my side. But his teeth were sharp, and I wasn't looking forward to being dinner. I stopped looking so far in the distance and started looking for a tree with low enough branches that I could climb. I put whatever was left of my energy supply into my sprint at the tree, kicking myself off of the trunk in order to reach the branch with both hands. I held tightly to the branch as I ran my feet up the trunk and swung my right leg over the branch, rolling myself on top of it. I brought my feet up quickly, so that they weren't dangling where the wolf could reach it, and pushed myself up, climbing up the branches as high as I dared. The branches got thinner the higher I got, and I didn't want to risk putting my weight on them when I wasn't sure they could hold me.

If I fell down now, I'd break my leg, or my neck. I'd be a sitting duck, and I'd _really_ be the wolf's lunch.

"MICHAEL! TATUM!" I screamed as loudly as I could—which was actually incredibly loud. I was pretty great as screaming. "HIDETO! LOPMON!"

I continued to scream, watching as the large wolf tried to clamber up the tree I'd taken refuge in. He jumped with his powerful legs, snapping his strong jaw at the branches. He hung there, dangling with the branch clamped between his teeth, staring at me with narrowed eyes. He was raging with anger. Now that I was out of his reach, I was terrified.

He was going to wait there at the bottom of my tree until I came down. And I would _have_ to come down. I couldn't stay in a tree forever. I would need to eat and drink and sleep and use the bathroom! And he would be there, lying in wait, ready to eat me.

I screamed louder, and longer than ever before. I screamed for nearly five minutes straight, gasping quickly at breaths, in order to keep screaming, all the while staring down at the wolf. He winced at first when I screeched, but now it seemed to be amusing to him. I swear he was smirking at me. He licked his lips again too. I grabbed a branch in front of me when a shudder ran through me. I leaned on it, tired of screaming, but knowing I couldn't stop until my friends came and helped me get rid of this wolf.

Mimi Tachikawa was _not_ a fighter. No matter how many battles I'd taken a part in, I _still_ hadn't found a natural talent for it. Palmon did most of our fighting for me anyway. I'd fought back to back with my mother once, against Yggdrasil's robot army. I hadn't managed to cause any damage whatsoever.

I didn't have a chair leg this time. I didn't have my mother or Palmon either. I didn't know what had happened to them, and I didn't have time to think about them up there in that tree either. I had to keep screaming, I had to draw my friends to my location.

Taking in a deep breath, I pushed more weight on that branch, in order to get an even better scream out, only for it to break under me, sending me tumbling forward. A truly incredibly scream tore its way out of my throat as I fell downwards towards the grinning wolf, who had the audacity to lick his lips again. I hit a lower branch hard and instinctively latched onto it with both my arms and legs, keeping me from falling all the way to the ground. I was dangling under a branch, with my cape falling dramatically around me.

That stupid cape would be the end of me.

The wolf jumped up, catching the long cape in his teeth, since he couldn't reach the rest of me. He pulled down on it. The strings caught around my neck, pulling me towards the ground. I needed to let go of the branch if I wanted more air, but I couldn't let go if I wanted to keep from being eaten.

I decided to let out one last powerful scream. It petered out, as the wolf pulled harder. I could feel my eyes bulging, and my face turning red. My vision was starting to swim, my grip was relaxing, when I finally heard something other than the pleased growling of the wolf.

"MIMI!" Hideto called. Through my foggy vision I was able to see him leading the charge, breaking through the bushes, and running towards the wolf that had always been so afraid of him. The wolf wasn't scared today though. He was too close to be bothered by the woodsman's presence. Tatum and Lopmon were next, with Michael following after them a few moments later.

"Blazing Ice!" Lopmon called, sending a blast of cooled air at the wolf. He was annoyed, and finally released my cape in order to growl menacingly at the tiny rabbit. He advanced on her and Tatum, leaping in one powerful motion towards them, teeth exposed, mouth open, ready for an appetizer before he ate his main meal— _me_.

Michael jumped in front of Lopmon and Tatum though, and threw his hands out in front of him, dropping a golden axe to the ground as he did so. The second the wolf's teeth touched his arm, he started turning to gold, his teeth first, then his snout. The gold spread down his neck and his body as he landed on the ground. He twitched until the very tips of his paws and tail were solid gold too.

My arms and legs slipped from the branch and I fell, feeling more relaxed than I had in _ages_ , knowing that the wolf was finally gone. He wouldn't be eating me when I landed. I was finally free, even if I _was_ going to break something that was probably important. But I didn't land on the ground. Hideto caught me long before that, making quick work of the knot in my cape, letting the horrid red garment to fall to the ground. He hugged me close, falling to his knees and curling me into his embrace. I hadn't realized I was sobbing until then. I was so _happy_ and the adrenaline was leaving me. I didn't have to be scared anymore, but I _had_ been absolutely terrified. I was shaking and sobbing, and Hideto was running his fingers through my hacked off hair. I welcomed Lopmon when she ran at us. She curled herself into my chest, nuzzling me with her nose.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," I repeated desperately. I was thanking them for showing up. I was thanking Hideto for catching me, for holding me. I was thanking Lopmon for her bravery, attacking the large wolf, despite her size. I was thanking Michael for finally freeing me from the story. I didn't feel the need to run to "Grandma's" house anymore.

"Don't thank me," Michael said miserably. Tatum was hovering over him, but not actually touching him. I was confused. He leaned his forehead against a tree and slammed a balled up fist into the trunk which started turning gold the same way the wolf had. Michael backed away quickly, eyes wide in panic. He nearly backed into his girlfriend, but Tatum quickly sidestepped him, saving herself from the same golden treatment. Each of his footsteps left a pile of golden grass, moss, twigs, rocks or leaves.

"He's got the Midas touch," Hideto whispered into my hair.

"I'm glad," I gasped.

"Don't be," Lopmon told me. "He's so scared. He can't touch _anything_ without it turning to gold anymore. His clothes are lightweight gold, at least, but his shoes were heavy. They were too heavy for him to lift up, and they fell off his feet."

It explained all of his golden footprints, at the very least.

"That stupid queen is going to be able to follow us everywhere," Hideto sighed. "Michael's leaving a trail everywhere he goes. We won't be able to get any peace from her now."

"Be nice," Tatum hissed. "It's not his fault."

"I know," Hideto said rolling his eyes. "It's the queen's fault. I'm allowed to complain. I think we should head _that_ way now, don't you?" He gestured with his head off in some arbitrary direction, looking rather desperate that we agree with him.

"We can't," I told him sadly. He sighed, nodding his head. He knew why. He was being compelled to head towards his magical beanstalk in order complete _that_ one of his fairy tales. I felt bad for him, being pulled in so many directions. Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack and Jill, Jack be Nimble and I was more than a little frightened that the beanstalk would lead him to be Jack the Giant Slayer too.

I'd spent months trying to escape a large wolf. I didn't want him to spend forever being chased by literal giants. That story, from what Tatum had told us, involved at least a dozen giants. And they would all be chasing after Hideto—and subsequently the rest of us.

I tightened my hold on him, and he eyed the golden axe Michael had dropped. I realized that it had to have once been Hideto's trusty axe—that he totally stole from our"Mother". He untangled himself from me and Lopmon and went over to pick it up. It was clearly quite a lot heavier than it had been before. He swung it experimentally a few times, swinging it up and letting it fall on his shoulder—wincing when it landed. He stood there looking at us expectantly.

"Well, where do you think the Wizard is?" he asked. "We can't just find the Looking Glass anymore. Michael needs to get rid of his magic touch. I've already got a goose that can lay golden eggs, we don't need him adding to our already incredible wealth. That golden touch is going to get old fast. He can't cook for us, all of our dishes and furniture will be turned to gold the second he touches them. That's just tacky."

"We can ask 'Grandma'," I suggested. My voice was crackly, and I wiped the sweat and tears and blood off my face with my fallen cape. "I tried to get in, but I couldn't get the door open before the wolf caught up. She's old, right? Maybe she knows where the Wizard is."

I led everyone back to where the cabin was, holding tightly to both Lopmon and Hideto the entire way. Lopmon explained to the best of her ability the story behind Michael's golden touch, and I winced when they mentioned the queen. I had really hoped we'd seen the last of her. It was disappointing to know that we hadn't. And it was a little disconcerting to know just how obsessed with Michael she really was.

"The door is locked," I warned Hideto, when he hopped over the back fence that I'd escaped over not long ago. He laughed, like I was being ridiculous. I was. A simple locked door wasn't enough to keep Hideto out of anywhere. I walked around the fence, resting my fingers against the new green gate, watching as Hideto continued to fiddle with the lock, trying to get it to open. Lopmon walked along the fence, like a balance beam, doing a summersault. She had to quickly spread her ears out to balance herself afterwards, before she fell off. Michael kept trying to distance himself from us, afraid that he'd hurt us, and Tatum was trying to get him to stop, trying to convince him to come closer.

"Got it!" Hideto called. I cast a worried glance over to Michael, before opening the newly unlocked door and waltzing in as if I lived there.

"Hey Grandma," I called loudly. I stopped in shock. This wasn't "Grandma's" house. There were books spread over every surface. A man with the same shimmering silver hair as the queen's was sitting peacefully on the floor pouring over the words on the pages as he turned them. Just like the queen, his face bore no lines that would mar his youthful face. The people of Sidhendor aged so gracefully. I was ridiculously jealous of the fact.

Lopmon walked over to the man, waving her hands around wildly, but there was no indication that he noticed our arrival. She cleared her throat, and he still made no move. She walked over to him and screamed in his ear. He threw the book he was reading, and pushed himself backwards. His surprise was evident. He even _yelped_. The shock faded quickly though, as he looked each of us over. His surprise turned to confusion. I could understand that. I'd be wondering who the strange group of people that barged into my humble abode was if I were in his position.

"Who're you?" he asked, still confused.

"We're not from here," Tatum said quickly, frantically motioning for Michael to come into the room. He did so reluctantly, and the second his foot touched the floor, the boards under his feet started turning to gold, leaving funny golden footprints. It seemed his skin in general caused the gold to appear, but it was his hands that held the real power that could cause the gold to spread along an entire surface. The man hopped to his feet quickly, more confused now than ever. "We're looking for the Wizard."

"My name's not Wizard," the man said crossly. "It's Merlin. What do you want? I've left the castle for a reason. I do not do parlour tricks."

"We don't want parlour tricks," Hideto snapped. He was by the door, behind Michael now. His fingers were twitching, and his eyes were constantly drifting towards the window. He was trying to keep himself from falling into his fairy tale. I wished he would close the door, but I didn't want to draw attention to his struggling. "We want to go home."

"Explain?" Merlin asked, still clearly not understanding the whole conversation.

"We're from Earth," Tatum said. "We don't belong in Sidhendor, but the DWD sent a virus through the Digital World, after they'd trapped us there, and in order to stay alive we had to escape using the key to this world. Now we're trapped _here_ , and we can't stay here forever. Michael's already gone through the story of Cinderella—"

"Mimi and Hideto were my step-sisters," Michael interrupted. It was a testament to how powerful the draw towards the beanstalk was that Hideto didn't even _try_ to argue that statement.

" _And_ he was Snow White too," Tatum continued. "He ate an apple, because he's an idiot, and now the queen has cursed him with the Midas touch. Mimi was Little Red Riding Hood."

"I just finally escaped that," I said softly still so shocked that I was free.

"Lopmon keeps racing a turtle," Tatum said, glaring at me for interrupting.

"And a demon fly wants to get me!" Lopmon added. Tatum threw her hands into the air, exasperated by all the interruptions.

"I was Goldilocks, and Jill, and all of the princes for Michael," Tatum said. "Hideto is Jack."

"Which one?" Merlin asked.

"All of them," Hideto said dryly.

"We just want to know why this world is on a continual loop," Tatum finished.

"No," I argued. "That's not _all_ we want. We want to get home. We don't care about the _reason_ the loop exists. We just want to get out of it."

"I'm curious!" Tatum countered.

"I want to know too," Michael said. "I'm not ready to go home. I can't _touch_ anything."

"I do apologize," Merlin said. "I'm afraid it was _my_ doing. I created the loop. I needed to, because Morganna was trying to take up ruling Sidhendor. She was _not_ meant to do so. I needed to keep her from truly gaining control, so I cast time from the realm. I used Yggdrasil's instructions and planted the seed that pulled Neverland from our planet, and created its own world."

"It's not much of a world anymore," I said sadly. A part of me was excited to hear that my key—and I would always refer to it as such—had once led to a _world_ , not just a tunnel, but I was very confused by the idea that he planted a seed with _Yggdrasil's_ instructions. I was wary of this man now that he'd admitted to working with Yggdrasil. The _last_ time the worlds were nearly destroyed, it was _his_ doing. "It's just a tunnel now. The rest of the world has separated and fallen into other worlds. Most of it's in the Digital World."

"Why would you need to do that?" Michael asked Merlin. "Separate the worlds like that?"

"She wanted to rule with an iron fist, and start a reign of terror," Merlin said shocked that he'd need to ask. "It wasn't exactly preferable." Michael shook his head.

"Why couldn't someone else take up the throne?" he wanted to know.

"There was no one left to do it," Merlin said, sadly. "And I suppose that's partially my fault too. I should have known better. I shouldn't have fallen into their ruses. I did though, along with the rest of the council, and everything just fell apart."

"For argument's sake, let's say we know next to nothing about this world," Lopmon said. "Like _at all_."

Merlin took a deep breath and thought for a moment. I was worried he wasn't going to continue talking at all, but eventually he opened his mouth again. "I suppose I could give you a quick history lesson. It would make this so much easier." He looked to each of us as if asking if we were prepared, and it was odd to see his intense eyes lock with mine. Instead of answering him I simply froze under the pressure of his gaze. "Would anyone like anything to drink?" he asked with a nervous voice, inviting us to sit in the rickety wooden chairs that sat along the wall.

"I would love some water," Lopmon said, moving quickly to take a seat more relaxed than the rest of us seemed to be. Merlin looked to me again and I froze once more, but then he smiled in a very defeated kind of way, like his life had been long and hard and stressful. I knew what that was like. I smiled back and followed Lopmon to the chairs to take my own seat next to her.

"We had a king once," he told us finally as he poured Lopmon a glass of water from a shimmering red pitcher. He then snapped his fingers and a flame appeared under a clear pot of water, "Tea anyone?" We all shook our heads, "just me? Alright then." He began scooping up the papers and books he had strewn about the floor and continued his story. "His name was Sigma. He wasn't a good man, he wasn't kind either. But he was a strong ruler. He ruled alone and stood for everything that Sidhendor did. But he couldn't keep peace with the other continents—"

"AHA!" Tatum interrupted excitedly, stepping past Merlin and taking a seat next to Lopmon who was chugging back her water. "I _knew_ there couldn't only be _one_ continent." We all rolled our eyes at her, and I urged Merlin to keep talking. He nodded and then dropped many of his papers. Michael moved forward to help him but then stopped himself, wincing. He couldn't help without ruining everything Merlin had to offer. I tried to comfort Michael from afar, but he simply looked to his own feet.

"The world was filled with far too much raw magic. It was too great and powerful. It allowed the wars to be far more brutal and deadly than they had any right to be. I can't remember a time from _before_ the wars. Three of the four continents were constantly against one another. Sidhendor was always the most powerful of them, but Pangaea was a force to be reckoned with. The last—I don't know if it ever _had_ a name—was frightening. It hated both Pangaea and Sidhendor with a raging fury. It was a smaller country, more susceptible to attack. Pangaea and Sidhendor teamed up against it for entertainment more than anything else. They hated Sigma with a passion...

"The wars were the only constant our world had, with all the magic roaming about, and then one day, the raw magic was removed. We discovered it was only accessible through slumber," Merlin said.

"The Land of Dreams," Michael said in awe. I was equally captivated.

"Yes, I suppose that's what it became," Merlin agreed. "Sigma searched high and low, scoured the land, trying to find the cause of this new and peaceful era. He found that source on another continent, in the form of a beautiful and gentle woman. She had begged of Yggdrasil to end the fighting. He listened to her pleas, as he too wanted nothing but peace. Sigma asked for her to return to Sidhendor with him, and she accepted his invitation. She wasn't of noble birth, but she'd ended the war in a way no noble ever could. He was enthralled by her."

"Wow," Michael said. "It's hard to imagine _Sigma_ in love."

Merlin looked lost. "You shouldn't...no, you _couldn't,_ know Sigma," he said. Tatum opened her mouth to explain, but Merlin shook his head. "I don't wish to know just yet." He looked so weary and sad, that Tatum didn't push. We would wait until he asked for the information himself.

"Sigma wasn't _in love_ , exactly. Sigma was too cold of a man to feel such a wonderful emotion, but she caught his attention, which was more than any Sidhendorian woman had been able to do in his long reign. It caused quite a stir when he brought her home. The people of Sidhendor were insulted that the king had brought a Pangaea commoner into the castle, and _outraged_ when he announced that he intended to make her his queen. The people revolted, and he silenced them, threatening to behead any who thought themselves worthy of questioning his choices. He didn't need to behead any, for once they met her they fell over themselves to keep her happy. She was so wonderful. She was the embodiment of goodness, and quietly stirring began, worrying for her safety, because Sigma was a cruel man. If Gaia ever heard any of these rumours, she said nothing of them. She was a devoted wife and queen."

" _Gaia_ ," Michael asked. I realized he was hearing about his grandmother for perhaps the first time. "That was her name?"

"Yes," Merlin said with a sad smile. "She was the best thing to ever happen to this kingdom. We all loved her."

"I'm having a hard time seeing how this has anything to do with Morganna—that's the crazy queen, right?" Tatum said. Her voice was bitter, but I was sure it had more to do with saying Morganna's name—and Morganna's existence in general—than anything.

"Morganna was on the royal council, with me. The council was made up of the few Sidhendorians—which obviously couldn't include Gaia, as she was _not_ Sidhendorian—that Sigma felt he could trust. Morganna, Theta, Aesop and I made up the council, aside from Sigma himself," Merlin said proudly. "The only other Sidhendorian he trusted was Maugrim."

"Maugrim?"

"Yes, he was Sigma's best soldier, the closest thing to a friend Sigma ever had. He trusted him more than any other, so much so that he assigned Maugrim to be Gaia's personal guard," Merlin explained.

"No, I _met_ him," Michael explained his earlier shock.

"Impossible, he's _long_ dead now," Merlin said firmly.

"Not unless he died from that wound Tatum inflicted," Hideto said wryly. He sent a smirk in Tatum's direction and she smiled back at him.

"I'm still failing to see how Morganna took over," she pointed out.

"Why is Maugrim on Earth?" Lopmon wanted to know. She was really getting into the story. I guessed that she was tired of hearing only fairy tales from Tatum. Tatum told them to us every night to make sure we were aware of any traps we might fall into. I supposed I'd have to be on the lookout now that I was no long Little Red Riding Hood _or_ an ugly step-sister. A shudder ran through me as I thought of the nearly endless possibilities that lay before me. I could fall into _any_ trap. It was horrifying.

"I am getting to it. Sigma and Gaia ruled together—along with the council—for many million years before they brought their first daughter to us, Winter. Morganna was enraptured by the little princess, and was delighted when Sigma allowed _her_ to be in charge of Winter's raising. Gaia was far too busy with her charity work and protecting the people from her husband's wrath to do the job herself, but she was a doting mother, the few chances they had alone together. Morganna and Winter were inseparable, and Winter was taught all manner of studies. Morganna wanted to ensure that the throne would one day go to a well rounded, capable queen. And Aesop took the same task when _later_ their second daughter, Spring was born. I was entrusted with Summer, upon her birth, and I admit that I lost myself to the task. If I'd been more aware of the court happenings I might have been able to prevent the tragedies that would occur.

"All was well, with the world though, until the birth of their fourth and final daughter. She was named Autumn after the season of death. For us, Autumn was an ill omen, entirely unexpected for never had a birth caught us by surprise. Not like little Autumn. Theta was left to raise Autumn, and did so begrudgingly. We were all anxious, waiting for the death Autumn's birth foretold, terrified that it was the _queen_ that tragedy would befall. When Autumn had reached an age where she _could_ take care of herself, Theta died. Sigma was mystified by his mother's death, as up until that point in time, there had _been_ no deaths," Merlin explained.

"Theta was Sigma's mother?" Michael asked sounding both excited and sad all at once. Theta had raised his mother. Theta was also his great-grandmother. His family tree was expanding before his eyes. Already he'd gained two grandmothers. But he'd also already lost one.

"Oh yes," Merlin said. "She was a stern old woman, but we'd never expected her to die. It happened more frequently after that. People continued to die. We heard word from the continents. Neverland always remained the same, so we heard no word from them. Even the wild continent sent word to us, wondering at this strange plague that was sweeping our nations. Autumn had brought death to our world with her birth. And not long after, Aesop came to me, begging for my assistance when quite suddenly, Spring's mind broke. She was no longer the kind, motherly, protective girl she'd once been. She was now struggling to string her thoughts into a coherent chain. I did what I could for her, but nothing helped. I couldn't fathom how a bright mind like hers could snap without warning.

"It should have been quite obvious that something wasn't right, when shortly thereafter Gaia brought a prophecy to the attention of the council. It stated that the four princesses were _not_ the heirs to Sidhendor as expected, but were meant to expand their father's realm, each becoming a queen to a separate world. Now it is important to tell you that Gaia was always more ambitious than Sigma was. He was content to rule his one kingdom with an iron fist, but Gaia wanted so much _more_ for him. He would punish her, whenever she suggested he conquer another land, but _this_ time it wasn't _her_ that was suggesting it. What she was suggesting was worse. She told us in hushed words that she feared her daughter's ambitions. She was worried they weren't happy with their prophesized lands and wanted _Sigma's_ one kingdom to themselves. She was terrified that the girls were plotting their father's demise. She planted the thought in our minds and our suspicion grew over time. I admit to distancing myself from Summer, fearing what Sigma would do to me if he thought for a moment that I supported her desire. And word _did_ eventually reach Sigma's ears, and he turned his suspicion on his daughters. All eyes on the kingdom were on the seemingly oblivious girls, so focussed were we on these rumours that we turned our eyes off of the real threat," Merlin said. He paused, covering his face with his hands and heaving a large sigh.

"Are you alright?" Lopmon asked him, reaching out her tiny hand to pat his shoulder.

"No," Merlin admitted. He looked up to us again, and I saw that his eyes were shimmering with great sadness. "Winter announced to the court the next morning that Gaia had tried to assassinate the king. She told us that Autumn witnessed the attack, and Sigma agreed. Gaia's sweet smiles and kind words fooled us all. She wasn't a charming young lady. She was cold hearted and wanted to rule over all the kingdoms and worlds in existence. And she wasn't above killing her husband or children to do it. I was heartbroken while the kingdom was outraged. I knew then, that Spring's mind was the result of her mother, trying to cover up something that Spring had witnessed."

Michael was heartbroken too. Both of his grandparents were horrible people. I was tearing up a little at the thought of poor Spring, having her own mother do that to her, just because she'd learned something she hadn't meant to.

"Sigma ordered Maugrim to arrest Gaia then and there with the entire court watching with rapture," Merlin said, shaking his head. "We watched as Gaia fell to her knees before Maugrim, begging and pleading that he keep her out of prison, telling him that she loved him with all her heart, and that he _had_ to love her too, that she'd done everything _for_ him. But he followed the orders his king gave him, and took her into custody. Sigma contacted Yggdrasil, and together, the two brought Gaia to the wild continent and planted Yggdrasil's seed, separating the world from our own. She would forever reside in a new world with only the wild continent—that loathed her just as much as they loathed Sigma. And in a fit of rage, Sigma had Yggdrasil rid our world of Pangaea, her home continent, as well."

"Pangaea," Tatum asked with a startled gasp. "The super continent that later split into the continents we know and live on today, as in _Earth_?"

"I don't know what happened to it, after it was taken away," Merlin said apologetically. Tatum was no longer politely interested in this story. She'd just learned that Earth was once a part of this world too. I was almost positive that this world had once housed _all_ of the worlds—except maybe the Dark Ocean and Heaven.

"What happened to the sisters," Michael wanted to know, but his voice was quiet and unsure. I couldn't find it in me to protest. I wanted to know about Michael's mother too. He'd been searching for information like this the entire time we'd been trapped here—the entire time I had _known_ him. I wasn't going to take this from him, even if I _did_ kind of wish Merlin would hurry up.

"Summer came to me in a panicked state, offering forward a true prophecy, one that warned of the great evils each world would produce, and I studied with her in order to discover the great evil of our home world. It was Sigma himself, who was growing crueler and wicked after the banishment of his wife, angry that she'd managed to deceive him so completely for so many years. The sisters decided, without my knowledge at the time, to take matters into their own hands, and to _not_ burden the children of the prophesy, wanting to protect them from their father's wrath. Winter declared that she would do the deed, and they did. They killed their father," Merlin said. "I learned about it after the fact, when Aesop came to the council—now only Morganna, Aesop and myself—and told us how the girls had killed him for the sake of a prophesy, and that Gaia, who no doubt knew of the prophecy had been banished for attempting the same. I asked why he assumed as much, and he made the mistake of mentioning Maugrim's name. We had Maugrim brought before the council, and the wild look in his eyes told us that he was desperate, grasping at straws, for he _did_ love Gaia like she had declared, and Morganna and I could _see_ the truth. We could see how he'd been manipulating Aesop in his favour, and it was an easy step to guess that Aesop had been working with Gaia as well."

Merlin paused to pinch his nose and sigh again. This was really hard for him to be sharing all of this with us, and for a moment I was tempted to ask him why he _was_. He didn't know us. He didn't know that Michael was Autumn's son. We were strangers to him, and he was recounting his most painful moments to us. I didn't want him to stop though, so I kept my opinions to myself.

"We banished him, and Maugrim, and the young man they enlisted to assist them in their quest—one of our best and brightest scientist, Bitoru. We could not have the queen be brought back. We'd seen her true nature, and it wasn't desirable. After the longest argument in my life—which is saying something—Morganna and I came to the heartbreaking realization that the girls _had_ committed treason, and they could no longer stay on our world," Merlin admitted. "Morganna wished to be the one to banish them, and as I couldn't bear the thought of doing it, I allowed her to do so. The girls led her on a great chase for a long while, but eventually, Morganna found them. They understood, and left to fulfill the prophecy Gaia had told them of, even though it wasn't a _true_ prophecy. I haven't seen them since."

"And Morganna decided to take up the throne in the mean time?" Tatum guessed.

"Yes," Merlin said. "And when she did so, I took the final continent and sent it away. We have been in a constant loop ever since, which meant that Morganna could never _truly_ rule. She is just as trapped in these fairy tales as anyone else."

"You miss them," Lopmon guessed, patting his arm again. "The princesses."

"I wish I could see them," Merlin agreed. "To talk to them, and apologize for how foolish I was, allowing Morganna's reasoning to sway my judgement. I should not have banished them. Who knows what could have happened in their absence."

"Do you want us to tell you?" Hideto suggested. He was inching his way to the door, and was trying his hardest to keep from moving any further.

"You have seen them?" Merlin asked sounding excited.

"They got wrapped up in another prophecy," Tatum explained. "They had to choose the children that would become the Holy Three. They each made two choices, because they picked Alias III without much thought, but they ended up with Miyako, Daisuke, and Iori. They succeeded in the mission the queens chose them for. They chose right."

"I was one of the first choices," Hideto commented with a smirk. A shudder passed through Merlin, and Hideto laughed.

"Only three?" Merlin asked, having noticed the uneven numbers.

"Autumn might've picked someone, but we don't know," Michael said awkwardly. "I think maybe Neo, but I'd like to think it might've been _me_."

"Where are they now?" Merlin demanded. He didn't _sound_ like he was being rude, just excited.

"Summer is happily living in the Land of Dreams, or she was, the last time we saw her. She's happy and helpful and she's got Iori to take care of now," I told him with a shrug.

"Spring was maybe meant to live on Earth," Lopmon said, "but she was tossed aside with all the digimon, so she lives in the Digital World with them now, and she was tortured there for awhile by the shadow of her dead father, who was using her to try and get information out of her. It didn't work though, because her brain was already broken. I guess that's because of her mom," Lopmon's her voice growing sadder as she continued talking. "I feel really guilty for laughing when she did silly things now. She really had it rough."

"Winter lives in the Dark Ocean, which is really just hell, where she went to watch over her father's evil spirit, to try and keep him from becoming a great evil. But it didn't work," Tatum said. Merlin's eyes turned to her so fast I was afraid they'd fly out of his head.

"Damn right it didn't work," Hideto said bitterly. "He escaped, and then he possessed Kiyoko for _nine_ years, and tried to possess a three year old when Kiyoko finally kicked him to the curb, _just_ because Emiko was born when three of the worlds combined."

"The worlds can combine?" Merlin asked. He seemed afraid to ask about Sigma's current status. He looked genuinely afraid of his former king. It would've probably eased his mind to find out that Sigma was one hundred percent dead this time, but he'd changed the subject, and I decided to respect that.

"Yeah, it was kind of horrible when it happened," I said, scrunching up my nose at the memory. "But it's totally possible. Gennai dedicated his life to keeping them separate though, so we've done our best to keep it from happening again."

"I think I know what the princesses were up to when they were evading you," Tatum offered. Merlin turned his curious gaze in her direction. "The four of them made the Looking Glasses, which would allow them to travel freely and easily through the worlds. They have them on Earth, in the Digital World, and in the Land of Dreams. There's one here in Sidhendor somewhere too. We're trying to find it. You don't happen to know where it is, do you?"

"No," Merlin said, shaking his head. He was intrigued by the idea of them though. I wished that would be enough to help us, but unfortunately his curiosity wouldn't be enough to get us home. It wouldn't be able to reunite me with my mother and father, with Palmon, with Tentomon and Koushiro. It wouldn't get me to Sora, or Oswald. It wouldn't help me get my restaurant back, or bring Hideto to the rest of Alias III. It wouldn't be able to get Michael to his family or Betamon, and it couldn't help Tatum either.

I didn't want his _curiosity._ I wanted his help.

"Is there at least a way to stop the loop of fairy tales?" I asked, feeling absolutely miserable that we'd wasted so long trying to find the Wizard—Merlin—and found out that he was nothing more than a man behind a curtain. He was fabled to be amazing, but was just a curious mind with a few parlour tricks up his sleeve.

"Yes," Merlin said slowly. "But it cannot be broken until someone with royal blood is crowned as the ruler."

"I can do it then," Michael announced. Merlin's eyes snapped to him instantly, silently demanding an explanation. "Don't you wonder what happened to Autumn? She met a human on Earth, and they fell in love. They got married and they had two children, and then a digimon killed her. She's probably watching over us all right now. I don't know. But what I _do_ know is that my mother was a princess here, and my grandparents were the king and queen. That means _I_ have royal blood. Doesn't it?"

"You can end my curse," Merlin gasped. A smile spread across his youthful face and he got to his feet moving towards Michael, arms open to hug him. Michael stepped back, nearly knocking into Hideto. Merlin stopped, suddenly remembering about Michael's Midas touch. "You can save us all!"

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Cody and Michael narrate _again_ , and discover How to Get the Girl!


	31. How You Get The Girl

**Y/N:** Cody and Yolei are finally able to explore somewhere other than the Dark Ocean! It's amazing. I liked the Dark Ocean, I really did, but Sidhendor is by far my favourite, and I was so glad that I got more time to write in that world. It's just so much fun!

 **U/N:** Michael is here AGAAAIIINN! And this is his last time. So it's my last time writing for this arc. That's okay, and I like writing this arc, and I like the next arc too, but not as much :( I don't know what else to say… I hope you like it all though :D

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Sidhendor and the Dark Ocean**

 **Chapter 31: How You Get the Girl**

 _ **Iori Hida:**_

We were falling. We were flying. I didn't know which it was, but we were in a tunnel of some sort, surrounded by the brightest lights, shining out every colour of the spectrum. There was too much for my eyes to look at, too much for my brain to comprehend. After months of simple grey it was overwhelming.

But I couldn't bring myself to close my eyes and block the colours out.

I couldn't be sure that I wasn't going to be spending the rest of my life in another colourless world. The colours were moving so fast, I couldn't get enough of them. It was too much. I couldn't decide. It was too fast, it was exhilarating. It was strange. It felt _weird_ , it was thrilling. It was like being wrapped in a colourful embrace.

The wind nearly drowned out a whimsical music, like the tunnel itself was singing for us as we fell out of one world and towards another. I needed to absorb as many colours as I could. I needed to see as much as I could. My eyes were crossing as I tried to look at everything all at once.

My skin was singing in harmony to the tunnel's song. It tickled. It felt like warm sunshine was dancing across my face. There was no sun, but it was so bright. It was like a rollercoaster ride. My stomach was churning in the best ways—though it still ached from Bengoshi's elbow.

And then it was over.

We fell down, spit out from the tunnel without warning. I crashed into the ground with a thud, rolling over _just_ in time for Miyako to come and land on my still aching stomach. I didn't complain though. If it wasn't my stomach, it would've been the hard ground. She was six months pregnant. She couldn't be doing stuff like this.

She rolled onto her knees, cheering loudly, holding her stomach and turning her face up towards the sky. She grinned and clambered over to the nearest person and hugged them. She screamed and backed away when she realized it was the wooden puppet that used to be Bengoshi.

He couldn't hurt her anymore, so I didn't worry about it.

I turned away from her and looked up to the sky, expecting to see the sun shining down at me, but was disappointed. This world didn't seem to have a sun either. The sky was dark—navy. I looked around, eyebrows furrowed at the brightly lit field we'd landed in. We were surrounded on all sides by trees—all of which were brightly lit, as though they were in full afternoon sunlight.

I ran my fingers through the thick, lush grass, noticing the weeds mixed in. I'd seen them before, but this was clearly not Earth or the Digital World—they both had a sun that lit the sky, not some magical...glow. I glared at them until the memory wriggled to the forefront of my mind.

"Summer has these," I muttered to myself. This wasn't the Land of Dreams. That too had a sun, but if Summer dreamed them up, theoretically we could be in her home world.

I threw my hands over my head, as Armadillomon started raining from the sky. They all landed hard, but rolled in the grass upon landing, laughing with such absolute joy it was hard not to smile—it was also hard _to_ smile, thanks to my split lip, but I did it anyway.

"It's green!" one yelled. "It's green. I can't believe it."

"This one's yellow!" another squealed. "Two colours in one place, that's so exciting!"

"The sky is blue," another shouted. "It's not grey. I repeat, the sky is not grey!"

They all sort of ran around, squeaking in delight as they hunted down different colours. One Armadillomon found a tiny patch of daisies—"yellow _and_ white!"—and another was chasing after a butterfly—"blue, purple and pink all at once!"—while yet _another_ was digging a hole in the ground—"dirt, _brown_ dirt, no sand at all!"

I wondered just how many years the Armadillomon had lived in the Dark Ocean. I was nearly as excited as they were and I'd only been there two months. I couldn't imagine living there for even a single year, let alone however many they managed to survive.

"Lucky," Miyako grumbled, looking into the sky. I followed her gaze and saw Winter was fluttering her wings and landed gracefully on the ground, pressing a large rock into my hand. I raised an eyebrow at her _generosity_ , but she didn't comment. I looked down at the rock, surprised to find it looked like a fossilized egg. I looked to her, quirking my head to the side and looking pointedly to the Armadillomon and then to the egg. She nodded, smirking at me.

"Holy crap," I muttered. "An Armadillomon egg."

"Now you can have a baby too!" Miyako said with a laugh. "We can raise them together."

"Maybe," I told her, rolling my eyes.

"The Armadillomon race no longer exists in the Dark Ocean," Winter said. "That egg is the last of them. The other eggs hatched, but this one was in the darkness too long. I don't know if it will _ever_ hatch, but I couldn't leave it behind when we were evacuating all of the others."

"No," Miyako murmured, taking the egg from me, and looking at it in wonder. "You couldn't. It wouldn't be fair."

Winter walked over to Bengoshi and nudged the wooden man with her foot, sighing. "We can't leave him this way, _can_ we?"

"I don't see why not," I muttered, grumpily. My eye was swelling up, thanks to his handiwork with a chair leg. I'd just gotten the blood to stop. I gently ran my fingers up the back of my head, to check that the wound back there hadn't been reopened during my rough landing. I wiped the blood off on my pants and sighed. The clotting hadn't survived the fall. It was irritating.

I got to my feet, and walked carefully towards the wooden man. "Is he going to try to kill us, if you revert your spell?"

"He shouldn't," Winter said. "If he tries, I can always do it again, I suppose."

It sounded to me like she'd already made up her mind, and that we wouldn't actually get a say in the matter. Miyako whimpered quietly, and I moved myself so that I was standing between her and Bengoshi. Winter held her hands out over him, and the wood started shimmering, melting away into flesh once again—no sign of the shadow illness remained. I didn't relax my guard even a little. He _could_ be trying to trick us.

"Welcome back to the land of the living," Winter said dryly. "You're a real man now. You'll only stay that way if you can rid yourself of the darkness."

"Th-thank you?" Bengoshi said, confused.

"Well, I'm leaving," Winter said, ignoring the newly restored man. "I've got to get to the Looking Glass. I need to know if it works still, and if it does, then I may be able to get you home—or at the very least to that new mysterious world. The Looking Glass might be _just_ what I need to break through the defenses of that world."

Miyako's face lit up brightly at the very thought. Winter was excited too, which I found strangely out of character for her—though we had _literally_ escaped from hell, which _had_ to be exciting for anyone, her included. It cemented my belief that we were in her home world though. She knew this land far too well for it to be any other. The Armadillomon were still hunting down different colours. They'd found some fuzzy orange caterpillar and they were piling on top of each other so that they would all get the chance to see it.

"I need you to stay put," Winter continued.

"No problem!" Miyako said cheerfully, sitting down and hugging the fossilized egg to her chest. "It's so nice here. It's already a huge improvement."

"Indeed," Winter said. "Stay here, so that I can find you when I finish. I will be back as soon as I can."

She left then, fluttering her wings and flying off through the air. She'd never done that in the Dark Ocean—not in front of us anyway. I supposed she was stretching her wings after being trapped in a cage for so long. I'd be doing the same, if I _had_ wings.

Miyako laid down in the grass, spreading her arms out on either side of herself and ran her fingers through the blades, smiling up at the sky with her eyes closed. The egg was tucked against her side. She looked absolutely beautiful. She finally had that glow that I'd heard so much about. It wasn't quite as bright as I might've liked, but the fact that it was there at all, was a relief.

"Look, its yellow and pink!"

I looked to see them looking down at another patch of flowers. The Armadillomon were all so gentle with all of their discoveries, trying not to damage the colourful new objects that were literally brightening up their previously grey existence. Each discovery was precious to them, and needed to remain untouched and perfect.

Miyako in contrast was a destructive force as she moved her arms and legs around, as if making a snow angel—with grass instead of snow. She was laughing happily and pulling grass from the ground, throwing it up in the air so that it rained down on her again.

I sat on the ground, and nearly flopped over instantly. I was so tired. I was in pain, and my eyes slid closed without any prompting. I faded in and out of consciousness for an hour or so, waking any time the Armadillomon found a new discovery, and with each one of Miyako's squeals of delight—forgetting each time sleep tried to catch hold of me that we were no longer in the Dark Ocean. My mind kept thinking there was danger at every turn.

And all that damn magical light that came from _nowhere_ wasn't helping any either.

There was a good, solid half-hour that I managed to sleep without any interruptions—once I'd thrown my arm over my eyes—before I was woken by screams. Actual screams.

"Bengoshi!" Miyako shouted after the screaming, crying man.

"What's he doing now?" I asked. Any remaining sleepiness fled at the thought of the shadow illness coming back. I looked for him, determined to protect Miyako from the shadow—and keep her baby from becoming a shadow too—but I couldn't find him anywhere. I looked to her and she pointed towards the trees. I followed her directions, and saw Bengoshi running with all his might, screaming and crying towards the trees. "Damn him."

"Don't say that," Miyako pleaded. "We were just in hell, don't wish that on anyone."

I didn't waste time reminding her that it was just an expression. Instead I just got to my feet, wincing as my leg protested against the weight I'd put on it. I started off hobbling a bit before I got used to the pain and started jogging, picking up speed as I went. I heard Miyako telling the Armadillomon to watch after the egg, and wanted to yell at her to stop being stupid, but didn't do that, because I'd be hypocritical. She wasn't the one running on a definitely sprained leg.

She caught up in no time—I may or may not have slowed my pace momentarily for her to do so—and brought three Armadillomon with her. She was using one hand to hold her stomach, and was waving the other hand around wildly, trying to keep her balance.

"Do you know where he went?" she asked.

"I figured I'd just follow the screams, actually," I told her dryly. She glared at me, but didn't say anything else, so I figured she'd let it go. The other Armadillomon were left behind to tell Winter what happened, if we weren't back before she was—and also, because they'd just found a particularly interesting worm, that they really didn't want to leave alone, since it was their new friend or something. I rolled my eyes when I heard it.

"Oh wow!" an Armadillomon gasped as we entered the forest. Glowing bugs started flying around us, swirling in large circles. They weren't needed for light, since the weird magical glow kept it from being dark, even deep in the forest, where the trees really _ought_ to be casting shadows on the ground. It was really unnerving to be a world with so much excess light—it was even more jarring to find that the light wasn't _coming from_ anywhere. Miyako stopped our chase to run her hands up and down the bark on varying trees, reaching to their leaves, and rubbing them against her face, smelling them deeply.

"It's almost like pine," she commented, holding up strangely shaped leaves. "Pine trees don't have leaves though...I wonder what it's called."

"I don't really care right now," I said. "We've got to find your lawyer friend before he gets killed."

"We're not in the Dark Ocean anymore, Iori," she said, rolling her eyes at me. "You don't need to worry so much."

"You need to worry _more_ ," I protested. "How many times have we nearly died in the Digital World? How many times on Earth? Just because it's not the Dark Ocean doesn't mean it's not dangerous. Anything could jump out from these trees at any moment and kill us. Don't let your guard down."

"You're being ridiculous," she muttered. I pointedly ignored that. It was insulting. I was only using logic. I wanted to keep the baby safe—and the baby's mother. I needed to keep the Armadillomon from getting hurt. I didn't really _care_ what happened to Bengoshi at this point—he'd tried to kill me only hours ago. I wasn't particularly fond of him, but I knew that Miyako would be angry with me if I just let him die because I didn't _try_.

I picked up my pace, letting them meander behind me if they wanted to, and raced through the forest—which really _did_ smell pretty nice. Anything that smelled like something other than rot and decay was pretty much amazing in my books at that point though.

The trees started thinning out, opening into paths that lead alongside open fields. Miyako and the Armadillomon caught up to me there, as I debated which path to follow. I caught sight of Bengoshi though, and started running again. We ran alongside the forest for awhile, before turning off onto a second path. This one led passed a farm, with an overgrown garden and an empty barn. A woman was outside, angrily beating a rug with a broom to get the dust out, grumbling about an ungrateful wretch. I didn't bother stopping, even though Miyako was soft-hearted enough to voluntarily help her. We had to find Bengoshi, we couldn't be bothered by helping angry villagers.

She didn't ask me to stop, thankfully.

I continued following after Bengoshi until he disappeared into a crowd. I hadn't even noticed the town we'd run into until I'd lost sight of him. I'd kept such a close eye on him I couldn't focus on anything else. The town was lit with bright, magical light that was different than the rest of the world had been so far. There were vendors offering everything from fruit, to mice, to seeds. I didn't know where to look. The Armadillomon were completely overwhelmed by all of the sights. They kept getting pulled in by all the vendor's sales pitches. I looked longingly at a shiny straight-razor for a few seconds, wondering if I could _borrow_ it for a few minutes, before Miyako dragged me away from it, muttering about death traps.

I didn't have any money anyway, so I let her drag me away with very little resistance.

"Do you see him anywhere?" I asked. No matter where I turned my head, I was met with the sight of colourfully dressed individuals that clearly hadn't been living in the Dark Ocean for months. Several of these high society, hoity-toity people looked down on us, sneering at our unkempt hair, our tattered, dusty clothing—my busted lip and swollen eye, and the two bloody patches on my head, and the way I was walking with a limp. They even leered at Miyako's stomach, but I didn't let them get away with it. The only good thing my beard provided me with was an even gruffer, angrier appearance than usual. They all walked away as quickly as they could as soon as they met my glare.

"Hello there," a man said, behind me. I whirled around, and saw him looking directly at Miyako's stomach. He didn't look like he was judging her, like the others, but I almost wished he _was_. He was looking at her stomach like a starving man. Miyako put both hand up to try and hide her baby from view. I glared at him, but his eyes never wavered, even for a moment from her pregnant belly. I pushed the man out of the way, because I was passed caring about decency—since none of these people had apparently heard of it. He reached up and slapped me across the face in response. Miyako gasped, letting out a startled scream. The man pushed me out of the way, trying to _talk_ to Miyako. She didn't answer whatever question the man asked. I glared at the man, stepping directly between them, _forcing_ him to meet my eye. He flinched away like I'd burned him—I was _proud_ of my glare's potential now that I'd spent a couple of months in hell. It had reached a new level of scary. It was sort of exhilarating.

I reached behind me, and grabbed Miyako's hand, pulling her out of his view, and urged her off down the path. I took a quick step towards the man, nearly _lunging_ at him, and he was spooked, stepping away from me in a hurry.

"Iori!" Miyako called. "I see him."

The Armadillomon were gone. I groaned, and knew we'd be hunting them down after, but followed Miyako's pointed finger, spotting Bengoshi curled up in a ball on the ground, rocking and sobbing, drawing a crowd that was pointing and jeering. I pushed my way through the crowd and grabbed his arm, forcing him to his feet, glaring at the audience, making them disperse.

"Now what?" I asked Miyako.

I didn't get an answer.

I spun on my heel, looking for her, but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. Her hair was purple. In a typical crowd it was actually _easy_ to spot her. The same couldn't be said about this crowd, where everyone wore strangely colourful garments, and several women were wearing elaborate hats with large feather plumes of every colour of the rainbow. Miyako could be anywhere.

"Damn it!" I growled, causing Bengoshi to flinch away from me.

"I'm sorry," he whined. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm—"

"Sorry," I finished for him. "I got it. Why don't you tell me what the _hell_ you were thinking when you ran off? We've lost Miyako and the Armadillomon thanks to your stupidity. I could be having a nap right now; instead you decided it was perfectly _natural_ for you to run crying and screaming through a whole new world!"

"The darkness will get me," he whispered, looking around with wide eyes, as if he expected the shadows to jump out of any alley to get him. I had to force my eyes _not_ to roll. He was genuinely terrified, but it was far too bright in this world for the shadows to hang around without it being painful. They could be defeated with a freaking flashlight. They weren't going to survive in this magical light from _somewhere_ —seriously, where did the light come from?

"That's not what she meant," I told him.

"But the shadows, they made me one of them. They could get me. Don't let them get me," he pleaded.

"It's the darkness in _yourself_ that she doesn't want you to let get control," I pointed out. "Everyone has some varying amount of darkness within themselves—except maybe Hikari, but even that's debatable. They need to find the balance to keep the darkness from getting overwhelming. She's not telling you that you need to be a saint or something. I'm no saint, and the darkness hasn't taken over me. Anger does not equate to darkness on its own. But if it's only ever paired with sadness, loneliness, betrayal and fear, then maybe the darkness will have a fertile breeding ground."

"What?"

"I don't know," I sighed. I wasn't explaining it right. This was the perfect moment for Hikari or Kurayami to take charge, but of course neither of them was readily available for that. I doubted either of them was even in this world.

That was a nice thought though. I couldn't let my mind wander, so I shook the thoughts out of my mind—no matter how enticing the idea that any of my friends could be here really was.

"You make bad choices," I told Bengoshi. "You need to think your choices over more, and make your decisions for the right reasons. You chose to work for the Goutokuji's because they were paying you obscene amounts of money. You knew that you were backing the wrong side, right?"

"Obviously," he said almost dryly. He was still freaking out though, so it lost most of its bite.

"So next time around, _don't_ ," I suggested. "If you want to support them because you actually believe they are right, then do it. But if you're just in it for the paycheck...maybe you could chose _not_ to. Look at all of the variables. Do you _need_ the money for food or shelter, or just greed? Will you _regret_ it, once it's over? Just _think_ before you act. Be conscious over your life. Make yourself aware of your faults and your strengths."

He was silent after that, turning the words over in his mind. I tried to run through them again myself, hoping that they made sense, but doubted they really did. I'd been too busy trying to locate Miyako in the crowd, as I led him through the throng of people.

I couldn't spot her.

"Isn't that one of those Armadillomon?" Bengoshi asked, sounding more like he had _before_ the shadow illness had spread through him. He still seemed hesitant about the digimon, but this was the _third_ world he'd been in this year alone, and he appeared to be getting better with new things. He hadn't even batted an eye at the house we'd passed that was made of straw. _Straw_. I'd even starred at it in confusion for a moment or two.

What good was a house of straw? The first rain was going to knock it down, and if it somehow managed to survive it was going to stink to high heavens.

But he was right, one of the Armadillomon I'd lost track of was doing some sort of trick in the middle of the square, and several of the townspeople were throwing little silver coins at him, cheering him on. A second Armadillomon was in the crowd, cheering on with the people, before he went and collected the money—commenting only that it was _silver_ , not grey!—before running over to us. We waited a few minutes for the show to end, before I called the performing Armadillomon over.

"Where's the other one?" I asked. They shook their heads. Of _course_ they didn't know. They'd been too overwhelmed with all this new stuff in varying colours. "Have you seen _Miyako_?" I asked, hoping for a confident answer, but I didn't get one. They just shook their heads again.

"Can we have some of that colourful fruit?" one asked.

"They look yummy," the other agreed. I bent down and picked up the money that had been dropped on the ground at my feet and shoved it in Bengoshi's hand, sending him off with the Armadillomon to get the fruit while I tried to hunt the other one down—and tried to catch even a glimpse of Miyako.

But I doubted I'd have much luck.

 _ **Michael Washington:**_

I didn't want anyone to speak, but they wouldn't stop. It was selfish of me to ask them to stop, so I wouldn't, I would just do my very best to block them out completely. They all seemed to understand I didn't want to be disturbed. That or they were afraid I was foolish enough to turn them into a solid gold statue.

Merlin, the man with the long silvery hair and beard that now walked with us through the dark woods, had just openly admitted his biggest regrets and faults, and that was very brave. Within his story though, I learned much about my past. Or my history in the very least. I couldn't wait to find Jenna and tell her all of this too, because whatever it meant, it was definitely something she should know. I wasn't the only one who had always been wondering about my mother.

It had bothered me for years knowing that Sigma had sired my mother. He was not a very kind guy; that was all I really knew about him. I tried bringing him up with Kiyoko once, but he was too fidgety and nervous, I just didn't have the heart to keep questioning him. I just wanted to know _something_. And now I did. It didn't matter that Sigma was awful, because he had never really raised my mother at all. Both of her parents were ambitious and cruel, but she never was, and she fell in love with the most optimistic, carefree guy in all of Earth—which just so happened to be my grandmother's birthplace. It didn't seem weird when I worded it that way, but when I remembered that she was from Earth back when it was one super continent—well, it was a different story.

My grandmother probably saw a dinosaur! _So_ cool!

But she was evil, and that was horrible. Then again, pretty much everyone I knew at this point was evil at some point or another. Even I had once given in to Fanglongmon's pleading. I was weak then—but not anymore. I was much stronger now than I ever had been before, and knowing all of these things about my past was just giving me more vigor and enthusiasm.

The story kept playing in my head though, and it was becoming a quicker, jumbled version.

Gaia saved the world by making Yggdrasil create the Land of Dreams, and then she married Sigma who was fond of what she had done to end the war. They had four kids. Gaia then tried to kill her husband, because she wanted more than she had, also she was in love with Maugrim who loved her back. Maugrim was a soldier. Gaia was banished, and then her four daughters really did kill Sigma—but not before Spring went insane. Maugrim was then banished along with Aesop and Bitoru—I had met all three of them—and then the four daughters were kicked out too.

It was weird that my mother brought death to the worlds though. I kept skipping that fact because I couldn't be sure how to feel about it. All I did know was that it reminded me of how every step I took caused more death of the thin blades of grass turning to gold.

"Merlin," I said catching his attention. I didn't want to waste any time with him because there was no telling what the future was to hold. He was the only person I'd ever met that knew the information I was looking for, and was also willing to give it to me. He looked back from where he had been walking with Hideto and smiled to me. I didn't smile back. He excused himself from his conversation and fell in step with me. I looked on ahead where Lopmon was tentatively leading us all back through the woods following her nose. Mimi and Tatum were walking together, and it seemed Mimi was nervous, which didn't make much sense to me because the wolf was gone indefinitely now.

I looked to Merlin and saw that his pale green eyes were staring down to me. He was quite tall for such an old man. "What can I do for you?"

I diverted my eyes, feeling pressured by his gaze, "I—"

I was interrupted by a loud groan from Hideto. Apparently Lopmon had gone in the wrong direction. "I'm sorry!" She called out, "I didn't mean to! I was just following Hideto's scent. It was strong around here!"

"How often have you _come_ here?" Tatum asked, appalled.

"Enough." Hideto admitted bitterly.

I finally got a look at what we were seeing and gasped up to the giant beanstalk that rose high above the trees. The stalk was a bright, beautiful green and it was thicker than any tree I'd ever seen in my life. It seemed so unreal to be seeing something towering up through the thick clouds that seemed to cluster around the top. Merlin seemed interested in the beanstalk as well, stepping forward and licking his forefinger before running it gently along the surface.

Hideto turned from the beanstalk and gripped his golden axe tighter. "Can we just go?"

"Of course we can," Tatum assured him, "Just lead the way."

"Oh you don't trust me now, huh?" Lopmon questioned, annoyed.

"Hideto has to do this." Mimi said quietly, lifting Lopmon off the ground. "He has to go on his own. It has to be his own decision."

Hideto laughed a bitter laugh and started pacing. For a second I thought he _would_ go, but he turned back and started toward the beanstalk again, only to walk back again. "I can't do it!" he shouted angrily, "I'm not strong enough to walk away. I want to go up. I really do."

Tatum moved toward him and smiled encouragingly, "Fight the desire. Know where the line is. You cannot succumb to your emotions and allow the lust that this world instilled in you to take shape. You want the gold from above, because you feel the greed that Jack once knew. You are not Jack, you are Hideto."

"And it feels really good to get the fairy tale over with," Mimi said, ashamed of being so relaxed now that the wolf was gone.

Hideto quickly rounded on Mimi, "The difference, Mimi, is that you got out of yours by default! I'm forced to actually play mine out." He and Mimi both shared a look of hurt it seemed, but at the same time, their faces relaxed and their eyes shifted slowly to the axe in Hideto's hand. "Or maybe not." He grinned and gently pushed Mimi aside, rushing toward the beanstalk.

"Oh this is a _horrible_ idea," Tatum said aghast, her hands thrown into the air. "You have no way of knowing what way the beanstalk will fall! You could kill us all!"

"Does Jack die at the end of the story?" Hideto asked.

"N-no," Tatum offered and Hideto seemed to take that as an okay to hit the stalk because he took his first swing, allowing the solid gold axe to pierce the leafy stump. "But you're also not being a very good Jack if you're not climbing the beanstalk."

"So now you _want_ me to climb it?" Hideto argued.

Tatum let out that flustered sound she always did whenever I was in that angry state of mind I got in when I was hungry. Everything seemed so important to me during those times, and I knew how Tatum got in retaliation. She would be caught up on this for a while, so I took the opportunity to call out to Merlin again. "Merlin?" he looked toward me briefly before allowing his eyes to flick back to the argument as if it were the most awaited series finale of the decade. "Hey! Can I talk to you?"

He resigned from viewing the argument and wandered off toward me, being careful not to come too close. "What is it?" he asked politely.

At first it didn't seem like the words would be able to come out the way I wanted them to, and I even had some back up questions in case I felt too embarrassed to ask, but this time Merlin's green eyes showed comfort and the words poured from my mouth before I could even think twice. "Can you tell me about my mother?"

"Of course I can," Merlin said, smiling fondly. His smile did falter though, "I don't know much of who she was, I must admit. As I've told you, Theta took care of Autumn in her younger days." I nodded, telling him that was fine, I just wanted to know _something_. "Well you see, she was... odd."

"Odd?" I questioned, "That's all? She was odd?"

"Well it sums her up well," Merlin said with a small chuckle, "When someone felt the need to scold her for what she had done wrong, she would accept defeat easily and then run off to watch a butterfly make its way from a cocoon as if it were fascinating." I was instantly hit with a flash of watching one myself. I remembered because my mother woke me up early to drag me outside to see it happen. I couldn't help but smile. "She was always fascinated by the way things lived. She never cared much for war or for politics, and whenever Sigma would speak to the daughters, bringing them in front of the council, she showed no interest in passing his tests."

"Tests?" I asked.

"Well," Merlin said sheepishly. "Sigma was not involved much in the raising of his daughters, but he loved his country very much. He would not pass his control to someone unless he truly deemed them worthy."

"So he would never have passed it to my mother?" I asked.

"I don't believe Sigma would have ever passed the crown to anyone," Merlin admitted. "Not if it were his choice. He did, however, always find the death to be intriguing. His mother Theta had died, and Sigma never much cared for her. It was a horrible day for the world as a whole, but Sigma did not mourn the death of his mother. He took Autumn aside and tried to understand her power. I don't believe he ever did."

"Anything else?" I asked, feeling the information quench a thirst I was scarcely aware I had.

"She always wanted to try new things," Merlin admitted. "Autumn was the first of the girls to wish to travel. She was given the opportunity, and she did so, enjoying her time from what I could see in her eyes." He looked to me, seeing I was craving more. "Well, there is one other thing." I nodded eagerly, "She had a certain... disregard for the rules? Not all rules mind, simply the rules she saw unjust. She would never sit back and allow someone to tell her how to think or to be."

I looked to my feet, a grin creeping onto my face. "She reminds me of Jenna," I smirked.

"Jenna?" Merlin asked. "Who is that?"

"My sister," I said biting my lip to keep my smile under control. "She's just like that."

"HIDETO!" Tatum screamed, interrupting Merlin and my conversation. We turned to see that Hideto had managed to cut a decently sized wedge out of the beanstalk and the wind from above was causing the tower to sway dangerously. "Do you _see_ what I mean?"

"It's fine!" Hideto said with a maniacal grin on his face, but even Mimi saw the fault in the plan now. Hidteo swung the axe one last time toward the beanstalk and it cracked loudly as another gust of wind came strong. And with no effort at all, the beanstalk was coming down, toppling toward us.

Panic set in quickly, as we all began scattering. I ran as far from the others as I could, afraid they would bump into me in their fear and I would be the cause of their death—but when I looked over my shoulder I saw that Merlin was standing tall and prepared. He wound his hand back and balled up his fist. Then, in one swift movement he slammed it forward and forced the beanstalk to rewind itself, back into a standing position. Then, slowly he slid his other hand, palm open, to greet his fist and the beanstalk began toppling in the opposite direction.

He turned toward us and smiled awkwardly. "Brace yourselves."

Mere moments later, the ground had been torn from under my feet. I felt myself flipping through the air backwards. I slammed into a tree, or something hard at least and felt as it began turning itself to gold to match all of my stupid little footprints. I heard some screaming, and it sounded like Mimi, but I couldn't be sure.

I slid to the ground, my back against the tree and grabbed whatever I could find, waiting for the shaking to end. When it finally had I found that I was holding a large golden boulder, but couldn't see much else. There were massive clouds of dust and dirt blocking my vision, but from what I could tell, the ground was still somewhat intact. There were actual cracks and gaps in the stone and dirt that made up the area around me, but I was too nervous to call out to the others.

I waited in the silence that seemed so jarring next to the crazed earth shattering tumble of Hideto's personal hell. And then finally, a weak voice spoke up. "Are you all alive?"

"I am!" I called back to Merlin nervously. A moment later I spotted his figure emerging from the clouds of dust. He was frowning, unimpressed with himself it seemed. "That was pretty cool of you. To save us like that."

"I panicked," Merlin admitted. "I could have done much more."

"You did what you could in the limited time," I told him with a comforting smile. "You did awesome." Merlin looked to me, seemingly in awe for whatever reason, but I didn't have time to question because Lopmon and Tatum made their way toward us. "Tatum!" I grinned.

Tatum waved with her free hand and groaned. "I told him not to do it," she told us. "Really I did."

"I heard," I assured her with a small laugh.

"But if I didn't do it," Hideto's voice rang out, "There would still be a giant beanstalk here."

"There still is," Tatum said, rolling her eyes as Hideto popped up behind her. "It's just lying down. It's now destroyed half of the forest." Hideto's face fell. He was apparently not particularly pleased with himself in that aspect. "But still, at least we can strike that off of our list of things to worry about."

"Which leaves us with one," Mimi added, startling me by appearing next to me. I turned to her and she gasped quietly jumping aside. I winced, realizing once again that she was afraid of me. It was horrible to not only be afraid of myself but to see that stupid look in their eyes. The way they actually _feared_ their life when I was too close to them was one of the worst things I'd experienced. "One thing on the list now, right? Just to go home?"

"Seems it, yeah," Hideto agreed.

"And the first step in doing that," Lopmon said, climbing up to Tatum's head. "Is to crown Michael king. So let's do that before dinner, because I'm hungry and I would like to share my dinner with my brother. So let's get home, okay?"

Mimi's face lit up at the idea of having dinner with our friends, but I had a feeling her hopes would be dashed. It was too easy. Nothing in our lives ever found such a quick and sudden resolve, and so I just _knew_ that we would be here longer than either of them wanted us to be. But hopefully one day, we would get what they wanted. And we could go home. "Let's go then!" Mimi's excited voice seemed to pump the others with the same adrenaline, but I certainly didn't feel the same. I wanted to, but I found it just too difficult.

I winced as the others all made their way around me, in a large swooping circle. None of them bothered to make eye contact with me, afraid it would hurt my feelings. I shrugged my shoulders, more to myself than to anything, and then followed behind them.

My heart was still beating quickly from the sudden adrenaline rush the beanstalk caused, and I couldn't focus my mind on the things Merlin had just told me about my mother, though I wanted to. I desperately wanted to form a better understanding of her, something to keep in my head to add to the memories of her I could remember myself. But knowing that she was _millions_ of years old felt wrong. It felt like I was only a _small_ part of her life—and I really was. I was only ten years old when she died. What was ten years to the millions that she had lived?

What was worse, was that I would never know the woman who got to spend time with my mother in her early years. She was dead too. I had now met Merlin who had watched over Summer, and Morganna—the crazed evil witch-queen who ruled this world and wanted to steal my heart—who cared for Winter, and even Aesop who raised Spring. But Theta, my great-grandmother, was dead, and she knew my mother more than anyone probably ever could have.

I sighed, wondering if I could maybe talk to the other fairies about her, but Merlin fell in stride with me once more. "I have another question," I admitted, looking over my shoulder to the wreck we had left behind. I didn't wait for him to acknowledge me this time though. "How well did you know Aesop and Bitoru?"

Merlin thought for a moment. "The former much better than the latter, I will admit. Why do you ask?"

I looked ahead to the others that seemed confident that we were going the right way now, and then back to Merlin, "Well they questioned me. They wanted to know what I knew."

"They are alive as well?" Merlin questioned thoughtfully, thinking back to the old days I guessed, but it wasn't any of my business. "And what did you tell them? Hmmm?" Obviously I wasn't going to make the same mistake and tell them what I'd told Aesop and Bitoru, so I simply shrugged my shoulders. "Aesop worked with Morganna and myself on Sigma's precious council, while Bitoru was our world's most renowned scientist."

"You mentioned," I noted. "Why are they so curious about the different worlds? And the crests?"

"Well Sigma did not let anyone know of his true plans," Merlin ran his thin fingers through his beard. "We on the council knew nothing of what happened to the worlds when he vanquished them. It was not until I spoke to Yggdrasil myself in hopes to rid this world of Neverland that I learned of the alternate realms. It is possible Aesop and Bitoru did not know of any others until they themselves had been cast aside. Residing on a world that had been torn away from their home, surely they came to the conclusion that all others had taken shape for themselves as well." I supposed that made sense. But then why were they trying to figure out more about the worlds? They were still working for Maugrim, that much was obvious. What did _he_ want though? Sigma's old bodyguard wanted to learn about the different worlds and their creation... They asked me about Gennai too, and the general concept of the creation of the worlds...

"Is that your home?" Merlin asked, cutting into my thoughts. I looked up and saw our shabby old house sitting on top of the hill against the sky. I nodded. "It's quaint." Merlin smiled fondly, and then moved on ahead of me quickly. "I need you all to listen now." His voice was clear and loud so the others all stopped and spun to greet him, and as if they'd planned it, all of their eyes nervously flicked to me at the same time. I caught Tatum's eyes and she apologetically turned her head, looking to Merlin now to hear what he had to say. "I require someone to locate Morganna and lure her from her castle. It would be beneficial to remove her from the scene."

"I can do that," I spoke up quickly, "She's obsessed with me it seems."

"It's too dangerous," Tatum said flatly, "you can't go."

"I'll go with him," Hideto said to Tatum, being very sure to not speak directly to me or make eye contact in case I turned him to stone like freaking Medusa. I wondered momentarily if maybe I _did_ have snakes growing from my head—that would explain their horrified expressions every time they saw me. I had to control my bitterness, but it was building up quickly. It hurt to see those expressions aimed at me.

"What about us then?" Tatum asked nervously as Hideto set off toward the castle without a second glance. "What do we do?"

"You will be with me," Merlin said thoughtfully, "I would like to hear more of this 'Looking Glass'. I may be able to locate it with more information." I didn't catch whatever came as a response to that because I had already shot off toward Hideto, rushing past Merlin and the girls. It felt weird to have my feet only ever come in contact with solid gold, but I made sure to slow myself before I caught up to Hideto in case I slipped. I didn't want to cause any more damage than I already had. Not that Hideto hadn't caused some damage in his own right.

"What's the plan?" I asked, popping up next to Hideto, keeping far enough away that he wouldn't feel the need to back away again. "We storm the castle?"

"Something like that, yeah," Hideto said, his voice cold and distant.

"I don't blame you for cutting the beanstalk down," I told him as kindly as I could despite my bitter feelings. "It had to be done one way or another. It would have been you or a different 'Jack'." Hideto looked to me and nodded, but said nothing else for a while. It seemed to have lifted a weight off of his shoulders though because when he spoke next he was much less depressed.

"So how does it feel to be royalty?"

I shrugged my shoulders, "I dunno, I've already known that I was." I admitted slowly as we made our way toward the gates to town. "This is going to sound pretty bad, but I've always gotten everything I've ever wanted, so it honestly doesn't feel any different."

Hideto nodded stiffly, "Must be nice to live a privileged life." I shifted my eyes toward him, unsure. He surely wasn't telling me that I had an easy life. It may not have been as bad as his necessarily, but it sure wasn't a joyride. Hideto didn't say anything else though, so I didn't either. I didn't want to start an argument when I was already kind of annoyed. "You're going to be king now though," he eventually said.

"I wish I wasn't," I quietly responded. Hideto looked surprised that I hadn't missed a beat, but let me think for a moment, allowing my response to grow before he added his own thoughts. "I only ever wanted to feel closer to my mom. This world gave me that, and I'm happy about it and everything, but becoming a king won't help anything at all."

"And why is that?" He asked.

"She didn't want to be in charge," I said, looking to my bare feet as they sparkled constantly with each step, turning more of the world into gold. "She never took her training seriously. She never _wanted_ to be in control, so why should I?"

"Because you aren't your mother?" Hideto said flatly, "if everyone came out the exact same as their mother, well then..." he trailed off. I guess I understood where he was coming from, because his mother wasn't a great role model... but maybe mine was. I didn't know that for sure, because I only knew her as my mother, but what I did know was that she did not want to be in control of a world that fought for fun. There was only darkness and power confined within these worlds. I knew a lot about darkness, and I knew a lot about power. The only two crests I had ever been linked to were those of balance and strength, which were in some ways the exact opposite to what this world represented, and yet also the same. I did not feel the connection to the throne, or to the people. I was not right for the throne, but if it would help the spell be broken, and help put a stop to Morganna's ridiculous reign, then I was on board. If only for that.

But I certainly couldn't see myself bearing a crown.

Then again, I was apparently the fairest in the land, and everyone was supposed to look up to royalty... if there was anything I learned from constantly being in the media, it was that people adored beauty above all else. I had always strived to fit that role, and now here this _whole_ world was telling me that I was beautiful. I couldn't wait to tell Mr Smith.

When we entered the town it was immediately evident that it was not a good idea for me to be wondering around. Everyone was panicking, bustling around and screaming about the great earth shake. There was no way I could make my way through the crowd without making a bunch of creepy golden lawn ornaments.

"Wait here," Hideto said flatly, not bothering to look at me before stepping into the crowd.

"What?" I asked loudly, "What are you going to do? Morganna's gonna kill you!" But Hideto was not listening, and did not stop. I lost track of him quickly through the thick crowd of people and I angrily took a few steps back, just in case. I groaned, annoyed. I was going to be left behind, and let everyone else play a part in crowning me? That was no fun. If I had to be a king, I wanted to be one of those guys who actually participated in their countries affairs. Like Theodore Roosevelt!

I kicked a pebble and watched as it turned to gold, soaring through the air and thought of an idea, where I could turn something to gold, then throw it into the ditch. All of the people would chase it to claim it as their own and I would be able to slip past and make my way to the castle with Hideto. Before I could find something to turn to gold though, I caught sight of a painfully familiar face. I gasped and leaned forward to be sure I was seeing it right.

I rushed toward the small animal who was relaxing in the grass and I skidded to a stop in front of him, "Armadillomon!" A girlish scream escaped the relaxed digimon's mouth and my shoulders fell dramatically. "Never mind," I sighed, there was no way such a feminine voice had come from the Armadillmon _I_ knew. "I thought you were someone else."

"I get that a lot," the girl Armadillomon said, "See that's funny because I live with only Armadillomon."

"You're right," I chuckled, "That is kind of funny." I knelt down in front of her and thought, "Where did you come from? I haven't seen any digimon around."

"Not from around here," she told me casually as she closed her eyes again to relax in the not-sunlight. "Just arrived with my friends. I spent an eternity in a land of darkness."

"Wait, you're from a different land?" I asked quickly and loudly, startling the Armadillomon, "How did you get here?"

"Magic I think," she said, somewhat shrugging her shoulders.

"Did anyone come with you?" I asked nervously, scared to hear the answer.

She nodded slowly, "Yeah, a couple humans, a puppet, my master and the other Armadillomon." She didn't seem to understand that the look of sheer excitement on my face meant that I wanted her to continue, but when I barked at her in mostly nonsensical gibberish she managed to pick out that I wanted to know where the people had gone. "The girl went up to that tall red building just over there." The Armadillomon didn't seem eager to stop her relaxation, but nodded her head toward the town where a boarded up red building stood tall.

"Okay, thanks!" I said quickly, not bothering to wait around for another moment. I needed to find out what was going on inside the building. If someone else, a human, had come along with the Armadillomon from a land of darkness—which probably meant the Dark Ocean—that meant that someone could have used that key to save themselves from the virus—or better yet, someone from inside the Coliseum had used that key and was able to find us a way back to the Coliseum and to my dad and Betamon.

I walked awkwardly through the long grass around the wall of the town, bending the tall and thin blades of golden grass with my feet, trampling through to the wall. I hesitated only for a moment and then began climbing, digging my fingers and toes into the cracks between the bricks. It got harder to climb when it slowly began turning to gold, but I didn't stop. It was better the wall turn to gold than the people inside the town. By the time I reached the top of the wall my fingertips were aching, but I didn't stop to nurse them, instead I leapt from the top of the wall and landed on the ground beneath, this time I was inside the town and on the other end of the bustling crowd, jammed in a corner behind a couple of vendor stands.

I slipped past them, doing my best to not touch a thing, wincing when my toe grazed a basket and then I set off toward the red building that the Armadillomon had told me about. When I reached the doorway though I froze, staring toward the wooden blockade. It was a simple door. All I had to do was open it up, but it was just not an easy feat. I couldn't get inside without touching the door, but if I touched the door it would never open.

I spun to the crowd and caught sight of a child stealing a loaf of bread from a woman who wasn't looking. "Hey!" I shouted, "kid!" He looked to me, ashamed. I motioned for him to come to me and he hung his head trudging slowly toward me. I was growing impatient, not wanting to wait for some sad, poor kid to feel guilty for his actions. "Can you just open the door for me?" I pleaded. "I just need inside."

The kid looked confused, then looked to the door, "No way," he said, "you've done something to it, haven't you?"

"No, I promise!" I begged.

"What do I get out of it?" He bartered.

Annoyed, I looked around and found a decent sized rock. I knelt down and picked it up, watching as it turned to gold and then I handed it to the kid, dropping it into his hand. "Buy yourself some bread." The kid's eyes widened excitedly at the gold and he moved forward, pulling the door open without a second thought and then he was gone.

I slipped inside, not really caring what the kid spent the gold on and found myself in a dark wooden stairwell. Everything was wooden and it smelled rather wet and vaguely like a barnyard. I tried to ignore the strong stench and made my way toward the stairs, but I stopped when I heard voices above.

"It's not a difficult task, really!" A man was saying softly in a twisted sort of voice. I moved quickly, excited to find who it was. I was aware that I was leaving golden footprints, so I stepped only on the corners of the steps and I made sure to not touch the handrail as I made my way to the top. I finally found a doorway that was open just a crack and I peeked inside.

I saw the man who was speaking and he looked just as twisted as his voice suggested. He was pacing back and forth, an angry look on his face, like he wanted something desperately. As he paced he moved aside and I caught sight of who he was speaking to. I nearly called out her name in pure excitement, but remembered the qualities of this world. I would have to trust that things would play out for the better. I didn't want to interrupt. "I don't know _how_."

"Figure it out," the man's voice was quick and cold. "I shall be back in the morning." My heart skipped a beat as he moved toward the door. I side stepped quickly and stood as far in the corner as I dared without touching any walls. The man threw open the door to the room he had come from and made his way down the stairs. He had only gone down three before he stopped and listened. I held my breath as the sobs from inside the room made their way to the stairwell. The man chuckled, satisfied, and continued on his way down the stairs. When I was sure he was far enough away I made my way into the room quickly.

"Michael?"

"Miyako!" I cheered in a whispered voice, tiptoeing around the room with a giant grin on my face. I waved my hands in a dancing sort of way to show my excitement as she looked to me with wide eyes. "What does he want you to do?"

There were tears pouring from her eyes but she wiped them away to explain, "I-I just wanted th-this world to be better th-th-than the Dark Ocean—but that m-man is crazy!"

"They're all crazy," I said nodding, there was no easy way to say that. It was simply true.

"He wants my first born child," she said, looking down to her stomach, "I'm pregnant by the way—"

"I see that," I said, keeping my grin concealed as she pointed to her stomach. I was honestly just so pleased to see her—to know she was okay. Armadillomon said ' _a couple of humans_ ' and that meant there were others probably. I was hardly listening to what she was saying because I was already positive I would never let anyone take her baby, I just didn't think she had anything to worry about.

"...and I have to spin this straw into _gold_!" She said, her voice breaking as she lifted a pile of dull looking straw. She was sitting in front of a spinning wheel which I hadn't noticed somehow. It still seemed hard for me to look at, like my brain was warning me to stay away.

"I can help with that," I said fondly. I was pleased to put my ridiculous power to _some_ kind of use. "See, this crazy world is based around fairy tales. I happen to have found myself with a Midas Touch." Miyako looked confused as I made my way to her straw. I knelt down and lifted one strand and we both watched as it spread through the chain until there was a pile of golden straw. "Voila!"

Miyako's face was flat and serious as she stared at the gold and then she broke out into hysterical laughter, "That's _awesome_!" she shouted, jumping to her feet and leaping toward me. I jumped back, screaming at her, nearly slipping in my landing. "What?" she asked in a panic.

"Don't touch me!" I hissed loudly, "You'll turn to gold too!" Miyako's face paled quickly, "It's more of a curse than a gift, really."

She nodded, confused, "Right." Then she shook her head, "Nope, I don't get it."

"It's a long story," I admitted, "I'm sure you have one too."

She nodded, "Iori is here," she said with a fond smile, "We kept each other safe."

"I've got Hideto, Tatum, Lopmon and Mimi here to keep me company" I told her. "We've been living in a shack and we have to poop outside." Miyako burst into laughter again, seemingly just elated to be out of the Dark Ocean in general and to know that some of her friends were okay. I laughed along with her until a horrible scream interrupted us.

"WHO IS IN HERE?"

"He's back!" Miyako gasped. She panicked, looking around and found a closet. She rushed toward the door and pulled it open, "Get in!" I did so without question and she slammed the door mere moments before I heard the man's voice again.

"How did you do that?" he gasped, looking to the gold in a pile on the floor, I assumed. "How did you _do_ that?"

"I'm talented," Miyako offered, but the man seemed annoyed.

"I don't think so," He said. "You see, I found a set of golden footsteps making their way into this barn and up the stairs." I panicked as I looked down to my feet. I was standing in a golden patch in the closet. I flopped my head back in exasperation and then the man's voice was much closer, "I wonder where your little friend is hiding. Couldn't possibly be in _here_!" before he could open the door dramatically, I had slammed into it, popping it open. He let out a scream as it slammed into his face as it turned gold from my touch. I caught sight of Miyako and backed away from her to be safe.

I ran for the door stupidly and tried to escape, forgetting somehow that whatever I touched would no longer be the way it once was and watched as our only exit turned to gold. Soon the gold was spreading along the walls meeting from the two doors on either side of the room.

I gasped when I heard a hissing sound and I leaped aside. Then the man lunged toward me and I panicked, trying to escape, but he had cornered me already and when he grabbed for my wrist there was nothing I could do to stop him.

A moment later I was staring toward a golden version of the man who had just threatened Miyako and her unborn child. He was a jerk, and if someone had to fall subject to my curse I was glad it was him. It didn't stop me from feeling guilty though. I pried my hand from his grip and moved away from his body. Miyako was already heading for the door, terrified to stick around. She was pulling on the door with all of her might, but it wouldn't budge.

I was staring toward my mistake, the man who could no longer breathe as I backed away from him. Surely there had to be a way to undo this curse, right? It had to be possible. Everything could be undone... right?

"Michael, look out," Miyako said calmly. I stopped and turned around to see that I had nearly backed right into the spinning wheel's needle.

Suddenly everything was dark except for the sharp pointed piece of metal and I could do nothing to stop myself from raising my finger toward it.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Mimi and Hideto find that the world is getting Crazier as everything starts building towards the end. Will they manage to make it out okay, or will Morganna foil their plans and become the fairest of them all?


	32. Crazier

**Y/N:** This is the second to last chapter of this arc, and that's bittersweet to me, because Sidhendor is my favourite world out of all of them—including Earth really—and I have to go from this wonderful arc to the Land of Dreams, which was my least favourite of all worlds. It was a drastic jump, but I loved Witchenly too, so it kind of balanced out, right? You don't want to hear about the future yet though. Hideto and Mimi were both fun to write, and it was fun because this chapter really let me break free of the tentative limits we'd set and just run wild with random fairy tales. Can you recognize them all?

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Sidhendor and the Dark Ocean**

 **Chapter 32: Crazier**

 _ **Hideto Fujimoto:**_

People were everywhere. It had been a good decision to leave Michael behind. I couldn't make it two steps without running into another person. I didn't want to think about how many golden statues we'd have left behind if Michael had come with me. I had to stop and pick up a pile of match sticks when I tripped over a little girl. One of Tatum's stories came to mind, and I couldn't leave the poor little match girl matchless. I needed to get through these people and find Morganna. If I didn't, this girl's story—and everyone else's—was going to play through to the end, and hers was tragic.

I got a real eye full of one guy, who was walking around, proud as a peacock, only he wasn't wearing any clothes. Women were gasping around him, and twittering excitedly to one another, while a couple of the palace guards raced around with pieces of cloth, trying to cover up what he didn't seem to realize he was showing off.

While I was distracted by the naked man, I tripped over a rat. I was absolutely disgusted. I looked down at it, deciding whether I ought to leave it alone, only to find that it was one rat of many. A dozen large rats were hurrying along in a line, following a man with a flute. He didn't seem to realize he had inadvertently become the pied piper. I was just glad it was him and not me. Someone was happy about it though, if the cat wearing teeny tiny boots was any indication. He was licking his lips, eyeing up the large, plump rats from under the brim of his floppy hat.

I scrambled to my feet, turning around a bit too sharply, and knocking over a pile of golden lanterns. They were sent clattering to the stones beneath the cart. I jumped back, keeping my hands away from them. The last thing I wanted was to be accidentally drawn into a new story—even if this one might result in me having a genie.

On second thought...

I started rubbing any that I could get my hands on, desperate to have a chance to just wish our way out of this world, but someone ripped them out of my hands, slapping my hand away. I looked up to see bright blue eyes narrowed in my direction. They belonged to a beautiful woman. If Michael hadn't stolen away all of the "princess" roles in the stories, she would have been a shoo-in for it.

"Well, I never," the pretty girl gasped astonished. She started putting the lamps back on the table. Her friend started to help her. If I thought the first girl was beautiful, the second was gorgeous. I got to my feet, avoiding the first girl's glare. I stepped away, but I could still hear them.

"You don't need to be so mean," the gorgeous girl told the first.

"I'm sorry," the pretty one said. "I didn't sleep well. It felt like I was sleeping on a boulder. I don't understand it. Now, what was it you were telling me about your father?"

"He's gone again," the gorgeous—and kind—girl said. "My sisters asked for all sorts of things, but I just want him home. I didn't want anything, but he promised me a rose."

"Isn't that just the sweetest?" the pretty girl cooed.

I didn't hear any more. I clutched my golden axe and pushed passed a girl wearing what looked like a rabbit skinned dress. I winced at the sight of it, happy that Lopmon wasn't here to see it. She might take it badly.

It was when I saw the woman kissing a frog that I realized I wasn't going to get to the castle this way. I'd have to take a different route. I'd have to weave around the houses, rather than walk through the market. I slipped passed a guy that was guessing every name he could, receiving silent answers from his mute companion. He wasn't getting it right. I didn't bother to tell him. I'd be more help to him getting Morganna for Merlin. I could end a hundred stories, but there would always be more waiting for these people. The stories would just find new people to suck in.

They seemed to be coming faster and more often. It was growing more and more dangerous to be in this world. We needed out. We needed to stop the loop. We needed to save these people. But mostly, I needed to save myself. It was selfish, and of course I wanted to save my friends too, but I was afraid of losing control. I'd tried to understand what Kiyoko meant, to understand what it was like when you had no control. I was glad to say I didn't quite understand on the same level he did, but I was afraid that I would get dragged into another story. One that was harder to fight against.

I walked on autopilot, my mind clouding over as I walked as if drawn in one direction. I walked past the straw house, and the stick house, and the brick house, they weren't the one I was after. It wasn't until my hand was outstretched to pull an oversized gumdrop off of the gingerbread house that I was even aware of what I was doing. I pulled my hand away as if burned. I didn't even _like_ gumdrops. I backed away and fell to the ground, horrified.

How many times had I been drawn to the beanstalk? How many times had I woken up there, having walked out there in a daze? How many times had I not been able to stop myself until I was already climbing? I remembered how difficult it was to climb back down, to remember the reasons that it was a bad idea. I wanted to go up there and meet with the Giant's wife again, to eat the delicious lunch she made, and to get my hands on that beautiful harp. But that was over now. Instead, I only wanted candy. My hand reached out for the peppermint doorknob. It was delicious, and I actually _liked_ peppermints.

 _NO!_

I'd only _just_ escaped from the beanstalk. I wasn't Jack anymore. I didn't want to become Hansel. Hansel was baked into a pie or something! I wished with everything I had that I was still worrying about giants. The giants never killed Jack in the stories.

I took a deep breath.

I couldn't become Hansel. I didn't have a Gretel. I looked on either side of me, to double check and make sure there wasn't another person waiting for me. I was alone. Sort of. There was a man with dirty, tattered old clothes, and a raggedy beard scolding what looked to be an...Armadillomon?

"What did I tell you?" he asked angrily. His nose was bloody, though it looked like it had coagulated. I wonder if he'd broken it. His split lip caused him to develop a partial lisp. His glare was especially intimidating due to the way his eyebrow was split open too. "I told you not to move. I told you, all _three_ of you to stay put. Miyako is missing now. And instead of looking for her, I had to spend time looking for you. She could be long gone now. We don't know where she went, whether she went of her own accord. If she was taken against her will, every second counts."

"I'm sorry!" the Armadillomon—distinctly female—cried. She was openly sobbing, and two other Armadillomon raced towards her, having come from the main market like I had. They were followed by an incredibly thin man, in clothes even more tattered than the first's. There was something about him, I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but he was very familiar.

"It doesn't matter how sorry she is," the familiar man pointed out. "We need to look for Miyako."

That was the second time I'd heard Miyako's name. The first time, I'd thought perhaps I'd misheard, or that I'd finally heard a familiar name from one of the locals. But having heard it a second time, and having taken a closer look at the Armadillomon... I looked at the bearded man, and slapped my own wandering hand that was trying to reach the licorice.

"Iori?" I muttered in shock. There was barely anything there to remind me of the guy, except for the rash anger. But if Miyako was missing, why _couldn't_ this dirty, tattered man be Iori? I wondered what had happened to him. He was pretty beat up.

" _We_ don't need to do anything," Iori snapped. "It's _your_ fault we're even here in the first place! She only got lost trying to find _you_. Why couldn't you have just stayed put?"

"I was overwhelmed. The last thing I knew I was in the castle, and then I was in a field, without the shadow infection? It was too much to handle!" his 'friend' defended.

"I shouldn't have let her change you back," Iori sighed. "Miyako was safe when you were a puppet."

"I don't want to be a puppet," the other man cried. "I want to be a human."

I gasped. How long had Iori been here? His friend was Pinocchio already... But Iori couldn't have been here the entire time. There was only one key into this world, and Mimi still had it with her at all times. There was only one other gateway into this world: the Looking Glass. I needed to ask him where it was. We needed to find it.

But if it was safe in any other world, why would Iori choose to bring Miyako to _this_ one?

She was pregnant. I had forgotten over the two months since I'd arrived. It shouldn't have slipped my mind so completely, but it had. She was pregnant. Was it six months now? I couldn't be sure. What stories could suck a pregnant woman in? This world was dangerous for her. How many stories involved a woman giving up her firstborn child? It seemed to be a common form of payment in these stories. I couldn't imagine she'd do this willingly though.

"IORI!" I shouted, pushing the black hood off of my face, so he might be able to recognize me. I winced when I exposed myself to the sun. I'd been hiding under my hood everyday for a _long_ time. I squinted trying to focus on Iori again. I saw the moment he registered my call, when he realized it was _him_ I was calling. I saw when his head turned my way and he put my voice to my face. His eyes didn't quite light up, it wasn't _that_ dramatic, but he did seem pleased to see another digidestined—if not just another human other than that one he was with. He disregarded his present company and stumbled towards me, limping a little.

I wanted to eat something. I was starving. There was a perfectly good house beside me. There were plenty of sweets on display, just _begging_ to be tasted. Iori would agree with me. He'd want some too. I'd have to ask him—

"NO!" I screamed, rushing to meet Iori and pushing him back away from the house. "Don't you _dare_ become my Gretel!" He was my Gretel. Or I was his. I didn't care which I was. I wasn't going to fall for a trap as obvious as this one. Iori looked confused, and irritated. I coughed, embarrassed, and dusted off his shoulders. I would've pretended nothing happened if it wasn't so imperative that things get explained. I counted the Armadillomon, despite knowing full well that there were three—something I found strange, because I was pretty sure everyone assumed Armadillomon was an ancient species that was pretty much extinct—just because I felt the need to do a headcount. _Three_. How many stories involved three people? The three bears, the three musketeers, the three little pigs... For all I knew they could be tempted to become this town's new butcher, baker and candlestick maker. Maybe I'd jump over one of their candles, just to relive the good old days when I was still Jack— _all_ the Jacks.

It occurred to me, after panicking about the _three_ Armadillomon, that there were also three men here. I didn't want to become the candlestick maker either. I needed to find Morganna to stop the stories from repeating and sucking me in.

"Have you seen Miyako?" Iori asked me desperately. He looked so scared, despite his outwardly scary appearance. And I knew that I wasn't going to be finding Morganna right now. I'd promised I'd do it, but I couldn't leave Miyako to her current fate. She didn't know about the terrible grasp the stories had. She didn't know to be wary of them. She was probably trapped inside one already. We needed to save her. She took priority. If Iori knew where the Looking Glass was, then we wouldn't need to search that out, and we'd save time that way. I wasn't really delaying anything. I was just shifting our priorities.

Miyako was pretty damn high on the list now that I knew she was here. She'd helped me through the resurfacing of my family. Now, she needed my hope and I wasn't going to hesitate.

I looked to Iori's friend, still feeling like I knew him from _somewhere_ , and tried to remember Pinocchio's story. "Don't go near water," I suggested. "You might get eaten by a whale. And don't give into temptation. You don't want to become a donkey."

"Did you just call me an _ass_?" the man asked, insulted. I rolled my eyes, and it came to me. I knew who he was. He was the guy that Mari had sent to the Dark Ocean because of his work for her parents. He was glaring at me. He knew who I was too.

Wait.

Mari sent him to the _Dark Ocean_. That meant that Iori and Miyako had been in the Dark Ocean the entire time. I winced, and sent an apologetic look Iori's way. He didn't acknowledge it. I didn't blame him. I wouldn't have wanted my pity either. I looked him over once more, knowing where he'd been and it seemed obvious to me now. The dust that was on his tattered clothes, and the blood and the bruising on his face were clear indicators that he'd had a rough last few months. His eyes were more hardened than before, and he seemed to emanate anger. The pale, gaunt faces showed a severe lack of sunlight and nourishment.

Miyako had been in the Dark Ocean for two months.

It was too hard to imagine. She'd suffered through the atmosphere of the Dark Ocean only to come to Sidhendor and get captured right off the bat. She wasn't particularly lucky—that had to be the understatement of the year. Iori was covered in wounds and was riddled with injuries. How had Miyako fared through those two months? This lawyer—I couldn't remember his name, and I didn't care so I didn't ask—had been a puppet for at least part of the time. He might've only been free of the same pain that Iori had because of his stint as a puppet. I was trying to believe that Iori had just taken the brunt of the trouble on his own shoulders, but until I saw Miyako, I wouldn't know for sure, and I would worry.

"Have you felt a pull yet?" I asked Iori. He shook his head, furrowing his brow in confusion. If he was confused then he couldn't have felt it yet. I gripped my axe tighter, and glanced back at the gingerbread house, contemplating just hacking it to pieces—which would serve it right for being so damn tempting—but couldn't do it. Someone lived there. I had no proof she was actually a witch that had favoured the taste of children pie. She could've been like Mimi, only dragged into the roll by the power of the stories. I couldn't blame her. I couldn't blame anyone for anything they were doing.

Except Morganna—she was the reason the time loop was repeating itself, and the reason the stories were pulling anyone in at all—she deserved it.

And the woman who thought she was my mother. I didn't care how much temptation she was under to treat Michael like crap, he hadn't deserved it. And I was _not_ her dear sweet son. She didn't need to go as far as she had. I also _really_ hated her, and couldn't forgive her for what she'd done.

"What's going on?" Iori demanded.

"We're trying to find Morganna who was a council member that raised one of Michael's aunts," I said in a rush. "She's decided she's going to be the Queen of this world, because the actual Queen was banished for trying to kill Sigma—the King. The entire royal family is gone and Merlin put the world in an endless circle where the stories need repeating so that Morganna can't actually take over. Michael needs to be crowned the King or else the stories will continue forever. Lopmon is being stalked by a monster fly! Mimi was almost eaten by a wolf. Tatum keeps trespassing on three bears, and I keep jumping over candlesticks."

"You know what," he said shaking his head and holding up his hands. "I don't need to understand. Just help me find Miyako."

"Okay," I agreed. "Do we have any clues?"

"There was a man," Iori admitted. "He slapped me across the face when I made him leave Miyako alone. He kept staring at her stomach. It made her uncomfortable. I didn't see him when we were looking for our wayward Armadillomon. I'm thinking it was probably _him_ that took her. I just don't know who he is."

"I know where she went," the female Armadillomon said softly. "It's a tower, it was red. _Red_ , not grey."

Iori gritted his teeth, and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself of the sudden surge of anger he was feeling. I sighed and looked down to the Armadillomon. "You couldn't have mentioned that sooner?"

"I told a boy," she said proudly. "He went to save her. She'll be okay!"

"What guy?" I asked harshly. She flinched away, but really there were so many crazy, wicked characters all over town.

"H-he made the w-wall g-gold when he c-climbed it," she sniffed, barely holding on to her tears. She was worried she'd done something horrible. She was also afraid of my anger. It made sense. I was holding a golden axe tightly in my hands. I'd probably be worried in her position too.

But I was worried for a different reason now.

"Damn it, Michael," I muttered. "We've got to catch up to him. He's got the Midas touch. If he touches Miyako, or Miyako hugs him before he can explain, or just brushes passed him, she'll become a statue. Solid gold. I don't know how to fix that. I'm still trying to understand this place. Where's the tower?"

The Armadillomon panicked and I started tapping my foot impatiently. I didn't want to rush her, because I wanted the right answer, but I wanted to get moving, so I could get back to my first mission, once I knew that Miyako was safe. I _did_ still need to find Morganna.

Eventually, I was given a direction, and I started leading the group towards the nearest exit. It would be easier to just walk around the wall—faster too, from our current position—than to try and get three Armadillomon to climb over it. I lead them through the side streets. I didn't want to risk losing any of them in the crowd of Main Street.

The nearest exit turned out to be a bridge over a rather small trickle of water that I assumed might've been a stream at some point. The Armadillomon raced across it, and the lawyer followed them. When he was about halfway across the bridge, the ground started rumbling, and a giant troll popped his head out from under the bridge. He saw the lawyer, and his eyes widened, and a grin spread across his face. He got to his feet and said in a deep, rumbling voice "Who's that walking over my bridge?"

I could swear that the lawyer was going to pee his pants he was so scared. I just groaned, trying to figure out what trap we'd walked into. Lopmon might've mentioned something once... "Damn Billy goats," I grumbled.

"What's that mean?" Iori and the lawyer asked. Iori was blunt, but the lawyer was terrified.

"I think the last goat is supposed to kill the troll," I said, uncertainly. "We don't do a lot of killing here. There was an accident with a wolf and Michael's golden touch, but the wolf was trying to kill Mimi at the time."

"Please stop talking," the lawyer whimpered. "Help me."

"Oh move over," Iori said, rolling his eyes. He strode forward, looking rather lethal, even with his limp. The troll was confused. There were two goats on his bridge now. He didn't know what to do. Iori clenched his fist and delivered a powerful and refined uppercut to the underside of the troll's chin. The troll's eyes rolled into his head and he toppled backwards, landing on his back in the little trickle of water. "Let's go," Iori said, as if he _hadn't_ just taken down a freaking troll. I didn't know what he'd got up to in the Dark Ocean, but I was sure he hadn't been _that_ good _before_ his stint there. His stay there had changed him drastically, not just in appearance it seemed. He was harsher, meaner, and more dangerous.

"Why don't you tell me how you got here?" I asked, as we headed in the direction that the Armadillomon had decided on. I could see the tower already, but it would take time to get to it. Iori sighed, but didn't object.

"I've been in hell with Miyako, a small army of Armadillomon, Queen Winter and the Goutokuji family lawyer," he said dryly. "We're here because the damn lawyer got infected by the darkness. Winter had to turn him into a puppet when he decided to kill me."

"Hence the wounds?" I asked. He rolled his eyes and I assumed it was a stupid question to him. The lawyer protested about being talked about like he wasn't there, but I didn't care enough to talk to him. He tried to help Mari's parents ruin her life. That meant he literally was worth less to me than the dirt beneath my feet. Alias III stuck together. If someone slighted one of us, we were all offended.

And he'd threatened to use our digimon against us.

That was a pretty rotten move.

"What the _hell_ is she thinking?" Iori asked harshly. I was confused, but when I looked at him, I saw him staring at the tower. I looked too, and saw Miyako was trying to climb out of the window. She had one leg out, and was trying to find a good foothold.

"GET BACK INSIDE!" I shouted, as we all started racing towards her. She stopped moving and looked down to us, with one leg still outside. She shook her head, and I could see that she was crying.

"I can't!" she cried. "The door is golden, and Michael touched the needle on the spinning wheel and now he's dead or something! I can't be sure because I can't touch him. And I need to get him help. I need help, and I need out. I'm getting out. I can't stay here."

"She's getting claustrophobic," Iori explained. He ran a hand down his face, and through his beard. He looked older with it, more mature. His time in the Dark Ocean might've been responsible for that too though. "Is there a rope up there, Miyako?"

"No," she sobbed. "But there are coils of golden straw—or thread or whatever it is now. Will that work?"

"Toss it down. I'm coming up," Iori said. She looked relieved, and threw a chunky, uneven coil of straws that created a makeshift rope. They were solid gold, and looked like they wouldn't have any trouble holding our weight, and I shifted my axe in my hands, grabbing hold of it. "You don't need to," Iori protested, but I shook my head.

"Which of us actually understands this world?" I asked. I had to do some pretty fancy manoeuvring to get up the thick coil with my axe in hand. I knew Miyako was now Rapunzel. I was climbing the golden stair that she'd thrown out of the window. I'd actually been waiting for Michael to take up that role, but I supposed he'd become her Rumpelstiltskin, turning her straw into gold—and if he'd touched a spinning wheel, I guessed he was also Sleeping Beauty.

I could feel the makeshift rope shift under me when Iori started climbing. I knew the Armadillomon and the lawyer weren't going to come with us. They'd just be in the way even if they _could_ climb the rope. I focussed on putting one hand in front of the other, and I was at the top before I knew it. Miyako grabbed at my arm and pulled me inside, hugging me tightly and shaking. I couldn't stop myself from hugging her back and pressing my face into the top of her head. She was real. And she was _really_ pregnant. I looked passed her and saw the small room filled with coils of golden straw—thread if the story was anything to go by. There were two doors in the room, and both were gold. So was the spinning wheel, and the floor where Michael had fallen after touching the needle on it. There was also a golden man, and I winced, knowing Michael was going to kick himself for that when we figured out how to wake him up.

Iori climbed into the window, and Miyako darted towards him, so I picked up a smaller coil of the makeshift rope, and dropped it next to Michael's head. I was going to need to do some fancy axe work if I was going to get him out of here. I shifted the axe until it managed to get under Michael's shoulder, and manoeuvred it so that I was propping both of his shoulders off of the floor.

"Hey, Iori," I called. He came over, with Miyako hovering behind him, and laid the coil out flat underneath him. We did the same with his legs, and tied the two smaller coils together, leaving him curled like a child. I moved over and leaned the spinning wheel against the window while Iori tied a thicker coil of rope to knot the two smaller ones had created. It was solid gold, so it _should_ be strong enough. We didn't exactly have any other options at that point.

Iori held the rope up, lifting as much of Michael's weight off the ground that he could, while I pushed him with the small stool that had been paired with the spinning wheel. The ramp made by the spinning wheel was anything but even, and we couldn't move very fast. We couldn't touch Michael. We had to be extra careful. Miyako was still crying while she watched us. No matter how many times I assured her that he wasn't dead, she wouldn't calm down. It might have had something to do with the curse lasting a hundred years though.

Iori held tightly to the rope when we finally got Michael onto the ledge. I counted slowly to three before pushing him the last bit of the way. I grabbed the rope to help Iori immediately after the final push, and we lowered him down the best we could, trying to swing him a little so he wouldn't be where _we_ needed to be when we got down there.

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding when he finally landed on the ground. I assessed the damage caused, and saw that several splotches of the wall were gold now. The spinning wheel and stool both were as well, and the tracks on the floor from when we dragged him over.

"What do we do now?" Miyako asked, as we started working out a way out of the tower.

"Well," I said, thinking it through. What _was_ next? I wanted to say Morganna. It was important, but Michael couldn't be crowned King if he was unconscious for a hundred years. We needed Tatum to fix that, but she couldn't, because it needed to be a kiss, and if she kissed him, she'd be a statue, and he'd hate himself forever. But would Merlin be able to help us?

I didn't know.

I didn't have any answers.

"We'll go to Tatum and Mimi," I said finally. Miyako looked a little brighter at the idea of seeing more of her friends. At least someone was having a good time, though I supposed that even the terrifying temptation of the stories paled in comparison to living in the Dark Ocean for a couple of months. The only thing I could look to with any sense of anticipation was finally getting out of here.

It couldn't take too long, not now that Miyako and Iori were here. We'd stop Morganna, save all the people in this world—because it was apparently part of the job of being a digidestined or something—and then we'd escape back to Earth or the Digital World, and I'd finally get to know what happened to Kiyoko, Warg, Melga, Mari, Tapirmon and Dracomon. I might get a chance to confront Neo, a chance to understand how he could join our enemies.

I just wished I could find it in myself to _not_ want to run back to town and devour the gingerbread house in its entirety. I watched as Iori started down the rope and fell to my knees, covering my face. I couldn't handle this much longer.

I was going to end up as Hansel if this didn't end soon.

 _ **Mimi Tachikawa:**_

I couldn't help but think it was stupid to have sent Michael out to lure away Morganna. How would that help us in any way? We needed to lure her out of the castle so that we could sneak in and crown Michael king. If he was out there somewhere, leading Morganna on a wild goose chase, then how were we supposed to put a crown on his head?

We couldn't.

I sighed and poked the pile of charcoal that had been a burning fire just the night before. It accomplished nothing more than to make a mess that I'd have to clean up later. Having Michael become a king was going to help us a lot, but it wouldn't make it so we could magically go home. We just wouldn't be drawn into stories anymore. I couldn't _wait_ to have complete control over my own life again. If I wasn't so afraid of getting trapped in another role, I would have been walking out in the woods, reveling in the fact that the wolf wasn't there to chase me anymore.

Instead, I was sitting on the ground, poking the remains of our fire with a stick.

Tatum and Merlin were hunched over the table, while Tatum taught Merlin everything she knew about the Looking Glasses. She knew a lot more than I did, but he wasn't satisfied. He couldn't locate it with magic. I didn't want to be angry about it, because he'd never _promised_ us anything, but he'd gotten my hopes up and subsequently dashed them. Instead of celebrating our upcoming trip home, I was contemplating my schedule for the next day—I'd have to get up early to make breakfast, and we were out of fruit, so I'd have to take a trip to the market, and of course the house was a complete mess—and trying not to dwell on the fact that we might be stuck here indefinitely.

And the only guy who was able to make our potentially permanent stay in this world even a _little_ brighter, was wandering around trying to distract the queen. We were risking a lot having him out of our sight. It had been a long time since they'd set out.

"I thought they'd be back by now," Lopmon whispered to me, echoing my thoughts.

"They're fine," I said, praying that I wasn't lying.

"I know," Lopmon said with a false sort of confidence. "I was just pointing it out. Hey, do you think Michael has turned Morganna into gold yet?"

"Do you think he's going to?" I wondered.

"It would be easier to deal with her," Lopmon said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I don't think Michael would use his curse willingly," I murmured. "He's scared of it. He was nearly heartbroken when he hit a tree."

"You're right," Lopmon sighed. "It would just make things easier. I wanted to see Terriermon today. I just thought I was gonna get to, but it doesn't feel like it anymore."

"I know what you mean," I said, feeling my lip start to quiver.

"I want to go home," Lopmon whispered, as though she was afraid to admit to this weakness—the very same weakness that we all suffered from. "I _miss_ home. I don't wanna be here anymore."

"Me either," I told her softly, reaching out and rubbing her head. She curled into my touch, and she crawled into my lap, sniffling quietly. "There's no place like home. It's okay to miss everything. I want to leave so bad that it _hurts_. But you don't need to keep everything inside. We can just draw comfort from each other until we can get back to Terriermon and Palmon and everyone else. We need to remember everything that's happened to us, because Takeru's going to ask. You know he is. And think of all of the outlandish and crazy stories we can tell everyone. Do you think anyone's going to believe that I was chased down by a wolf daily? I don't think so."

"Terriermon's gonna laugh at me when I tell him that I keep falling asleep during races," Lopmon offered tentatively. I smiled encouragingly at her, hoping that the tears that were pouring down my face wouldn't cause her mood to plummet again.

"Can you imagine the look on Warg and Melga's faces when we tell them that Hideto cut down that beanstalk?" I asked with a breathy laugh. I was still feeling sorry for myself, and for my dashed hopes, but it was a pretty funny thought.

"They'll be so mad that they weren't invited," Lopmon snickered.

"They might even try to recreate it, so they can have a turn," I continued. She laughed loudly, nodding her head. Her laugh was beautiful. It was enough to shatter the wall of misery I'd built up. I wasn't alone in this. I was _never_ alone. Tatum, Hideto, Lopmon and Michael were all with me. They were going through similar things. Not one of us was in the _exact_ same position, but we were together.

"Can we _not_ tell Terriermon about the fly?" Lopmon begged. "It's too embarrassing."

"Deal, so long as we never mention that mess with my hair," I said, holding my hand out to shake on it. She took it, smiling at me. "We'll just tell them about Tatum's foray into trespassing instead."

"It's not funny," Tatum said, surprising me. She and Merlin had evidently stopped talking to one another in order to listen to Lopmon and I. "I could have gotten eaten. I _will_ if I go back, you know. I feel the need to go back too."

"You're right," I sighed. "We'll just tell them about you and Hideto tumbling down the hill instead."

"You want to risk it, when I can tell them about your "mother" and her style choices?" Tatum asked raising an eyebrow at me, challenging me. I floundered for a second or two, remember the monstrosity that I was forced to wear. Tatum hadn't had to wear anything nearly so embarrassing.

"Yeah, well..." I tried, not able to come up with something else. She knew it too, if her smirk was anything to judge by. She laughed, and got to her feet. She moved over to the window and looked out. I caught sight of worry on her face before she schooled her features. She was worried about the boys too.

"At least we'll always know what to get Hideto for his birthday," she said, forcing her voice to stay as bright and upbeat as it had been before.

"What?" Lopmon asked.

"Candles," Tatum snickered. "He's going to need _something_ to jump over."

"I was thinking of getting Sora to recreate _his_ ball attire. I think Mari would get a kick out it," I laughed. No one pointed it out, but I _knew_ they noticed. I refused to mention Willis or Kiyoko. I'd lost sight of them in the race from the virus, and I was finding it hard to keep the hope alive for them. Thinking about them made me cry, and mentioning Willis made _Lopmon_ cry too, so we didn't mention either of them. But as my eyes started misting over _again_ , I thought Kiyoko might get a laugh out of Hideto in full costume too.

"If Terriermon was here, what stories do you think _he_ would have fallen for?" Lopmon wondered.

"I don't know," Tatum said. "Sometimes I ponder over the same thing, with Monodramon or Betamon."

"Palmon probably would have ended up being the beanstalk," I joked weakly. "She loves beans; she wouldn't have let that woman throw them outside. She'd have eaten them. It would've been horrible. Hideto would've had to cut her down. Is it bad that I _still_ wish she was here? I just miss her so much."

"It seems to me that all of this pondering is simply causing you pain," Merlin commented. I'd nearly forgotten he was there. I wasn't used to seeing him at our dinner table. I sighed, and poked the charcoals again.

"That's the point," Tatum explained.

"Why aren't they back yet?" Lopmon asked.

"I am not sure," Merlin answered. "But I do believe we have waited here long enough. They have had ample time to get into the castle and distract Morganna. We have to move quickly, and pray that she remains out of our way until we can crown Michael."

I waited, hoping that Tatum would notice the issue in this plan, but she didn't say anything. I sighed. "Are we crowning him _here_?" I asked pointedly.

"We could, but it would be worthless," Merlin told me. "He must be crowned in the throne room."

Still, no one caught on. I spent a few moments reveling in my superior intelligence—something that literally _never_ happened to me. My boyfriend was the smartest person I knew—and two other friends were also certified geniuses. Jou was my best friend, and he was practically a genius too. And Tatum here was just as smart as he was. It felt amazing to be smarter than her in that moment. But just for that moment, because I was getting pretty irritated that they weren't catching on.

"Then we kind of need Michael with us, don't we?" I asked, sighing. Lopmon gasped, and finally, _finally,_ someone got it. Tatum was upset when, just a second later, she understood what I was getting at.

"Why the hell did we let him go?" she demanded. "I _knew_ it was a bad idea. I told him not to go. It was too dangerous I said. Why didn't _he_ realize that he needed to be here?"

"Well," Merlin said, embarrassed at the major flaw in his plan. "We can seize the castle at the very least, while we await his return."

"Uh-huh," I said sarcastically. "We can do that. But what happens if Michael falls into another story and we can't get him out of it? What if he's the newest little mermaid?"

"I don't want Michael to turn into sea foam," Lopmon whimpered.

"None of us do," Tatum assured her. "We get your point, Mimi. But there's nothing we can do now. It could take forever to find them. We have no idea where they are."

"Trust in your friends," Merlin persuaded. I glared at him.

"I _do_ trust my friends, it's your stupid world I don't trust," I snapped. I was angry and afraid. I wanted to go home so badly, and it was starting to sound like less and less of an option. If we couldn't find Michael, chances were that Morganna would manipulate it so that _I_ was the next Little Mermaid, and Tatum would go back to the three bears. She wanted us out of her way. And she was crazy enough to kill us to keep her throne.

I was too young to die.

I needed to see Palmon at least one more time. I needed to see Koushiro too, and Tentomon, and Jou, Sora, all of my friends. I needed to talk to Emiko, to impart whatever wisdom I possessed to my goddaughter. I was such a bad godfather. How was I supposed to fulfill my duties when I was trapped on another world?

Morganna couldn't kill me. I'd have to stop her, somehow.

I stormed over to the coat rack to grab my cloak, only to remember that it was in tattered rags on the forest floor. I sighed, and opened the door. Lopmon was racing after me, and I heard Tatum scrambling to catch up. I assumed Merlin was with her, but I didn't look back to check. I was on a mission, and I knew that if I slowed down, I would lose my resolve.

Fighting wasn't my favourite thing. In fact, I avoided it whenever I could. I was hoping that Morganna would be thoroughly distracted when we got to the castle. I didn't have an exact plan, but the first idea that came to mind was to simply steal the crown. If we had it, it would be easier for us to get what we wanted. All we'd have to do is manage to sneak into the throne room, and put it on Michael's head when we got there.

We could do that even if Morganna _wasn't_ distracted.

It seemed a tad simple though. I wondered whether there was some sort of ceremony involved. I decided the crown was a semi-sentient piece of headwear, and it just _knew_ when the wearer was a part of the royal bloodline. I had no proof this was true, other than the fact that Morganna didn't really wear it, but there was just as little proof to say that it _wasn't_ true. _Maybe_ the crown hadn't accepted her. Maybe the crown knew she wasn't meant to be queen, that she wasn't suited for it.

"Wait up, Mimi!" Tatum called, and I stopped. I made a point to tap my foot though, so she knew that I wasn't waiting because I _wanted_ to. I couldn't keep sitting still. I didn't want to sit here and accept that I might never see Koushiro and Palmon and Tentomon and Emiko and Jou and Sora again.

I _wouldn't_ accept it.

"WOLF!"

"Where?" I screamed, rolling onto my toes—ready to run—as I searched the surroundings for any sign of a wolf. All I saw was the boy that was meant to watch our neighbour's sheep. He was bent over because he was laughing so hard.

"You should have seen your face!" he shouted when he could catch enough breath. I glared at him, trying to remember if he'd always been such a brat. Before now, he'd only had a tendency to fall asleep in the hay stacks when he was meant to be watching the animals. Tatum called him Little Boy Blue. He'd never been a troublemaker though, just forgetful and tired.

"That wasn't funny," I told him, patting my chest, trying to restart my heart. "Wolves are serious business. They'll _eat_ you. Trust me. Don't play games."

"Seriously, don't," Tatum agreed. "If you play it too many times, no one will come to help you when a wolf _actually_ comes. You'll probably get eaten or something. And it'll be _your_ fault."

"Wow," the boy said slowly. "You suck the fun out of _everything_."

"I'm cautious for a reason, Little Boy Blue," Tatum told him. He scrunched up his nose at the moniker. He didn't like it, and he couldn't understand why Tatum chose it, but since he fell into _that_ nursery rhyme, that was the name he'd been given. People in this world were very protective of their names or something. Merlin and Morganna were the only exceptions. But, I suppose, in a world where simply calling Hideto "Jack" made him Jack, I could see how it would be dangerous to throw your name around.

"Is he holding... _grapes_?" Lopmon asked, narrowing her eyes at his hands. I looked, and sure enough he was holding a bunch in his hand. He picked two off and popped them into his mouth. I shrugged my shoulders, not understanding for just a second, before I gasped and narrowed my own eyes at them.

"Get your own," he snapped, eating another one.

"Is this going to be like the apple?" I wondered, remembering the only other time we had laid eyes on a recognizable fruit. Michael had taken a bite and been poisoned. "Tatum, are there any stories about grapes?"

"I don't _think_ so?" she said sounding entirely unsure. It wasn't helpful, but I couldn't blame her. I barely knew _any_ stories before we got here. She'd been amazingly helpful so far. I just wished she'd be able to tell me if our Little Boy Blue was going to bite the bullet or not so we could _save_ him.

I bit my lip, but decided it was _probably_ safe to keep walking. I turned on my heel, walking with my head held high, nose in the air, letting the boy know _exactly_ how I felt about his little prank—teasing _me_ about a wolf, right after a wolf nearly took my head off? I couldn't believe the _nerve_ of him.

We only got to the top of the hill—we could see the town and the castle at the bottom—before the boy was at it again.

"WOLF!" he screamed. Tatum sighed, and Lopmon rolled her eyes. Merlin stopped, and looked pained, but didn't go back, but I couldn't help it. I knew how the story went. He'd play the game a couple of times, and then the wolf would really come. I _knew_ that's how it went. But there was something different about his scream this time. I recognized his legitimate fear. It was the same scream I let out every time the wolf got near me.

Hideto always came running. It was the only thing that made the story I'd been trapped in bearable. Hideto was always there to save me. No one was running to this boy's rescue. No one would. It was a part of his story. I couldn't _imagine_ Hideto not coming.

So I turned around, and let out a startled shriek that caused the others to follow suit. It wasn't a wolf. It wasn't even really _close_ , but there was an animal there. Reddish, orange fur shone as the sly fox eyed the boy's bunch of grapes. The boy was on top of a large rock, holding his grapes _just_ outside of the fox's reach. The fox jumped up once, twice. The boy didn't realize what the fox was after.

"WOLF!" the boy screamed, breaking into sobs. I picked a rock off the ground and ran for him. I'd like to think that I would've gone to his rescue if it was an actual wolf. I _know_ that that wasn't true. There was no way in hell I would have been able to help him. I would've frozen on the spot. Even the _thought_ of a wolf was enough to do me in.

But this wasn't a wolf.

And there was a scared boy that needed my help.

I threw the rock to the best of my ability, but missed by a mile. The fox didn't even flinch. I winced, and looked to the ground, scrambling to find another rock

"HELP ME," the boy sobbed.

My heart squeezed. How could I call myself a digidestined if I couldn't save even _one_ kid? I didn't have Palmon with me. That much was true. But Palmon wasn't the reason I was a digidestined. Gennai saw something in me when I was a bossy, whiny little girl. I hadn't even _met_ Palmon at that point. He saw something though, that made him think I was the right choice. I wanted to prove him right.

I dug as deep as I could, to hunt for all traces of my courage and surged forward. I ran at the fox, knowing that there was a distinct possibility that I'd at the very least receive a nasty bite from this, and deciding I didn't care. I shouted loudly as I ran at the fox.

It was all very anticlimactic.

The fox ran away, fast as a bullet, and the kid threw himself at me. I held him, until his shoulders stopped shaking, and whispered reassurances to him. I _also_ , very gently, removed the grapes from his hand and handed them to Lopmon. She had decided I was making a stupid decision and decided to run after me, just in case. Lopmon nodded her head towards the fox that was sitting at the edge of the forest, looking sad. He'd really wanted the grapes, so I nodded, watching as Lopmon delivered the grapes to the sly critter. It really perked him up, and he took the top of the bunch in his mouth, and trotted off into the trees.

"We should get moving," Tatum suggested gently. I looked to the boy, who decided he was brave enough to go and watch over the sheep—like he was _supposed_ to be doing—and took off at a run, not wanting to wait around in case his "wolf" came back. I nodded to Tatum. I noticed she was pale, still recovering from her fright, and I knew she felt guilty for _not_ falling for the boy's shouting.

I didn't know how to assure her that she wasn't a bad person without making it sound like it was a possibility. And it _wasn't_. She was Tatum. She was in this with us digidestined, even though she wasn't one. She had the choice, and she _chose_ to stay with us, even before we'd gotten trapped in this world. She chose to stay and fight against the DWD. I doubted I was as brave and _good_ as she was. If the choice hadn't been made for me, I didn't know if I would've made the choice she did. I wasn't a fighter. I didn't _want_ to be a fighter. I could be though, if I had to be. But _Tatum_? She was a hero.

Merlin looked upset too, but I didn't think it was the same reasoning. He was looking off in the directions that the fox and the boy had gone. He was also trying to subtly glare at me. I was confused by his sudden mood change, and since I was still shaken up about the whole "wolf" incident, I decided not to worry about it.

"We should really get moving now," I said, feeling fairly confident that we wouldn't be running into anymore stories after witnessing that combination. I filed the fox and grapes in the back of my mind, determined to look into it when we got back. I wanted to know how his story was meant to go. I couldn't help but think the poor thing didn't usually _get_ his grapes.

"I'll race you!" Lopmon challenged. I laughed and got to my feet, signaling my acceptance. She counted down from three and started running before I even got a chance to get ready. I chuckled and took off after her. She was _fast_ , but as she was running, she suddenly toppled over in the middle of the path, about halfway down the hill. I skidded to a stop, and looked back to Tatum and Merlin. Tatum looked worried, and started running down to meet us. I got to Lopmon first—thanks to my head start—and sighed with relief when I realized she was just sleeping. I told Tatum as much when she reached us, and she just started laughing.

"What'll they think when I tell them you turned out to be the tortoise that raced the hare?" she asked, still snickering as she did so. My face flushed as I realized what happened. I'd decided to race a rabbit. I'd fallen into a story that already _had_ a turtle. I looked down at Lopmon. She'd wanted to win so badly. She _always_ wanted to win. I'd heard her each night when she had still been willing to race against her friend. She was always so disappointed in herself.

"I'm going to carry her," I decided. "The hare will win this time. I guarantee it."

"I wish you wouldn't," Merlin scolded. I looked at him, still confused by him. He clearly took my confusion as an invitation to explain himself. I didn't stop him. "It is imperative that the stories play themselves out. That is the way of the world. You've already caused enough of a stir. You came into this world, and you took the places meant for other people in these stories. You've already put an end to the wolf, and cut down the beanstalk early. You can't mess with destiny."

"I can, and I will," I told him firmly. "That little boy didn't deserve to die. That's how that story ends, isn't it? And that fox deserved his grapes. And Lopmon deserves to win. When destiny messes with me, I mess back. If I wasn't meant to be in these stories, I won't bow down and let them walk all over me. I'm my own person, _Merlin_ , and I won't let destiny or anyone else tell me to do what I don't want to do, or _be_ who I don't want to be."

"Preach," Tatum teased, and I realized I was in my zone, ranting about my crest. But, I wasn't embarrassed. If anything, I was angry that he thought I would change who I was and just _let_ someone get hurt or be sad when I could do something about it.

"Do you not realize it is that very attitude that is causing the influx of stories?" Merlin asked. "You have thrown everything off kilter. You've taken someone else's role, and they had to find another. You've taken more than one at once, which made it so others could do the same. It's how that woman was able to be Michael's step-mother, as well as Jack's mother, and Red Riding Hood's mother. They aren't typically the same person. But she took all three roles, because you made it possible."

"And we're the _only_ ones that are doing anything to _fix_ anything," I snapped. "You can blame us all you want, but it won't amount to anything. _You_ made this mess. It's _your_ fault. Each person that got hurt because of these stories is something _you_ are going to have to live with. You trapped everyone in an endless cycle. I understand that you wanted to keep Morganna from becoming the proper queen, but you screwed over so many people while doing it. What if we _hadn't_ shown up? Would some other girl have been eaten by the wolf because she didn't have a friend that was willing to play the woodsman, and come into the story early? Would some _other_ guy let a giant run rampant all over Sidhendor before he could figure out how to fix it? Would some man get cursed with the Midas touch and get greedy instead of staying cautious? Would some girl have gotten eaten by those three bears that Tatum knew enough to run away from? You can't say we aren't good for this world. You _can't_."

"You're causing chaos," Merlin insisted. "I can't predict what's to happen anymore. It's nigh on impossible. We need to get you all out of this world."

It was then that the déjà vu sunk in. Merlin was Gennai, and I was twenty years old again, yelling at him for trying to kick us out of the Digital World. I never apologized to Gennai, not directly. He died. I never got that chance. But Merlin was _not_ Gennai, and this time I wasn't wrong. This time I was looking out for everyone else, instead of just myself. This time, I learned from what Gennai had taught me, and I wasn't going to let Merlin tell me what to do.

"Welcome to real life," Tatum said wryly. I nearly laughed, but figured Merlin would take it the wrong way, so I chose not to. But I wanted to.

"You don't understand," Merlin said. "If I can't foretell what's to come, I cannot be sure we will succeed in our mission. I cannot know that Morganna will not beat us. You've skewed the pattern I've been following since the princesses were exiled."

"We're going to do more than skew it," I said gently. "We're putting an end to it. We'll beat Morganna. We've _always_ won when it really counted. We'll find a way, even without your patterns. It's our job. Literally, it's our job. Now, I'm going to let Lopmon beat her turtle, and break her out of her story's hold."

I scooped the sleeping rabbit into my arms and started running again—to be safe. I didn't know if it would count if I wasn't actually trying to race to a destination. As I neared the town at the bottom of the hill, I held Lopmon out in front of me, so that she was leaning forward, meaning she was ahead of even my hands, which meant she would come in first place. I thought I was being brilliant. It was a good plan. I just didn't account for all the players.

Something loud and large fell from above. I heard it coming and curled Lopmon against my chest, and it landed hard on my head. I screamed, and Tatum said something, but I couldn't hear her once it landed. I was panicking. What the hell was it? My hands were full of rabbit, so I couldn't exactly check.

"The sky is falling!" I screamed. I flailed, and accidently threw Lopmon to the town border. She _won_ the race at least. My hands flew to my head, where whatever it was had gotten tangled into my hair. I'd _cut_ my hair so this couldn't happen anymore!

"Calm down, Chicken Little," Tatum yelled. She was closer now. I hoped she'd help me get rid of this thing. I couldn't get a grip on it. It kept moving whenever I got close to touching it.

"Chicken?" I asked loudly, confused, I toppled over, nearly landing on Lopmon, who was rubbing her eyes, having woken up after winning the race. There was a young woman sitting on a stool beside the house at the end of the street. She'd sat there every day—all day—as long as any of us could remember. Her father put her there, as far as I could understand. She was watching us with the same impassive look on her face that she always had. "I thought I was a turtle!"

I finally managed to touch the thing, and screamed loudly, as I realized what it must be. I now knew why Lopmon backed away upon looking at me, and why Tatum looked so disgusted.

Lopmon wasn't only trapped in an endless race with a turtle.

The monstrous, mutated fly literally dive bombed me. It dropped down from the air directly on top of me. Its _wings_ were buzzing so loudly, I thought I was being targeted by a helicopter, and not a large insect. It was the size of a basketball at the very least. And it was tangled in my hair! I started waving my hands around my head, swatting at it, until it untangled itself and when it finally let go of my hair, I grabbed it with both hands and _threw_ it as if it really was a basketball.

"Urgha!" I gagged, waving my hands around frantically, thoroughly disgusted by the experience. I was on my feet in only seconds and was doing a little dance, trying to get rid of the feeling of the thing buzzing in my hair. My _hair_! I ran my fingers through it, hoping that it hadn't let anything nasty behind. Suddenly, a bright, bubbling laugh came from behind me. I whirled around, ready to glare at Tatum for daring to laugh at my misfortune—seriously, I was practically _crying_ , and she was _laughing_?—but it wasn't Tatum. It was the young woman. The woman that refused to smile was laughing at me.

It was surprising to more than just me. Her father came rushing out of their small house, looking at his daughter with wide eyes and a grin on his face. He was so thrilled that she was _happy_. It was nice to see. I smiled at the scene, still horrified by my recent encounter, but it was a nice sight to see someone's story leading them to _happiness_ instead of death.

"Was it _you_?" her father asked me. I nodded, unsure, and he grinned at me, coming over and shaking my hand as if I'd won a prize. I wondered for a second what I'd won, before I realized that all these stories were ridiculous. I should've realized what he'd say. "Then you are to be wed, immediately."

"What?" I asked with a snort. "No, that won't fit into my schedule."

"You are refusing me?" the young woman asked in a dangerous voice. I almost changed my mind, and said I could, but didn't, because I didn't want to marry some girl I didn't know. I had a boyfriend back home. I wasn't going to marry someone else. That wasn't fair to him. Also, I didn't think I wanted this guy as a father-in-law. What if he promised my firstborn to some creepy old lady? He didn't seem too worried that he'd be giving his daughter to some random person on the street...

I shook my head.

None of that really mattered. I was thinking too deeply into this. "I'm not getting married, end of discussion."

The woman didn't like that answer. She got to her feet, and got a wild, _crazy_ look in her eye as she turned to the people in the streets. "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!" she shrieked. Everyone dropped whatever they were doing, as if in a trance and turned on us. Lopmon hopped into my arms, and I let Tatum pull me into the side street that Merlin led her into.

"I thought Morganna was the one that said that," I gasped. Half the town was on our heels. I'd gotten pretty good at running through the forest away from something that wanted to kill me, but I wasn't fairing as well in the town.

"I _told_ you," Merlin said, sounding exasperated. "Multiple people are being trapped in the same roles. Each person can have many roles, and each role has many people. Sidhendor is in absolute chaos."

I didn't answer, because I still thought we were doing the right thing by messing it up and putting it to an end, but the idea that any number of people could have the power to declare that I needed to lose my head was more than a little disconcerting. Also, I was putting all of my energy into running away from the mob of people that somehow magically produced torches and pitchforks. It was terrifying in a way that even the wolf wasn't. It wasn't just _me_ that was at risk now.

And all because I turned down a surprise proposal.

I decided to add that to my list—which only consisted of the fox and the grapes, and that damned fly monster that kept chasing Lopmon—and just moved on, focussing entirely on moving forward. We passed all sorts of houses that I didn't recognize. Any one of those houses could hold the girl that was _supposed_ to be Red Riding Hood. Any house could hold the _next_ one. I tried not to think about it. I tried to focus entirely on Merlin and Tatum in front of me. I only strayed from them once, when we passed a solid gold section of wall—that made me question what Michael had been doing—that was surrounded by seven men with pickaxes.

Those seven men turned when we ran by them and joined the mob. I think I actually started crying at that point. Merlin took a sharp turn that I almost didn't see through my tears, but I managed it. Tatum grabbed my arm once again, dragging me inside a hidden door in the castle wall that we were running alongside, and closing the door quickly behind me, before turning to our saviour.

"Thank you," Tatum told the old woman. I wondered why she actually _looked_ old. Merlin was literally ancient, and he still looked young, except for his hair. I was suspicious, and then I felt guilty for being suspicious of the kind old lady that saved us from the mob that was trying to chop our heads off. "I don't know how we can ever repay you."

"You can give me shelter from the bitter cold," the woman said in an old, scratchy voice.

"Oh, but I don't live here," Tatum said awkwardly. "And it's _summer_ , so there's not really any bitter cold... but—"

"You BEAST!" the woman cried, as the old lady disguise faded away to reveal Morganna in all her glory, shiny, silvery hair and all. I was confused. Hideto and Michael had left _ages_ ago to distract her for us—even though we couldn't do anything without Michael—so why was she still _here_? It didn't matter though, because she raised her hands and caused Tatum to start glowing as she was surrounded by a silver, sparkling light. I looked to either side, and found only a well nearby. I raced to it, and filled the bucket with water, tossing the entire contents of the bucket onto Morganna. She shrieked, but it didn't save Tatum, or the rest of us. It just made her angry.

"What's happening?" Lopmon asked, from her place on my shoulder.

"I don't know," I admitted.

We watched as Tatum's skin burst open and long, thick, coarse brown hair grew out. She was _covered_ in fur, and her hands and feet grew. Her feet looked to me, sort of like the wolf's, because they had a distinctive canine quality to them. The claws added to that effect. Her claws burst out of her shoes, destroying them. Her shoulders hunched over, and her mouth was now filled with incredibly sharp incisors. I even saw a glimpse of a tail sticking out from under her skirt. Her body grew in size, though not as drastically as her now enormous feet. The seams of her dress ripped, but _thankfully_ didn't fall apart entirely. The hair that had been on her head before was still red, standing out sharply against her new fur coat.

"I'm a beast!" Tatum slurred. I think. She was really hard to understand. She had large teeth she was trying to talk around now. She hadn't gotten the hang of it yet. And she was crying from the pain of the transformation. I was almost crying just from watching.

Morganna had turned on me, smirking evilly. I gulped. I'd just tossed a bucket of water at her because I thought she was supposed to be the wicked witch of the west. It hadn't worked, _obviously_. She'd just turned Tatum into a beast for not inviting someone to stay at the castle. I was terrified for what she was planning to do to me.

"Guards!" she screamed. "There are trespassers within the palace. Get them! I want them in the dungeon, _immediately._ "

"More running," I groaned.

"Oh no," she assured me. "You'll _wish_ the guards found you by the time I'm done."

"You won't harm these girls," Merlin countered.

"Who's going to stop me?" Morganna asked with a cocky grin.

"I will," Merlin told her.

"A washed up fool like you?" Morganna laughed. "At least give me a challenge!"

Merlin started the fight right then and there. He threw a ball of golden magic at her. He didn't wait for her to retaliate before throwing another. She laughed, and countered with her silver magic. Merlin shouted at us then. "Get out of here!" he urged us. "I will hold her off."

"Aren't so sure you can win anymore?" Morganna laughed. "You're still intelligent then. I'd started to wonder."

"Now!" Merlin insisted. I didn't really want to leave him here to face off against Morganna alone, but Tatum was a beast now, and I really needed to figure out how to fix that, because she looked like she was in a lot of pain still. We needed Michael. She'd always been playing the prince to his princess according to the stories. He needed to be the beauty to her beast now.

But we didn't have any idea where they were. They were _supposed_ to be distracting Morganna, but that obviously didn't happen. I took Tatum's paw— _hand_ , gently, trying not to react to the feeling of the coarse hair against my hand. Lopmon hopped onto her shoulder, and I led us away, looking back to Merlin who only yelled at me to leave again. I didn't know how well he would fare against Morganna. But I left anyway, because that's what he wanted, and what Tatum needed.

I didn't factor in the castle guards however.

Maybe, if Tatum hadn't been a seven foot tall beast, we could have pretended to be castle workers, spooked out of our minds at the thought of intruders. Lopmon could _totally_ have pulled that role off. They probably wouldn't have noticed a talking rabbit that walked on two legs. They weren't _that_ uncommon.

I had to force myself to take deep breaths before I became hysterical. Tatum was the logical one of our little group. I was compassionate. I worked well when someone else told me what needed doing. I could work within those parameters. I couldn't come up with a plan off the top of my head. My plans sucked. My plans mostly were compiled with one instruction: run.

I led us in circles sometimes, heading up and down the stairs and down dead ends, always trying to keep ahead of the guards. We hid ourselves in cupboards when we heard them coming, and we ended up on the battlements once, when the guards were coming from all directions, and I'd panicked. I thought we were done for when we got up there. The guards were coming from behind us, and there was only one other exit. I held no illusions that it would be safe to utilize that second exit. The guards were most likely swarming over there too. Tatum patted my back, trying to calm me during my newest panic, only she didn't realize her new strength, and accidentally pushed me into the wall—only the wall was an illusion, a disguise, and I just fell through it.

I'd expected my life to flash before my eyes or something, but it didn't. I didn't plummet to the ground either, like I thought I would. Instead, I slid down an old, dusty slide of some kind, getting a face full of cobwebs—the perfect complement to the fly-hair. I was sliding on my back, and struggled to right myself. I caught sight of Tatum and Lopmon following after me. The guards weren't after us though, so I figured we'd found some sort of secret tunnel. I wondered where it was leading us. Were we headed to the dungeons? Was this Sigma's private lair—or perhaps it was Gaia's? I didn't know, but it hadn't been used for a long while.

The slide came to an end, and I toppled out into a patch of open grass. I scrambled to my feet before Tatum could come out and squish me. We were in the most overgrown garden I'd ever seen. So many flowers had run wild, and vines were crawling everywhere. Bushes went untrimmed, the weeds ran rampant. But somehow, this garden still looked beautiful.

"Where are we?" Tatum asked, more with her body language than with actual, enunciated words. I could only shrug my shoulders. Lopmon jumped down from her perch, and started to explore. I found myself itching to do the same.

We wandered through the overgrown plants and marvelled at whatever we saw. Part of me felt guilty for taking that time, when the world was still in turmoil, but the rest of me realized that the guards were looking for us, and it was safer to wait here. I wasn't in much of a hurry to have my head chopped off, thank you very much.

Small, glowing butterflies were fluttering around a tiny girl, no larger than my thumb. It wasn't until I snuck a closer peek that I realized the butterflies weren't butterflies at all. They were tiny fairies, flying around with the help of their wings. I saw a disgruntled toad, and was nearly scared out of my skin when a stump honestly started cackling at me.

"Tatum, Mimi!" Lopmon shouted excitedly. "Come look. It's the Looking Glass! We can go home!"

Tatum and I both scrambled over to her, and I nearly threw myself into the Looking Glass without a second thought. I _would_ have, if a pair of pale blue arms hadn't stopped me. I was glad they did, because I hadn't _meant_ to leave things unfinished in this world. I didn't want to leave Tatum a beast either. But I'd been so overwhelmed by the idea that I could go and see Palmon and my parents and Tentomon and Koushiro, and my friends that I didn't even think about it.

"It's not safe."

I turned and found that the blue arms were attached to a fairy. She was very familiar, and I placed her as Winter, one of the fairies that chose Daisuke, Miyako and Iori to be the chosen three. After another few seconds, I realized she was also one of the princesses that was exiled from this world. What was she doing here? And if she could travel through the worlds, could she bring me home?

"Why not?" Lopmon asked grumpily crossing her arms.

"It's been infected," Winter said solemnly. "I too was hoping it would be functional. I never imagined I would find it broken. One of my sister's must have sealed it off."

"I can't go home?" I asked, realizing that's what this meant. My entire world—all the hopes and dreams I'd been clinging to—shattered, and I fell to my knees, feeling the tears come heavily. I wasn't the only one crying. Both Lopmon and Tatum joined me.

"There's no time for that," Winter snapped at us. "There's a battle going on, it's not going well. Merlin is losing against Morganna. We must provide assistance."

"We need Michael to stop the curse," I said, sniffling a little. "But we don't know where he is."

"He will come," she said, sounding sure. I was jealous. I wished I had that level of confidence anymore. She reached her hand out and pulled me to my feet. "Until then, we must provide Merlin with the assistance he needs."

"But the guards," Lopmon said.

"They won't be a problem," Winter assured us. "Now, get moving. Time is of the essence."

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Long Live the ruler! But who will that ruler be? Miyako's about to find out.


	33. Long Live

**Y/N:** This is one of the longest chapters that I've ever written—specifically as only one character I mean, because we've written plenty of longer chapters before. But this is all Yolei. It's crazy and it's hectic and I love it. This is also really the last chapter of the arc, so of course it's the climax. I hope you enjoy it!

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Sidhendor and the Dark Ocean**

 **Chapter 33: Long Live**

 _ **Miyako Ichijouji:**_

I felt kind of bad, leaving Iori to drag Michael's unconscious form towards town, but I didn't have much of a choice. He was holding onto the rope I'd made out of the straw Michael had turned to gold for me. I winced when I thought of that mean man's fate. He was cruel and assumed I could spin straw into gold, _and_ he kidnapped me, but he didn't deserve to be turned into a gold statue. He couldn't redeem himself if he was a statue.

But a bitter part of my mind was happy that he was a statue, if only for the fact that he wasn't technically dead. I hoped that Winter could fix him, and return him to his previous self. I couldn't bear the idea that a _second_ man had lost their life in my presence at the hands of one of my friends.

I remembered Michael's face when he had seen what he'd done. He was horrified, just as Kurayami had been. They were both so scared of what they were capable of. I knew Kurayami had done what she did to Morestuna with the best intentions, and I knew Michael's actions were entirely accidental, but it didn't make it any easier to know that Morestuna's life was taken to protect me. And that mean man was only a statue because Michael came to save _me_.

That made _two_ men whose lives were ruined on my account.

And now Michael was unconscious, on top of everything else. My baby _still_ hadn't moved, and my mind felt like it was going to explode with the craziness of this day. Was it only this morning that Bengoshi was falling prey to the shadows? Had it really been _today_ that he'd been turned into a wooden puppet of a man? We'd only been in this world for a few hours, and already I wanted to leave.

It wasn't as bad as the Dark Ocean. I had to remind myself each time Hideto brought up another crazy thing that had happened to him—or Tatum, Michael, Mimi or Lopmon, who I was so happy to hear were alright. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, that I hadn't concocted this strange mess of a world in my desperation to find an escape, _any_ escape out of the Dark Ocean. But even I couldn't imagine that Michael's touch could change anything into gold, or that he'd prick his finger on a spinning wheel and was supposedly starting what would be sure to be an endless sleep. A kiss from his true love would wake him, but Tatum couldn't kiss him without ending up a golden statue.

How could we possibly wake Michael up?

I couldn't accept that he was to remain this way for the rest of his existence. It wasn't fair. And he was only asleep because I'd been foolish enough to get caught by a stranger. It was the second time in my life that I'd been whisked away to a tower, where I was held prisoner. The other time was better though, because _Ken_ came to save me, and no one ended up in an endless sleep. I'd also discovered the Armadillomon during that bout of captivity—and I wasn't pregnant with a baby that refused to _move_ then either.

Why couldn't my baby just kick once? _Once_ , was all I was asking for! I didn't _need_ the baby to kick me all day every day, just the one time would suffice. The one time would prove to me that I wasn't a failure, that my baby was healthy and developing as it should. It would mean I could spend more time worrying about the fate of our friends, or pondering over the mystery Iori was making out of Hawkmon.

Instead, though, I was constantly being wrapped in worry about my baby. I was cradling my swollen stomach, as we walked through the woods. Hideto had draped his hooded, black cloak over my shoulders, trying to help me through the shock of everything that had happened so far. It was a nice gesture, but I didn't feel any warmer now than I had before. The chill of the Dark Ocean lingered on me still, even as we walked through the warm non-sunlight. I kept looking for the sun, but it didn't exist here. I rubbed my arms faster, rougher, trying to force some heat into them.

I looked over to Hideto, hoping to distract myself. He had a golden axe swung over one shoulder, and was constantly shifting his eyes over our surroundings. Any time one of us snapped a twig, he clenched his axe tighter, waiting for the "threat" to show itself. He was on the lookout. He didn't want any of us to fall into a story. I couldn't wrap my head around what it was that he meant.

Bengoshi was on Hideto's other side, looking at Hideto sideways. He blamed Hideto for not stopping Mari from sending him to the Dark Ocean. I could understand his frustration. I was mad at _myself_ for sending me to the Dark Ocean. But suspicion and grudges weren't going to make our lives any easier. It _wasn't_ Hideto that sent him there in the first place anyway. We might be all we had for the rest of our lives. Winter had exhausted herself helping us out of the Dark Ocean. She'd brought us to the only world she could reach. It wasn't the world she'd _wanted_ to send us to.

I continued to beat back the bitter portion of my mind that was angry with her. She'd been able to get us out of the Dark Ocean the entire time, and she'd waited until Bengoshi was being devoured by a shadow before she'd taken us anywhere. What about me? She'd _promised_ me that she'd save my baby before it was born. I couldn't keep myself from thinking the worst. My baby hadn't moved. I'd spent two months letting this baby develop in literal hell, and it was _Bengoshi_ that pushed her into getting us out of there.

Maybe she couldn't get out until today though. I was trying my hardest to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it was so difficult. Winter had chosen me. She picked me out of the millions of kids that could have worked just fine. I thought that made me special to her in some way. Iori was so precious to Summer. I was jealous, I supposed, by Iori's easy affectionate relationship between him and the fairy that chose him. But it was more than just Summer Iori connected to. I knew he and Winter claimed that they didn't get along, but they did. They had a special relationship; one that I knew was born out of their desires to keep my baby safe. But they talked daily, and could communicate even without words.

In the two months I'd lived with Winter, I'd talked to her a handful of times, aside from chit chatting at the dinner table. I'd learned only a little about her in that time. She trusted us all enough to leave us to protect ourselves. She had stated on multiple occasions that she wouldn't be rescuing Iori if he got into trouble with the shadows. She wasn't in the habit of playing the hero. That was something else I'd learned. She'd become so bitter. The wondrous woman that had taught me that there really _was_ room in my family for me, that my parents and siblings loved me, was gone.

She'd faded in the years Winter had spent guarding the Dark Ocean.

And as it turned out, she didn't _need_ to be there at all. Her mother had only told her she was destined to watch over that world so that she would be out of the way. She'd chosen to follow her mother's instructions anyway, to watch over her father's spirit—but she'd failed at that.

It was hard to know that Winter had taken up the responsibility to watch over Sigma, but let him slip away from her. She'd chosen me, she was meant to keep an eye on me, and keep me on the right path—and she hadn't noticed that Sigma was there, haunting me, mauling me, _torturing_ me each night. She'd let him out, and he'd gone after me. Did he have some sort of vendetta against her?

But no, Kiyoko was _Summer's_ initial choice, and he'd been taken in by Sigma as well.

It was probably a grudge held against _all_ of his daughters. And if what Hideto had told me was true—he'd regaled us with stories as we walked from the tower towards the town—he'd had good reason to want revenge against them. He'd been a rotten man, but he was a _good_ king. They'd jumped the gun and killed him, thinking they'd save _us_ the trouble of having to do it later, but all they'd done was give him power over me and Kiyoko, and a body that could pass through solid objects and fly through the night at his leisure.

But the worst thing Winter had done to me, was give me a reason to feel sympathy towards Sigma. How could I forgive that? He was my worst nightmare, and she'd killed him, allowing him to become what he was. He was bitter and twisted, but _would_ he have become that bad if Winter and her sisters had left him to his own devices? Or had they created a self-fulfilling prophecy, _creating_ the Great Evil of Fairy Land—evidently called _Sidhendor_ , or whatever—whilst trying to save the worlds from a Great Evil that hadn't existed just yet?

My mind _hurt_ just thinking about it.

I didn't want to feel sorry for Sigma. I didn't want to think of how he'd ruled over this world with a steadfast devotion of a man that loved his country. He hadn't even wanted to expand his territory. He was happy with just the _one_ land. He was mean, and ruthless, but his wife betrayed him while working with his most trusted man, and then when he thought he was safe, his daughters turned around and stabbed him in the back—potentially _literally_. I didn't know how they killed him, but his own daughters, his flesh and blood killed him.

No matter how hard I tried to focus only on his actions _after_ the fact, I couldn't hold the same angry and hatred in my heart for him. I really wanted to though. I didn't forgive his actions. I still bore the scars on my arms. I couldn't wear short sleeved shirts or dresses without wearing long gloves anymore. My skin was permanently disfigured, a constant reminder of his treachery. No, Sigma the spirit didn't have my forgiveness, but Sigma the _man_ had my sympathy, and nothing I thought of could take it away from him.

Iori shifted the golden chord in his hands, and pulled Michael forward with a quicker pace. He'd caught sight of the gateway to the town. I remembered passing over the bridge just outside, not being able to overpower the mean man that dragged me to my tower prison. I shuddered, and tried to focus on the here and now. Sigma didn't matter, the mean man didn't matter. The only thing that mattered now was getting Michael to the castle, where _hopefully_ we would be able to crown Michael king, and get this world back into order.

I didn't know if Michael wanted to be king, or how he could possibly be king if he couldn't touch anything without making it gold—or wake up any time this century—but I was willing to do just about anything to keep my mind off the fact that my baby wasn't moving.

The three Armadillomon were leading our way, clambering over the bridge, peeking over the edge and giggling at the sight of a monster lying down in the water. They were making fun of the "troll", smiling happily at Iori as they did so. He shook his head once, but I knew he was the reason this poor troll was unconscious. He was probably really cold, lying in the water like that. Thankfully, his head was too large for the water to become a danger to his breathing. I sighed, and looked disapprovingly at Iori's back. He'd been so quick to anger before we'd gone to the Dark Ocean, but while we were there he'd stopped feeling anything else. And he'd become so _violent_ as well. I didn't know how to help him deal with that anger. The Dark Ocean hadn't provided me with much of that. Instead, it had drawn out my fear, in the same way it had with Bengoshi's sadness, and Winter's bitterness.

"Okay," Hideto called, bringing us to a stop. Bengoshi was nervously eyeing the troll, as though he thought it would wake up and eat him at any given moment. I stepped closer to Hideto, just in case he was right. "Are we going to split up now? I know we need to get Michael to the castle, but I'm going to need to get rid of Morganna before we can do that. Michael and I were supposed to do it together, but that's not an option anymore. Merlin and the girls are going to be getting here any minute. Saving Miyako was something we didn't budget for."

"We can't let you go alone," I protested immediately, grabbing his shirt sleeve. He fit in this world, without his black cloak. He had trousers on, and knee high boots. His shirt was a very deep green tunic that was tied around his waist with a thin leather chord. The rest of us looked like street urchins at best, but even the street rats in this world matched better than we did. Our greying, tattered, fraying clothing and gaunt faces made us stand out. The Armadillomon were digimon as well, which I'd noticed didn't exactly exist here either.

"We don't have much of a choice," Hideto protested. "We're already late."

"All for one, and one for all," the Armadillomon chorused. Hideto groaned something about them becoming a part of a story with those words alone. I was curious, but didn't get a chance to ask about it.

"We all do this, or none of us do," one Armadillomon said. This one was distinctively female, and she raised her head high, defiantly, daring Hideto to correct her. He opened his mouth to do just that, but she glared at him. "If you want to succeed, you need to have a team. You cannot do this alone. You're just one man, and your axe is made of gold. It's far heavier now than a regular axe. You'll let us help you."

"Whatever you say, Aramis," Hideto drawled.

"Aramis?" she tested. She smiled and nodded, accepting the new name, instead of realizing that it was a sarcastic reference to whatever story she was a part of now. "I do say so. Let's get going!"

"You heard her Athos, Porthos," Hideto commented, pointing to the other Armadillomon in turn. They weren't nearly as pleased by their new names, but listened to him anyway. I had a feeling they were mostly excited by the prospect of exploring the market again.

"And if we don't _want_ to go into a potentially dangerous location?" Bengoshi asked, sadly, knowing he really didn't have much of a choice if he didn't want to be alone here—and we knew that he didn't. He was afraid of being alone. He was afraid the shadow would come back. It was written clear as day on his face.

Hideto motioned to the Armadillomon, and "Aramis" led the pack, the three of them spreading out in front of us. Iori went next, dragging Michael behind them. It was easy enough that way. The people would move aside for the Armadillomon, and Hideto, Bengoshi and I would round out the circle protecting the future king. It was just as much a protection for the people as well. The path behind Michael was proof enough for that. There was a trail of gold that led all the way back to the tower he'd fallen asleep in.

The plan was genius.

The plan wasn't nearly as easy to pull off as we'd thought it would be.

For starters, no one wanted to move. At all.

"Make way for your future king!" Aramis shouted. Several people snorted, and continued about their business. Others turned their lip up at us, sneering. "He's the king! You have to move. Do you want his first act as your ruler to be banishing you for your insolence?" A couple people looked worried, but were soon drawn off to do something else entirely.

"It's the damn stories," Hideto said, shaking his head. He too was itching to head in a different direction. He was trying hard to stay in one place though. I reached over and took his hand, leaving him to balance his axe on his shoulder with just the one. I squeezed his hand, and for a second, it looked like I was helping him. But then he ripped his hand away. "You'll become my Gretel," he worried. "Don't do that to yourself."

"How are we going to continue if they won't get out of our freaking way?" Iori demanded. "I'm not dragging him around forever. That's not a thing that's going to happen."

"Let me think," Hideto said, trying to keep his feet from moving towards a side street. Whatever story was pulling him in was going to take place there. I wouldn't let him go. I'd tackle him if I had to or get Bengoshi to do it—he seemed to want some form of revenge on Alias III, and it might do him wonders. "Okay, let's try this," he murmured, shifting his axe in his hands and waltzing to the front of our group, standing directly in front of Aramis. "If you don't get out of our way, I'll tell the Queen. I'm her personal huntsman. She's asked me to bring her this man. Do you _want_ to disobey the Queen? You _know_ what happens to those that disobey her."

I watched in horrified wonder as everyone, seemingly at once, raised their hand to their throats and gulped. My mind quickly filled in the gaps and my stomach churned at my realization. Their Queen cut people's heads off as her method of execution. Was there no prison here? I supposed there couldn't be. They banished their previous queen when she tried to kill Sigma, instead of imprisoning her. They banished the four princesses when they _did_ kill Sigma. Maybe the people who didn't commit treason didn't warrant banishment, and got decapitated instead.

I wasn't finding any reasons to _want_ to stay here.

The three Armadillomon continued to lead the way, even though the citizens fled from the streets. The once packed marketplace had become a ghost town. We kept our formation, just in case someone came into our path. We didn't want anyone else to turn into a golden statue after all. The castle wall grew as we got closer to it, and soon we reached the gate.

"Funny," Hideto commented. "Where are the guards? There are _always_ guards here. They don't let anyone through. It's their job. Morganna literally has no other use for them. She's a powerful witch. She cursed Michael, and she probably put the curse on the spinning wheel too. She's kind of the villain in all the stories right now."

"Are you really going to question our good fortune?" I asked incredulously.

"Nothing good happens here unless it's part of a story," Hideto said, worried.

"Then we'll just have to re-write the story," Iori said. "We're going in there."

"You can say that because you haven't lived with the temptation," Hideto snapped.

"No," Iori said wryly. "We've just been in the Dark Ocean. This is better, trust me."

I didn't know if I believed him entirely there. We at least had free will in the Dark Ocean, no matter how horrible it was there. My baby didn't move in this world either. My surroundings didn't matter too much to me, unless the baby could move.

Iori started dragging Michael through the open front gates of the castle, and we were left with little choice but to follow him. Bengoshi didn't want to come, and I would have told him he didn't have to, if I thought he would listen to me. Instead, he steeled himself for whatever might come, and followed directly after the Armadillomon—who were on guard, ready to attack if someone was to jump out at us. I followed after Hideto, watching our backs while holding onto the back of his shirt. He let me, which I appreciated, but was confused by. He wasn't much of a touchy feely guy. He must've really been freaked out by the stories. We walked slowly, ready for anything, as we made it through the gate and into the castle grounds. It was as empty as the market was now.

But there was noise coming from the courtyard, and so that was where we headed. We needed to find the Queen so that Hideto could distract her while we crowned Michael—was it even possible to crown an unconscious person? Didn't the recipient of the crown need to make certain promises before they could claim their place in the monarchy?

I wasn't prepared for the sight that met us in the courtyard. A woman—who I assumed to be the Queen when Hideto hissed the name Morganna at the sight of her—was standing there, arms flung out, fingers curled as though they were claws. Her brilliant silver hair flew around her head like a mane. Her eyes were bright and triumphant as she stood over a man with the same flawless, _young_ skin as her. His hair was a snowy white, and he had a long beard that trailed down his chest. He was on the ground, grasping his shoulder. I could see blood staining his robe around his fingers.

"Do you admit defeat?" Morganna taunted. "Or do I need to teach you another lesson."

"You will never win," the man insisted.

"You're a fool Merlin, you've always _been_ a fool," she sneered. "I won the moment you agreed to banish the princesses. Look around you! I'm the Queen, and you're just a memory for the history books."

"You aren't fit to be Queen," the man—Merlin—told her sagely.

"Aren't I?" she said haughtily. "I think the people of Sidhendor say otherwise. You've lost, fool. You need to learn your place. Unfortunately, there is no place for you in my new world. You've lived a long life, Merlin. It's been far _too_ long. Let me put an end to it for you."

"I have failed," Merlin murmured.

Hideto raced forward, just as Morganna summoned a long, thin blade. She raised it into the air above Merlin's neck, and started swinging down. I closed my eyes, unable to watch. The blade slammed into some other metal, and I knew what I would see if I could open my eyes. Hideto was blocking the blade with his axe. He'd saved the injured man.

"Bengoshi," Iori hissed. I could heard quick footsteps as Bengoshi ran off. He wasn't prepared to stay and participate in a fight. He wasn't prepared to even witness one. "Miyako," Iori whispered, reaching out and touching my arm. I flinched, not expecting him to grab me. I opened my eyes reluctantly and was met with his. They were wide and imploring. "I need you to watch over Michael. Hideto can't do this himself. Help that man too."

"You can't fight again," I pleaded. "Your nose is already broken."

"It's just one bone," he said lightly. "I've got two hundred and five more."

"That's not funny, and you know it," I told him. I was horrified by the flippancy he was using. He didn't wait any longer though. He handed me the golden rope, and I watched as he raced forward to meet Hideto and Morganna—who were still forcing their weapons of choice together, glaring into each other's eyes. Iori grabbed Merlin's arm and hauled him to his feet, pushing him in my direction. Merlin stumbled, staggering his way over, and collapsed in a heap when he was four feet from me. His breathing was heavy and hard. I ripped the hem off of my dress—leaving it jagged, uneven and a little short—and got to work on his shoulder. I'd gotten pretty good at patching up wounds thanks to Iori's recklessness with the shadows.

As I bandaged his shoulder as best I could, I couldn't help but look for Bengoshi. He couldn't have gone too far. I spotted him in the corner of the courtyard, behind a large barrel. I didn't have time to wonder what the heck the barrel was there for, because the fight started. I watched it reluctantly. I couldn't bear to see my friends getting attacked by a crazy woman, but at the same time I couldn't risk not seeing it. What if this was their last moment, and I'd been too cowardly to see it? I couldn't bear that.

"They will not win," Merlin said sadly. I tied the makeshift bandage a little tighter than necessary and he winced—making me feel guilty immediately. I apologized, even though I didn't really want to. He looked at me with sympathy. "We can always _hope_ for the best."

"I chose to believe in my friends," I told him. "You haven't seen Iori these last couple months. He's a machine now. And Hideto's axe looks plenty sharp. They can do this."

"You really believe that," he said in wonder.

"I'll always believe in them," I said simply. I watched as he caught sight of Michael. His face was surprised, and then that surprise melted away to disappointment and finally to worry. I was right then. We couldn't crown Michael if he wasn't conscious to make the choice. I winced and looked towards my friends.

I could see how Merlin believed they would lose. They weren't making much progress. Despite there being two of them, Morganna was always a step ahead of them. If Hideto attacked first, Iori followed soon after, and Morganna blocked them both with ease. They would switch it up, with Iori going first, and with Hideto following suit, but she deflected those attacks just as easily. Iori tried to psyche her out by preparing to use his left, but swapping to his right fist at the last second, but she practically rolled her eyes at his efforts. Eventually, they were attacking her at the same time, but it didn't seem to matter. She just wielded her blade against Hideto and his axe with one hand, and fought of Iori with magic while using the other. My heart hammered in my chest. I was so glad that Hideto's axe was solid gold. He was left using the handle to fend off her blade more than once, and I knew that a regular wooden handle wouldn't hold up against her onslaught. I flung my hands over my eyes as she flung spell after spell at Iori. But I couldn't keep myself from watching. I peeked through my fingers, holding my breath each time a new spell was cast, only letting the air go when Iori managed some quick footwork and the spell slipped passed him without hurting him.

But they _could_ do this. I believed in them. If I thought they would let me—no, if I thought it wasn't stupid, I would go out there and give them a hand. Fighting wasn't my favourite thing, it wasn't even something I was good at. But I could protect my friends, and _help_ them. But if in just one instance I dodged too slowly...I couldn't risk doing that to my baby—even if the baby was being rude and not moving to make sure it's mommy knew it was okay. It was my baby, and it was my duty as its mother first and foremost to protect it.

And I was left in charge of protecting Michael and Merlin, so I did kind of have my hands full—not that there was much of anything to protect them _from_. Any time Morganna's spells got close to us, Merlin cast a quick spell of his own in retaliation. The spells collided midair, and nullified each other. I sighed, knowing Merlin was doing a better job at protecting _me_ than I was of him.

"Enough of this," Morganna bellowed only a few moments later. "I grow tired of your games. Beasts of the castle rise. I command you to destroy all those who defy me, starting with these pests!" Her hands were thrown in the air, and magic swirled around her. Iori stopped to watch where her magic was headed, but Hideto wasn't above attacking Morganna while she was distracted. He swung the axe hard, aiming it for her stomach, and I closed my eyes, afraid to watch when the axe hit. Hideto yelled out wordlessly, and Morganna just kept sending her magic upwards though. I dared to peek at them. Morganna was fine, standing there just as before. Hideto was on his back several feet away. His axe was on the ground another couple of feet behind him. He pulled himself up slowly, holding his head, checking for blood.

The three Armadillomon let out a startled yelp and my attention was pulled away from Hideto. They were looking up, just as Iori had been. I steeled myself and let my eyes drift upwards. At first I didn't see what was wrong. All I saw was an enormous castle reaching up to the sky, with turrets and everything. But then I noticed the stones. There were gargoyles perched on every available surface—and they were moving! I gasped, and felt my knees start to shake. We couldn't face an army of gargoyles by ourselves. We'd never had to face something this serious without our digimon partners. I wanted Hawkmon here—but that wasn't new. I'd wanted Hawkmon since I'd gone to the Dark Ocean. I knew that he wasn't coming. We were on our own against a small army of gargoyles now. I tried to do a count, but when I reached twenty, I figured there was no point. Five was too many, ten was impossible; any more was adding insult to injury.

"You _witch_ ," Hideto hissed. I watched as he grabbed his axe and ran at her. He caught her by surprise, and managed to knock her off her feet. It was quite satisfying. But it didn't hurt her. She flung her magic out to shove Hideto back, and got to her feet gracefully. The gargoyles were looking to her for targets, and she pointed her hand out towards us—Merlin, Michael, the Armadillomon and me. I was suddenly very glad that Bengoshi had run off to hide behind a barrel. He wasn't a target then. That was something at least.

Merlin tried to summon a shield around us, but it wasn't big enough to fit us all. Iori noticed, and abandoned his fight against Morganna to come to our aid. The first gargoyle to attack was long and scaly. It was a serpent, with ghastly teeth, and it slithered down the building towards us. It reached us before Iori did, and breathed heavily on us as it opened its mouth, preparing to bite us. Iori jumped on its back though, and rolled away with it. I was shaking, feeling the warm, hot air on my skin still. The air smelled like its breath, and I was gagging, and panicking and generally going into shock about the whole thing. Merlin held my arm gently, trying to calm me, but it wouldn't work. He didn't understand. The only thing that could calm me down was the end of this fight, and seeing that all of my friends made it to the other side.

Hideto continued his attempts against Morganna, and kept being swatted away. Sooner or later, I knew he was going to lose his drive for that fight. His eyes kept shifting to the gargoyles, who were descending down upon us. We had less than a minute before they all reached us and the battle would be lost. Merlin's shield was still too small. The injuries Morganna had inflicted on him had taken their toll, and he was frustrated with himself, muttering about all the ways he _could_ put an end to this, if only he had access to all of his magic.

The closer the gargoyles got, the more I stared at them. They were close now, and I couldn't look away anymore. Iori was still fighting with the serpent. I could hear them both. He was trying to punch it, but it was made of stone and he was only ripping open his knuckles, causing only himself damage. The rest of the gargoyles were far more terrifying than the great serpent. There was a mess of wings—both grand and bat-like—and teeth and horns and claws and hunched backs and scaled skin. They were different sizes, but they were all grotesque, as gargoyles typically were. They had deep, rumbling voices, but they said no words, just grunted and moaned and generally terrified me beyond the point that I'd already reached. Some had hair, some were bald, some looked like trolls and goblins, some like people, some like cats and dogs and skeletal fish. They were all frightening.

And they were all upon us now.

"I can't hold them off," Merlin confessed, though I already knew it. I nodded, and cradled my baby. I'd failed it. I'd gotten myself into a mess I couldn't get out of. I was a horrible mother. Moretsuna had tried to kill me, and then he'd died in the presence of my unborn child. Not even breathing air yet, it had witnessed death. Then I'd taken it to the Dark Ocean for two months. And now—now that I'd thought I was safe in the world Winter had grown up in—I was stuck battling against sentient gargoyles. I was the worst mother I knew, and my baby hadn't even been _born_. My baby hadn't even _moved_ yet.

"Don't worry about us," Aramis said, shaking her head. Her fellow Armadillomon weren't quite as sure as she was, but they followed her lead anyway. "We'll protect you, while you're protecting _them_ , deal?"

"If you are sure," Merlin agreed. Aramis stepped forward after nodding her consent.

"All for one and one for all!" the three Armadillomon cheered once again, and they raced out into the sea of stone monsters. I couldn't even see Hideto anymore, or Morganna. I could hear Iori though. I located him quickly, while Merlin tried to hold his shield in place. He was dodging a gargoyle's attacks. The gargoyle held the biggest battle axe I'd ever seen. It put Hideto's wood cutting axe to shame. The serpent was still there too though, and Iori was clearly trying to trick the axe wielding gargoyle—large, troll-like with no wings but had teeth about a foot long coming out of its mouth like tusks—to dice the snake into bits. I looked away when at last, his plan worked, and the serpent was split into two separate pieces of stone, having returned to its natural—non-magically sentient—state.

"Diamond Shell!" Aramis shouted. I saw her disappear into the crowd as she curled into a ball and rushed a horrifying bird gargoyle. 'Porthos' was grabbed up into the air by a gargoyle with bird's feet for hands, and two snake legs, bat wings and ram horns on his head. 'Athos' wasn't going to let his friend get taken though, and shouted out "Claw Chopping!" as he jumped into the air and hacked at the gargoyle's talons, cutting the stone limb off of the monster. The rest of the gargoyle's body reverted to its permanently still, stone form. It was refreshing to know that what was causing them to move wasn't truly life. It was just an animation spell—or so Merlin assured me when I let out a wounded cry at the sight of the two gargoyle's demises.

I didn't like death. I didn't like watching my friends take life from anything, even our enemies. Knowing that they were just removing the magic was a little better. But it didn't make it _look_ any less like killing. I tried not to think about it, knowing that it would still haunt my sleep for months.

Iori tricked his axe wielding gargoyle into taking out another of his allies—a small sheep faced imp with a wicked, toothy grin, and devil horns adorning his head, and a thin tail wrapped around an arrow that he was using as his weapon—when I realized we had more company. A large, brown, furry beast bounded from one of the many doors that led into the castle. I shrieked at the sight of it. My heart was pounding and I was _sure_ this would be the end of us all, when I realized Mimi—sporting a new, short yet flattering hairstyle—and Lopmon were running behind the beast. They were being chased by palace guards, all wielding spears or swords or maces. Each had a round, shiny shield that reflected the non-sunlight, nearly blinding me.

The beast skidded to a stop at the sight of the gargoyles, turning to Mimi as if to ask what to do. I looked closer at the beast, and realized it was wearing green dress, and I was horrified to realize this was a person that was under a spell. I felt terrible for being so scared of her. Her long red hair struck a chord and I realized it was _Tatum_ , and felt even _worse_ for judging her book by its cover. The seams of her dress were pulled, holding on by only threads. But she _still_ looked like she belonged here, even with her beastly appearance.

The guards too were distracted by the sight of the gargoyles. They stopped chasing my friends, and it left me with enough time to realize that Winter had arrived as well, leading even _more_ guards into the courtyard through a different door. She waved her hand and froze them in place. They looked like they were just standing still, but I knew better. They couldn't move even if they wanted to. Winter proceeded to hold her hands up in front of her, creating a path through the gargoyles. She was impressive, even though she was just walking. A lion shaped gargoyle with a snake for a tail and great wings on its back roared into her face and she didn't even flinch. She continued to walk as if he wasn't there, only stopping when she was next to a panting, scratched up Hideto.

I looked over Hideto with a careful eye, worried about how badly he'd been hurt by Morganna when I couldn't see him through the crowd. He had blood dribbling down his chin, and the left elbow of his shirt was ripped open, as was the skin underneath. I winced, knowing he'd skidded across the stone floor of the courtyard. He was breathing though, and he still had his fighting spirit, he was glaring at Morganna, and gripping his axe. He looked completely wild, and I wondered how badly he was fighting temptation just to keep fighting. I knew he was being drawn somewhere in the town. He was definitely channelling his frustration into his attacks, no matter how fruitless they ended up being.

"I'll be taking over now," Winter told him. "Have fun with the rock giants."

"I could take her," Hideto insisted, his raw fury staining his voice.

"You can't," Winter said bluntly. "But I can. I know all about her style, her abilities, her limits. She trained me."

"I did," Morganna said haughtily. "I taught you all I know, trained with you daily for millions of years. And yet, you've never managed to defeat me."

"I wasn't fighting for the fate of my home then," Winter said. "I had limitations that I no longer possess. I will do whatever it takes to bring you down. I will not let our shared past hold me back."

"I wouldn't have it any other way," Morganna told her with a smirk. "It's time I proved to the world exactly who their true queen is."

"How kind," Winter said, and I had to laugh. It wasn't so much that it was funny, as it was that Winter was still so calm, even as she stood there, facing the woman who had raised her—raised her specifically to be queen some day.

Suddenly, they both raised their hands, flinging magic at each other. Winter's icy blue magic sliced through Morganna's, and Morganna let out a furious shriek. Her magic started fluttering, and Winter stepped out of the way when the magic flew at her. It slammed into one of the gargoyles—a pig man with tusks and wings—and crystallized ice spread across the surface of its stony skin, spreading until he was encased entirely in ice.

"Really?" Winter drawled. "You're going to use _ice_ magic against the daughter of winter?"

"Destroy them!" Morganna roared, angry that her minions were still, watching her as she struggled to keep a level head against her favourite pupil. The guards and the gargoyles all sprang into action—except the few that Winter had frozen in place—and I lost sight of Winter and Morganna's fight. It was frustrating, not knowing if Winter was really as good as she was implying with her calm demeanor. I was terrified that she was going to be defeated. No matter how angry I could be at her, I didn't want anything to happen to her. I cared for her so much, even if she didn't care for me as much as I'd hoped she would.

"Rigid Block!" Porthos called, jumping in front of Mimi, while a guard tried to hit her with a mace. The mace bounced back towards the guard, and hit him in the shoulder. Surprised and in pain, the guard dropped the mace, and Mimi rushed forward to rip the shield off of his arm. I wasn't surprised that she didn't go for the mace. She and I were similar. She wouldn't want to hurt anyone permanently. The shield could do some damage, but it wouldn't kill them. I watched, still wincing, as she bashed the guard with the shield, before turning around to hold the shield up to protect herself against a hyena shaped gargoyle with far too long teeth and claws that sliced into the ground as he walked. She hit him in the face, leaving Porthos open to attack him with "Claw Chopping!" before the gargoyle could attack them with the scorpion tail I hadn't noticed. The gargoyle returned to stone, and Mimi grinned at Porthos, giving him a wink before they moved together, to find another opponent to tackle together.

"You really want to attack me?" Hideto growled, and I saw him swinging his axe towards some guards. My eyes bugged before I noticed he was hitting them with the blunt end of the axe. It didn't make me feel _too_ much better, watching one of the guards drop to the ground when Hideto dented his shield with the force of his swing though. But it did make me feel a _little_ better knowing that Hideto wasn't angry enough to try and chop the guards for being in his way. I watched as he ran at one guard, jumping into the air and stepping on his shield in the air, before pushing himself up into the air, grabbing onto the talons of a griffin shaped gargoyle. He held onto the griffin's leg, even though it tried to shake him off, until he was above a flying goblin gargoyle that was terrorizing Lopmon and Athos, who'd teamed up to try and defeat two other gargoyles on the ground—a little devil faced satyr with foot long fangs and a lizard with the face of a man and the horns of a ram, and long claws on all four feet—and were getting overwhelmed. Hideto dropped onto the imp, and chopped at it until one of its arms fell to the ground. The imp turned back to stone and Hideto started falling to the ground with it.

Tatum leapt through the air, snatching him right off it's back with her powerful new beast legs, and dropped him safely on the ground near me, where I waited with Michael in Merlin's thinning shield. He landed on his feet and spun in a circle with his axe extended and chopped off the snake leg of a horned man gargoyle. The stone body toppled over and landed only a foot from me. I let out a startled shriek, and Hideto apologized as he moved on passed Tatum, who was picking up a guard. She threw him into a crowd of six more guards. They were teaming up against the beast, because it was clear they couldn't win on their own. They went down like bowling pins. She hunkered down before pouncing in my direction, taking down a gargoyle with the body of an imp and a head far too large for its body, that looked like a man but had a serpent for a tongue that was snapping at Iori. She rolled over with it, before tossing it into the air, hitting another gargoyle—a serpent with spikes down it's scaly body and oversized bat wings—causing them to crack each other, dropping down to the ground crushing the devil faced satyr that was trying to step on Lopmon with its hoofed foot.

"Diamond Shell!" I heard Aramis call. She weaved her way through the crowd as a ball, knocking over guards left and right. She rolled right into the fight between Lopmon, Athos and their lizard gargoyle. They teamed up, with the two Armadillomon using their "Claw Chopping" attack in tandem with Lopmon's "Blazing Ice". The lizard didn't stand a chance.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh drew my attention to Iori, who was too close for comfort. It occurred to me that the guards could pass through Merlin's shield. It wouldn't be long before the gargoyles could too. If Iori hadn't been there, I wouldn't have noticed the guards that were coming for us. Iori was moving precisely, moving fluidly as he worked his way through the guards, ducking around their weapons when they tried to attack him with them. He would've been just fine, except for the fact that they were gradually pushing him backwards, making him inch his way over to Merlin, Michael and myself. Bengoshi, I noticed, was holding his wrists out for the guards to capture him—before the large dragon gargoyle came over and roared at them, and they joined Bengoshi behind the barrel while Tatum took on the gargoyle with Mimi and Porthos' help.

"Give up!" the guards shouted at Iori.

"Not likely," Iori snapped back, punching one in the face hard enough that he fell to the ground unconscious. That was his mistake, because that guard's friends pounced on Iori with their shields, pushing him back, where his ankle brushed against Michael's hand. I screamed a horrible, strangled scream as the gold started spreading from Iori's ankle up his leg up to his waist, where it started spreading down his other leg and up his torso, and down his arms and up his neck. I watched as he looked down in horror as it started, and he looked so scared for that split second before the gold overtook his face. He reminded me of that scared nine year old boy who'd been taken into the Digital World and been upset at the idea of having to fight other digimon, of hurting them.

"NO!" I screamed. "IORI!" I fell to my knees, tears pouring down my face, watching as the guards inspected Iori, tapping their knuckles against his golden face. One tapped him with his spear and Tatum appeared, snarling and grabbed the perpetrator that _dared_ to try and hurt my friend, and she swung him into the air, tossing him off into the distance, not bothering to watch where he ended up. For once I couldn't be fussed to watch and make sure he was okay. He'd made Iori a statue. _Iori_ was gone. My fears about that mean man that was now a statue came back full force, and I was sobbing and panicking all at once. What if he really _was_ dead now that he was a statue? What if I could never have Iori back? What was I going to do without him? I was supposed to protect him. I was supposed to watch over him. I failed. I failed so badly. He was frozen there, a statue with his terror forever etched onto his face. I kept seeing that young boy, the boy I'd babysat from before I was even really old enough to do so. He'd been a fixture in my life for so much longer than anyone else, and he was gone. Taken from me by some guards that were following the instructions of a delusional woman that thought she was their queen. I couldn't get a grip on myself. I couldn't find the sympathy and fear of hurting anyone. I couldn't _breathe_ , with the heartbreak I was going through in that instance.

And the other guards that had pushed Iori were trying to "capture" Michael. The guy was unconscious, sleeping eternally. He wasn't _going_ anywhere. They didn't need to capture him. But they were trying to anyway, and then they too were turning gold, unable to break their hold from Michael's body. Michael was now held aloft by two gold statues, whose faces were just as terrified as Iori's. _That_ was what snapped me out of my daze. These men were just following orders. They were just as scared as Iori was. They were human—or fairies or whatever they were. They had feelings and fears just as I did, and they were gone too, just like Iori. And I couldn't let anyone else suffer the same fate.

I picked up one of their shields and positioned myself in front of Michael, trying not to look at Iori, but knowing I'd do just about anything to protect the statue that he'd become. The gargoyles were dropping out of the sky thanks to Hideto's reckless efforts, and I couldn't bear it if one came down and crushed what remained of Iori.

"Your little toys won't last much longer," Winter taunted Morganna loudly. I glanced over, but not for long. I needed to keep my eyes peeled. If I'd been paying more attention, Iori wouldn't be a statue now. I couldn't let that happen again.

Morganna looked fine though, and I was distracted for a little longer than I would've liked. I thought for sure that Winter would have been dealing out a little bit more damage, but the worst part of Morganna was that her hair was a little out of place. Winter didn't look injured either. What had they been doing to each other? Had they just been throwing and dodging spells while everyone else was fighting for their lives in a battle of epic proportions? Hideto was risking his neck to rid the skies of gargoyles that were attacking from above. Iori was a statue now, and they were messing up each other's hair? That wasn't right. It wasn't fair. I wanted Winter to win the battle already. Magic wasn't working well enough, so she should've come up with another idea to bring this to an end.

"No matter," Morganna said, her face brightening when she thought up an idea. My heart sunk as I waited for her to announce her most-likely horrible plan. She scanned the crowd and narrowed her eyes at Lopmon, before grinning. "Yes, that will do nicely," she said. "Let's see how you fare when you're fighting against one of your own. Will you be able to bring yourselves to _win_ , or will you lose in order to save your _friend_?" She held up a hand and magic swirled around it, before she threw the magic towards Lopmon. Lopmon stood there, frozen in place. She couldn't find anywhere to hide anyway. The magic slammed into her, and she flew into the air, before she started glowing. Her body contorted, growing and stretching. Her fur turned slowly into brown scales, her soft hands into long clawed feet. Her tiny rabbit's tail grew into that of a large, powerful dragon—because that's what she became. The only similarities to what she'd been before were the brown and pink colouring in her scales. She landed on the ground, causing it to quake. Her tail swung around and slammed into guards and gargoyles alike.

For a moment, I thought she had kept her mind her own, and was going to use her new power to help us, but then she flicked Hideto and a gargoyle out of the air, and I knew she wasn't really Lopmon anymore. She was just a destructive force. The ground shook again, and caused Iori to teeter. I pushed him back to his feet, and tried not to cry. Lopmon was a force we couldn't afford to leave unattended.

Tatum—who had caught Hideto out of the air again, thankfully—seemed to understand that, and took the duty upon herself to take care of Lopmon. Lopmon liked her new furry play toy. It was enough to distract Lopmon, which would have been great, if Tatum hadn't been one of our most formidable players in our fight. Lopmon snapped at Tatum with her sharp teeth, and batted at her with her oversized feet. She was like a giant, lizard baby, playing a game unaware of how dangerous she really was. Tatum wasn't hurting Lopmon. She wasn't doing much aside from jumping around, waving her hands and calling out to our newly not-a-rabbit friend.

Hideto had continued on to beat up gargoyles like it was his true mission in life. He swung his axe wildly, and jumped over Porthos' head to get one before it could smash into the Armadillomon. Mimi called out her thanks, as she and Porthos continued to fight against a group of guards. It struck me as strange how quickly Mimi had adapted to the appearance of the three Armadillomon. She hadn't even batted an eye before striking up a strong alliance with Porthos.

I supposed all those that had been in this world for the last two months were really good at adapting now. I didn't know how long Tatum had been a beast, but she was fully embracing her new body, and neither her, Lopmon or Mimi had questioned Michael being asleep. It's like they just expected crazy stuff to happen now. Was I the only one that thought Lopmon becoming a _dragon_ was strange? Iori would have too, if he'd been able to see it.

It didn't matter in any case. I didn't have time to think it over anyway, because guards were coming for me and Merlin. The remains of the shield he had created flickered out of existence, and I stepped forward to meet the guards. They held their swords up, eyeing their golden friends with wide eyes. I held my shield tightly, and met their eyes, daring them to test me now. I wouldn't hurt them, but I wouldn't let them hurt Iori or themselves either.

"We have to take you in," one guard said apologetically.

"You can try," I told him, narrowing my eyes at him. He held his sword up and knocked the shield from my grip. I cried out, shocked. I hadn't realized how hard it would be to hold onto it when I was attacked. I figured it wouldn't be too difficult. I'd seen movies before, it seemed so easy. The man held his sword up to me, and I froze, only to watch as he noticed my pregnant stomach and lowered his sword. He shared a look with the guard at his side, and they nodded to each other, before looking passed me like I wasn't even there. Like they didn't notice me.

"They're letting you go," Merlin explained, surprising me. "Pregnancies are rare here. They don't want to sentence you to death at the hands of Morganna. The guards aren't heartless. They're simply stuck in this roll in the stories."

"Don't say that," I said. "It makes this so much worse. They took Iori from me. My friends are out there fighting them, and you're saying they don't have a choice? There is _always_ a choice, they just aren't making it."

"The people of Sidhendor aren't like you," he said sadly. "They do not have the will to fight the orders, the temptation that your friends possess. They are breaking the stories, which is making everything _worse_."

"They're trying to save you," I snapped. "All you're doing is watching them do what _you_ should be doing. Wasn't it _you_ that caused this to happen in the first place?"

"It was," he admitted. He rolled his injured shoulder, and I was sure that he was trying to point out there was a reason that he wasn't fighting, but it was just an excuse. I pointed to my stomach, where my baby was hopefully still developing, and raised an eyebrow at him. He sighed. "You're right," he said finally. "There must be more that I can do than watch."

"Thank you," I said pointedly, hoping that I wasn't sentencing him to his death by making him go out and do something. He slipped out into the crowd, and I lost sight of him. I was fretting about him as I picked my shield back up from the ground, debating whether to cover my stomach with it or not. If the guards would leave me alone because of my baby, then I wanted them to know the baby was there—for the baby's safety, of course—but I doubted that the gargoyles cared one way or the other whether I was pregnant. It might be safer to just keep the baby covered anyway.

I was on guard, waiting for the next attack to come toward Michael, Iori and I. We didn't seem to be a popular target, thankfully. Lopmon was taking out a _lot_ of our competition with her tail without even trying to. Tatum was escaping her with ease, and Lopmon was growing frustrated with her furry friend, and was starting to let her mind wander. It was dangerous to more than just the people in the courtyard. She crushed the fountain and had water spraying everywhere. Aramis and Athos noticed her distraction and joined Tatum, taking two more of our fighters out of the battle. Lopmon was pleased at least, to have more players in her game.

Winter and Morganna were screaming at each other, insults and snarky comments were exchanged. I couldn't hear all the words that were said, and didn't understand some references they made, but I couldn't see them through the crowd anyway. I was just happy that Winter had decided to do _something_. I would've preferred a more physical effort, but I would take what I could get.

A low, steady growl caught my attention, and I found myself face to face with a feline shaped gargoyle with two scorpion tails curled up over its back. A scream crowded my throat, but I beat it down the best I could. Screaming really wouldn't help me. It might just prompt the gargoyle into attacking. I was the last defense between Iori and Michael and this gargoyle. I was the last force that could keep Michael alive. I wasn't going to fail, not like I had with Iori. I stared boldly into the stone eyes and walked slowly to the side, wanting to draw the creature away from my friends. The cat fell for my plan and I led it into the crowd, trying my best not to accidentally get impaled by any of the guards or crushed by the gargoyles.

There were far fewer now than there had been before. Lopmon was an uncontrollable force that so far had been mostly helpful towards our cause. But we were down to just six fighters. I was one of those six, so really we were down to just the five. And Winter was too busy insulting Morganna to really help with anything either. Merlin _might_ be helping, but he could just as easily be hiding somewhere. I'd not seen him fighting, and I didn't actually know him at all. I only knew his name because Morganna had been insulting him.

But none of that really mattered, because I had a stone cat-scorpion hybrid following after me with no way to defeat it at all. I was really starting to question my life decisions, when a large, black _thing_ flew through the sky distracting the cat. It bounded after the thing, and I tried to identify it. It looked sort of like a _fly_ , but it was _far_ too big to be one. I shook my head. This world didn't make sense. It was best not to question anything. The cat followed the fly, trying to catch it, but the fly didn't notice. It was on a mission, and that mission was Lopmon. Next to Lopmon's newly enormous form, the fly was actually to scale. And Lopmon _knew_ it. She was suddenly very irritated, and kept swatting at it. Athos and Tatum were nearly crushed by her large feet while she tried to catch the fly. The fly seemed to want nothing but to rest on her nose.

It was probably one of the strangest things I'd seen today.

And that was saying something.

It didn't matter though, because that fly had freed up our three fighters. Tatum jumped back into the thick of things, taking out guards left and right. Athos and Aramis worked together to take out the cat gargoyle that was after the fly, before moving on towards their next stone enemy.

"You think you're going to win?" Morganna laughed, though she seemed a little nervous. I looked around, locating her, finding that she was actually a _lot_ closer than I was expecting. I didn't exactly feel _safe_ being this close to her. But Winter was there, staring her down.

"I _know_ I'm going to win," Winter corrected with a smirk. "What I _don't_ know if why you keep trying to beat me when _you_ know it too."

"You know _nothing_ , Winter Drasil!" Morganna snarled, holding up her hand again. I moved quickly to stand behind a fallen gargoyle, before she could catch sight of me. Her hand was glowing the way it had when she'd changed Lopmon into a dragon. I wasn't about to risk what it would do to my baby by letting her turn me into a giant or something.

But it was never _me_ that she'd turned her attention to.

Mimi was still fighting with Porthos at her side. They were a formidable team, taking down gargoyles, and knocking down guards. They were effective and non-lethal. And they were diminishing Morganna's forces. She couldn't let that continue. She sent her magic towards Mimi, hitting her unawares. I watched, waiting for her to turn into some sort of monster, but the only thing that changed was her hair. Her locks changed from her natural caramel, darkening and shifting until they were a deep green. They also locked together, forming long cylindrical strips. I would have assumed that Morganna just assumed dreadlocks were terrifying or something equally ridiculous, if they weren't moving.

As it turns out, Mimi realized her hair was squirming around on her head too. She let out a high pitched scream and lifted her hands to her hair, feeling it and screaming more. Her hair was now a collection of snakes, I realized. And wherever she looked, people turned to stone. I didn't notice it at first, thinking that Porthos must've taken out the gargoyles on his own, because they just returned to their stone state, like they did when they were defeated. But it wasn't just the gargoyles that were turning to stone. Guards were too. Mimi screamed louder and longer, freaking out—understandably so.

"Why is it always my hair?" she screamed uncontrollably, trying to rip the snakes from her head. Porthos tried to help her, but she made the mistake of looking at him, and he froze, turning to stone in an instant. Mimi cried out and dropped to her knees, hugging him close, trying to convince him to come back, to _stop_ being stone. But he couldn't hear her. He was gone like Iori was. I felt tears coming back to my eyes, and as I was trying to wipe them away, the gargoyle I was leaning against shifted and started moving.

I gulped, realizing it wasn't defeated at all. It was lying in wait.

It got to its feet and turned to me. It was a terrifying. It had long pointed horns and longer, sharper teeth, and big, stone eyes staring at me. Its arms were made up of serpents, and the snake's heads snapped at me. I held up my shield as best I could, to try to protect myself, but I couldn't beat the gargoyle on my own. The gargoyle's bull shaped head reared back with its sharp teeth, positioning its horns so that it could impale me to the best of its ability. I cried out, and my voice was drowned out by its loud bellow. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see my death coming at me, but Hideto's battle cry was enough to make me open them again. He jumped onto the bull man's back and hacked off one of his arms on his way to the ground. He grinned as he got to his feet, turning to look at me.

"Got your back," he promised, before looking over my shoulder. He froze and suddenly Hideto too was made of nothing but stone. I screamed, and I heard Mimi doing the same, choking back a sob as she realized she was now responsible for not just Porthos but also Hideto—not to mention countless guards. I could feel that I was going to start sobbing soon myself. I couldn't hold back my emotions forever, and it was already hard enough watching the _bad guys_ become stone, and I'd already had to watch Iori become a statue. Now Porthos and Hideto had joined him.

This battle was the most miserable thing I'd ever experienced, and it wasn't even over yet.

Lopmon let out an angry bellow, and instinctively I turned to see her, expecting her to have caught the fly or something, but I didn't get that far. Mimi was screaming at me. "MIYAKO, _NO_!" I lifted my shield up, covering my eyes before I could meet Mimi's. I couldn't become stone. My baby was already stationary. I couldn't let it become a stone statue.

I waited, expecting Mimi to tell me it was safe to look, but no confirmation came. The seconds kept ticking, but Mimi didn't say a word. I was starting to worry. I couldn't stay out here in the middle of the battle. I needed to protect Iori and Michael, but now Porthos and Hideto needed protecting too. I couldn't stand here covering my eyes for another second. I needed to keep moving. I pulled the shield down, expecting to see Mimi had run off.

Nothing could have prepared me for what I'd done.

Mimi had caught sight of her reflection on my shield and turned _herself_ to stone. My heart dropped and the tears ran freely now. I'd killed Mimi. I hadn't meant to, I didn't even think it was an option, but I'd done it. I'd _killed_ my friend. I was a horrible person. Hideto was protecting me. Iori was protecting me. Michael had to hurt that mean man while protecting me, and Kurayami had taken Moretsuna while doing the same. I was a curse. I was the plague. I had to protect myself—but I couldn't do that either. I'd hurt Mimi while protecting myself.

I fell to the ground, sobbing spectacularly. I curled my arms around my baby, praying that my baby wouldn't be affected by the fact that I'd killed Mimi. I'd have to tell the baby what I'd done. I couldn't lie to it. Not about something so important. The baby wouldn't want me to be its mother anymore. I couldn't blame it. I was a terrible friend.

Magic flew over my head, and I heard the loud crack of stone. I looked up and saw Merlin, looking worse for wear holding his hands out in front of him. He'd saved me from a gargoyle. I should have thanked him, but I couldn't.

"Don't!" I shouted at him, trying to protect him from me. "You'll end up gone. They're all gone. I did that. They're all gone because of me. All of them. It's my fault."

Merlin came closer to me, and pulled me into his arms. It should have felt stranger, being held by a man I didn't know, but I was a mess. I was falling apart at the seams. Lopmon was a dragon, Tatum was a beast, Michael was in an eternal sleep, Iori was made of gold, and Mimi, Hideto and Porthos were stone now. Winter _still_ wasn't fighting the fight properly, and Bengoshi was hiding behind a barrel with a couple of terrified guards. Aramis and Athos were beat, still fighting with all they had, but they were getting sluggish. My baby _still_ hadn't moved, and I was sobbing, unable to move with the weight of my grief.

Our most useful ally was currently an oversized fly that was saving us from Lopmon's childlike excitement. Lopmon was _still_ trying to catch the fly, getting angry with each passing second that she wasn't able to catch it, and her big heavy feet slammed into the ground every so often, shaking the entire courtyard.

"Face it, Morganna," Winter said. "You're beat." I didn't know how she expected Morganna to believe that. I didn't even believe that. If Winter would just look around, she would see that there was no chance for us to win. Everyone was gone.

"Prove it," Morganna sneered, wielding her blade. She charged at Winter, and Winter fell into a fight position I would've thought was impossible in the gown she was wearing, moving her arms quickly, casting a couple of spells. Somehow, she ended up being the one to wield Morganna's weapon. I blinked, trying to understand what I must've missed. My eyes were so full of tears, and I didn't understand magic at the best of times, but I figured it didn't really matter, so long as Winter _finally_ ended this thing like she should have _before_ Iori was taken from us, before all of our losses had occurred.

"She is wielding Excalibur," Merlin gasped from behind me.

"I've proved it," Winter said coldly, holding the weapon above Morganna's neck. The weapon shone in the light from the sky and Winter's confident smirk somehow gave me back a sliver of the hope I had once had. Morganna was slumped on her hands and knees in front of Winter, staring at the ground, steeling herself for what she _knew_ was going to come. I couldn't watch it. I couldn't, even _if_ Morganna was the one that had technically taken my friends from me. I couldn't watch Winter kill someone—even without knowing how badly it went the _last_ time she'd done it.

I fought my way out of Merlin's arms and staggered to my feet. I raced over to Morganna and Winter. My heart beat loudly in my chest, I could hear it, steady as a drum as I raced against the clock. Winter pulled the weapon into the air, and _just_ as she started to swing it down, I threw myself onto Morganna, screaming "STOP!"

"Miyako?" Winter called, shocked. Thankfully, she didn't continue with her swing. She held the weapon aloft. I glared at it, and she dropped it to her side. I continued to glare until she dropped it to the ground. "Miyako, I need to end this."

"Not this way," I hissed. "I won't let you. Enough people have died. I won't let you do it again. You created a Great Evil last time. How can you take someone's life so willingly? She raised you. You _know_ her. Do you _really_ think there's no good left in her? Can't you see that she needs a chance for redemption? Don't do this. _Please_."

"Are you going to listen to her weak sentiment," Morganna asked sounding absolutely disgusted. "Or are you going to end me with honor? I'm not going to change. You know that. You know _me_."

"I do," Winter agreed. My heart dropped. I couldn't stop her. She didn't care about me at all, I supposed. Not if she could stoop to this. "But you do not know me," she pointed out. "And Miyako is right. You _want_ me to kill you. You don't want to face justice for your crimes. I won't let you escape. You will have to repair the damages you caused."

"You can't make me," Morganna warned.

"Can't I?" Winter asked, her eyes glinting. Her magic flashed and I was suddenly falling towards the ground. I threw my arms out to catch myself and was surprised to find that Morganna was now only the size of my thumb. I'd nearly crushed her. I fled hastily, not wanting to be responsible for yet another death. I was shaking when Winter picked her up and put her in a jar. She looked into the side, and smiled a real smile. "You have been accused of treason to your country," she told her old mentor. "You'll receive your sentence just as soon as I can put a council together to deliver it."

"Do you mean it?" Merlin asked.

"I can't possibly rule on my own," Winter said simply.

"You can end the spell," I realized, looking up to her with wide eyes. "You're a princess. You're the _oldest_ princess and everything. Winter, I need you to save these people. Please save them."

"I had every intention of doing just that," Winter told me, reaching out for my hand. I gave it to her, letting her pull me to my feet. She dusted off my shoulders before squeezing them. "Merlin, if you would?"

"I've been waiting so long for this day," Merlin said with tears in his eyes. He led the way into the castle, weaving his way through the still gargoyles and the bewildered guards. Winter held my hand as we walked. We were joined by the remnants of our team. Tatum walked lightly on her beast feet, tired from all the fighting. Aramis and Athos were more subdued now than they'd been in the Dark Ocean. They were taking the loss of Porthos hard. Lopmon stayed outside, still far too engrossed in the fly to be bothered by us.

I couldn't focus on anything as we walked. On a day when I hadn't lost so many friends I might've been excited about the new castle. It was brighter and warmer than the one in the Dark Ocean. But I _had_ lost friends that day, and I was doing good to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. If Winter wasn't holding my hand, I might not have been able to do even that.

"I would like to do this proper," Merlin said longingly when we entered the throne room. "But with circumstances being what they are, it might be best to be quick about it." And quick he was. He talked fast, and Winter was ready with answers whenever they were required of her. I tried to follow along. I knew she pledged her life and allegiance to Sidhendor. She swore to do what was best for her country, and her people. There was a sceptre at some point, I think, but my mind was still stuck on my friends. I was able to focus while Merlin carefully placed the elaborate crown on her head though. It was hard _not_ to watch. This was the moment Hideto and Mimi were fighting for. They wanted to save these people. Iori did too, even though he didn't know them.

And it was a glorious moment.

Magic _exploded_ out of Winter the moment the crown touched her head, and she was declared Queen of Sidhendor. It flooded through me, warming every nook and cranny that the Dark Ocean had frozen, that the deaths of my friends had expanded upon. The stone of the castle seemed to seep out warmth too, when the magic passed it by. It felt like for just that moment that I could _feel_ the entire world coming to life after sleeping for so long. It was exhilarating. It was almost enough to take my mind off of Iori and the others. But only almost.

"Wow," Tatum managed around her large teeth. The teeth were shrinking though, and the fur was receding. Soon it was gone, and she'd shrunk back to her normal size. She looked at her hands excitedly, and felt her face and teeth, and to her stretched clothing. She looked to Winter and Merlin questioningly. "Michael?"

"Go and see," Winter suggested with a soft smile.

Tatum raced off and before I even realized it, I was following after her. My feet were moving faster than I would've thought possible. I needed to see that Michael was okay. I needed to know that at least _one_ of my friends wasn't dead because of me—or else I would shatter completely.

We got to the entrance of the courtyard in time to see Lopmon shrinking midair, turning back into a rabbit digimon. She fell from the air, and Bengoshi was there to catch her. She looked to him confused, not knowing him from a hole in the ground, but she hugged him anyway, happy to _not_ be a dragon anymore.

"Michael!" Tatum shouted. I looked to where I'd left him, and the guards that were holding onto him were lifting him into the air. I was confused for a second, knowing that the guards had been made of gold not long ago. My heart was in my throat as I looked for him, and tears started falling uncontrollably as I saw that he too was free of his gold cage. I ran at Iori. He saw me coming and caught me before I could hurt myself. I was a sobbing mess, splattering him with tears and snot. I couldn't form a single word as I tried to convey to him just how happy I was to see him alive. He held me close, and buried his head in my hair, whispering to me that it was okay, that _he_ was okay. He kept apologizing to me, as if it was _his_ fault, but I couldn't form the words to correct him. I was just so _happy_.

"Yay!" Aramis and Athos shouted, and I turned my head to watch as they ran to Porthos, who raced at them. They tackled each other and rolled around on the ground, laughing loudly and happily. It was a beautiful moment. So was the sight of Hideto cradling a sobbing Mimi. His axe was on the ground next to him, and he was laughing, petting her hair, trying to assure her that it was safe for her to open her eyes now.

"I'll turn you to stone with my _wicked_ hair," she insisted, crying and trying to get out of his arms so as to not hurt him accidentally.

"It's not so bad," Hideto joked. "You just need some proper shampoo and conditioner. You can get that soon, though, right?"

"No," Mimi said miserably. "The Looking Glass is broken. We're stuck here _forever_!" She sobbed harder now, and I looked away, unable to accept her words. Winter was going to get us home. She was going to. She'd saved Iori and the others now. She _had_ to bring me home. I couldn't handle much more of this pregnancy without Ken. I _couldn't_. I needed his reassurances. I needed a doctor.

"By name of the Queen, you're under arrest," a guard called out. I caught sight of the two guards that were dragging Michael off towards the castle. This guard was trying to keep Tatum from ripping them to shreds. She wanted to get to Michael, but they wouldn't let her. He was their prisoner, and soon, I guessed, we all would be.

I supposed they didn't know about their new employer just yet.

But Winter and Merlin arrived then, and they could explain things. I hugged Iori closer, and continued to cry my ugly cry. I would keep doing it until he told me I couldn't anymore. I knew that, and I figured he did too, but he wasn't going to stop me. Not until I'd got the worst of it out of my system at least. I'd thought he'd died. I had no way of knowing it was reversible. I'd just lived through one of the very worst hours of my life—because the battle hadn't actually been that long. It just _felt_ like an eternity.

"Excuse me," Winter said, sounding kind but I could hear the command in her voice. The guards evidently could too, because they all paused and looked at her, noticing the crown on her head. "Put my nephew down. _Now_." The guards dropped him. She glared at them, and stepped back hastily.

"Are you our Queen now?" one of the braver guards asked. Winter nodded, and several guards let out a celebratory cheer. I half expected them to start singing about how the wicked witch was gone, but thankfully they didn't.

"You are dismissed," Winter commanded. "Go to your homes, visit your family. The world is finally at peace. Enjoy it while it lasts."

The guards all fled, and Winter watched them with a smile. Michael was still in a heap on the ground. Tatum ran to him and started looking him over, worried about him. "Why isn't he awake?" she asked Winter. Winter winked at her.

"Only true love can break the spell!" Winter said seriously, but Tatum just raised her eyebrows at her in response. It seemed unbelievable that Winter could not reverse this as she had everything else. "I thought we could do with one last happily ever after," Winter finally admitted. Tatum laughed and leaned down, pressing a firm kiss against Michael's mouth. His eyes fluttered instantly, and he reached up to rub his eyes, before realizing that Tatum had _touched_ him and pushing himself away from her with a yelp.

"Don't do that!" he insisted.

"I'm not made of gold," Tatum told him happily. "We've done it. It's over."

"I'm King?" Michael asked, confused. "I don't feel any different."

"That's because you're not King," Winter told him. He looked away from his hands—which he didn't seem to believe were safe now—and caught sight of his aunt, he quirked his head at her. "I hope you don't mind I took your job." She didn't sound apologetic at all.

"I didn't really _want_ to be King," Michael admitted, looking much more relaxed now. "I just wanted to help people. This place is nice to visit. I like feeling closer to my mom, but I don't think I could ever live here. It's not home, you know?"

"I do," Winter said, nodding. I knew her mind had gone to the long years she'd spent in the Dark Ocean, wanting to be back here.

"We must prepare for a feast," Merlin declared. "It's been so long since we've had reason to celebrate. The entirety of Sidhendor will want to attend. We must get word to the cooks, before they start arriving. You know they'll come on their own."

"Feast?" Lopmon asked sadly. She was playing with her ears, happy to have them back, but now she seemed withdrawn. "I thought I'd get to share with Terriermon by tonight. I guess I'll _never_ get to see him."

"I wanted to see him too," Mimi cried, still sobbing, though her eyes were open now. "I wanted to see everyone. I wanted to go _home_." Hideto's shoulders slumped too, but he didn't say anything. I doubted he trusted his voice not to break at that point. My shoulders shook more, but I was already sobbing, and Iori just held me tighter.

"There is another world," Winter began. "Iori and Miyako know this. I've been trying to reach it for months now. I could reach it now that I'm Queen. I'll do that for you, if you want that."

"I do," I agreed quickly. "I want to go. We might be able to make it _home_ from there."

"I'm sorry that the Looking Glass wasn't a viable option," Winter told me. "I'd hoped it would still work."

"Me too," I said, at the same time Mimi did. She nodded, and Iori decided to give his consent. He wouldn't let me go alone, and he wanted to see what was out there. Slowly but surely, everyone agreed to come along. The last to agree was Bengoshi, who was afraid that the next world would be worse than this one. He wasn't having the best time travelling through the worlds.

"That settles it then," Winter said, clapping her hands together. "Merlin, you're going to have to hold off on that feast. I've got one last thing to do first."

He nodded, though I could see he was disappointed. He stepped back, not wanting to come with us. He was eager, I was sure to explore his home now that it was freed from the spell he'd cast to protect it. It was really too bad his spell got out of control and made a mess of everything.

"I can feel my sisters power," Winter told us quietly, "I feel Summer and Spring, they are trying to break the barrier." She smiled proudly at her new power, "I can help now." she held her hands out in front of her, extending her thin fingers.

The last thing I saw before we were engulfed in Winter's magic was a fly buzzing happily through the air, finally free to travel as it pleased.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Koushiro and Willis find themselves in very different Wonderlands that are both wonderful and horrible at the same time.


	34. Wonderland

**Y/N:** I love Koushiro, he's amazing. The world he's in, not so much. I much preferred Witchenly. Maybe if I was writing as someone less methodical than Ken, or less logical than Koushiro, then maybe the Land of Dreams would have been awesome, but for the both of them, it was just much more difficult than I'd imagined it would be. I'm pretty sure I found a nice little groove while writing, especially with Koushiro and Hikari together, but I guess I won't know until you tell me. This is the one arc that I'm the least sure about.

 **U/N:** So here we step into Witchenly which is exhausting. With the other worlds we wrote them all at once, but when it came to Witchenly we just hadn't planned it, so this arc was put on a pause. Oh well. This is also the shortest arc, because the plot was pretty minimal here, so Tk, Kari, and Ken each moved their chapter into the final arc, though they each have one here I think. I'm pretty sure there are only six chapters here, with Willis, Kiyoko, Rei, Tk, Kari, Ken and Izzy narrating. That's not even one chapter for each person? Maybe there are seven, I dunno. But you know by now I'm sure. Anyway, this arc had to go last obviously, but it was hard to write actually...

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Land of Dreams and Witchenly**

 **Chapter 34: Wonderland**

 _ **Koushiro Izumi:**_

The sun was bordering on unpleasantly hot as it beat down on Hikari and I. We'd spent the entire day searching for Trust and had come up empty handed, just as always. Some days I struggled to find the motivation to continue our search. We had yet to find so much as a trace of Trust's presence. The only reason we searched at all was due to Summer and Yume's conviction. They were certain that Trust was here, and I had to trust their judgment blindly, as they had yet to offer any proof.

After searching for endless hours, we always came back to our base of operations. The others referred to the house we'd taken residence in as our home, but I could not bring myself to do the same. It wasn't my home. My home was in Japan. My home was the house that Mimi, Tentomon, Palmon and I lived in together. The house we stayed in here wasn't even _close_.

Takeru and Ken had stayed behind in the house, leaving Hikari and I to go collect the groceries from the grocers in town. Town wasn't the right word, exactly, to describe the single street of shops that existed here. There weren't very many establishments. There didn't _need_ to be. I was fairly certain we were the only ones that utilized any of the services they provided. We didn't need to eat, or sleep, or change our clothes. All of those we did out of habit, just as we washed ourselves, and breathed. We couldn't even refer to our outings as _shopping_ , because there was no exchange of goods for currency. There was no currency at all in this world, and there were no people that we could give our money _to_ , even if there was. These shops were a mere imitation of those we'd grown accustomed to on Earth, but that's all they were: imitations. They were taunting us with normalcy, but they didn't _quite_ fit the bill. It irritated me to no end.

I realized I was better off than the others were. I typically avoided contact with other humans as often as I could anyway, so the lack of workers in the shops didn't bother me in that regard, but I knew that Takeru in particular thrived off of human interaction. I wasn't about to wish any up for him though, because of how terribly our last encounter—thanks to the Boogeyman—had gone. I didn't want demonic imitations of our friends. That would do much more harm than it would good. I just wished there were more people in the Land of Dreams. Yume, Summer and Akumu—the Boogeyman—were the only others we could encounter, besides the ridiculous DigiGnomes that flocked around me anytime I came within sight of them. I supposed Trust was here somewhere too, but I'd yet to confirm that. There weren't nearly enough people around to keep up a healthy level of interaction. We could only spend so much time in each others' company.

We'd all almost reached our limit. I know I had. I could barely stand to be around Ken anymore. He was continuously shifting between emotions, and he had more bad days than good these days. I was irritated with Summer and Yume, because neither of them could actually locate Trust in order to send us in the right direction, but Summer was still keeping us trapped here just because she _knows_ he's here and she thinks we need him. We probably wouldn't, but there was no convincing her of that.

"Do you think Trust even _wants_ to be found?" I asked Hikari, trying to ignore the intense rays of the sun. She gave me a pointed look, and I knew she wasn't exactly being as hopeful as she liked to pretend. I sighed and looked away from her, looking to the cobbled streets beneath my feet. "I wonder if he'd even want to come with us when we find him. Are we just wasting our time? It's been two months now."

I wasn't any closer to finding a way home either, despite the two months I'd had to work on it. I focussed all of my energy on trying to locate the barrier Summer had told us of, thinking that I would get better results, but I hadn't made any headway. I'd been trying everything I could think of. I didn't _need_ to sleep in this world. The others all did, faithfully every night—partially I thought, to find sweet oblivion for even a few hours, an escape from our reality—but most nights I remained awake _long_ after they'd gone to bed. Some nights I never went to bed at all, trying to solve all of our problems. I couldn't help but feel like I was wasting my time, but I needed to be doing _something_.

"I don't know," Hikari said, shaking her head. "Maybe _Summer_ needed the extra time to forge the connection with the mystery world, and maybe sending us on a wild goose chase after Trust was just her way of giving us a purpose, rather than letting us sit around and mope all day, every day."

"That is a definite possibility," I agreed.

"Or maybe she's just a caring person, and is worried about Trust," Hikari added.

"She can't be _too_ caring, or she'd just get us out of here before we lose our minds," I muttered bitterly. The heat lifted off of my shoulders and I glanced up to see that the sun was now hidden behind thick, dark grey clouds. I looked to Hikari, and saw she was pressing the heel of her hands into her eyes, trying to get rid of the clouds that she'd inadvertently summoned. She'd been doing that a lot lately. She would let her mind wander down dangerous territory, and then the weather would reflect her inner turmoil. "Don't," I told her, reaching out to pull her hands away from her face. "It might be _good_ to let the bad feelings out. You can't just keep them locked up forever. A little rain never hurt anybody."

She looked hesitant, and a little afraid, but she nodded, forcing a smile on her face. It was off, but I didn't point it out. She already knew. She was always putting up a front—but that wasn't something she'd developed within the Land of Dreams. It was her default setting.

The clouds opened up, and rain poured down. It was cold, and heavy. We were drenched in minutes. My clothes stuck to me, and my shoes were filled with water, but the sun was gone, and I could handle the cold rain. It was a little disconcerting though, just how much rain there was. Hikari was keeping all of these negative emotions trapped inside. The rain didn't look like it would be ending any time soon.

The doors of the grocers opened automatically when we stepped in front of them, and we stepped into the air conditioned room. The cool air on my already cold skin left me shivering as I grabbed a cart. I didn't draw attention to it, and neither did Hikari, despite her chattering teeth. Neither of us bothered to wish away the air conditioning. It wasn't worth it. Other than the shivering, I was actually feeling rather relaxed, finally having got a glimpse of Hikari's true feelings. It was like I'd made an enormous discovery, but I couldn't find a use for my newly acquired knowledge.

We walked through the aisles, tossing various vegetables—which would never rot—into the cart: radishes, carrots, lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers, rutabagas, sweet peas. Hikari was constantly finding healthy options. We were still making up for the sugar binge Takeru had subjected us to on Hikari's birthday two weeks ago. I grabbed cans of lima beans and a bag of bean sprouts while Hikari debated over rice and quinoa, reaching towards the lentils instead.

"Want to try something different?" she asked, holding up a bag of the brown legumes. I looked away from them quickly, my mind flashing to Mimi's infamous lentil and octopus salad. She'd spent a week working out a recipe, and I'd had to taste each variation. I'd actually ended up growing accustomed to the flavour. "Maybe not," Hikari said quickly. I shook my head.

"Get it," I said. "It doesn't matter."

She didn't listen, and placed it back on the shelf, picking up pasta and rice instead. She didn't say anything about it. I was able to pretend I hadn't freaked out over a package of legumes. She wouldn't bring it up. She was very thoughtful that way, even in her current miserable state. She looked like a drowned rat, and her chattering teeth were louder than our squeaking shoes against the linoleum. I worried I'd made the wrong call about her feelings. Maybe she was happier when she was keeping them to herself. She was certainly warmer when she had been.

She wasn't alone in her misery. I was miserable too, it just wasn't quite as obvious as it was in any of the others—Takeru included. I knew I was emotionally stunted. I didn't feel things quite as often as the others, and sometimes it took a _long_ time for things to affect me—Gennai had been dead for six years before I started to feel it, after all—but that didn't mean I felt less deeply—probably. I didn't actually have any actual way of gauging our emotional depth in order to prove that hypothesis. But I _did_ miss everyone.

We continued moving through the aisles. Hikari started adding fruits and nuts to our collection, and I tossed in some milk and cheese. I had another episode in the canned goods aisle when I caught sight of a tin of anchovies. Suddenly I wasn't in the Land of Dreams. I was out on a picnic with the digidestined trying to eat a salad Mimi concocted out of lettuce, anchovies and mustard. It was disgusting. But she'd made it for me, so I tried to eat it. She'd given up though, and took me out for ice cream instead. It wasn't a date, but it had felt like one to me.

"You okay?" Hikari asked, pulling me back to reality.

"Yeah," I lied. "I just hate grocery shopping." It was always bringing forth memories that I'd rather stay suppressed. It was hard enough to keep moving forward when I was fairly confident all of my friends and family were dead, but having the reminders right in front of me made it harder for me to continue with my emotionally detached coping method. I could suppress a hell of a lot of emotion without even trying, I was quite adept at it. It was embarrassing that _food_ was my weak point. A bottle of carrot-pineapple smoothie reminded me of the vast array of smoothies I'd drank at Taichi's house, no matter how random the ingredients were—the beet-onion had been a personal favourite. The bakery section by the deli had a large display of cakes, cookies and squares. They all reminded me of my mother. She's baked every day of my childhood. No. She _still_ baked every day. There was something about the smell of chocolate cake that inexplicably brought up memories of her. Brussels sprouts reminded me of that time my father challenged me to see who could eat the most of them—despite his intense dislike for them.

Almost everything reminded me of some recipe Mimi had been excited to try out. I would remember the dish, and who won the fight between Tentomon and Palmon and had gotten to assist in its creation. I could remember Mimi curling into my side on the couch as we watched our favourite space adventure as she fed me ice cream out of her bowl, pretending she didn't like the walnuts just because they were my favourite.

I _hated_ the grocery store. I hated that it was the food that hit me. I could remain an emotionless robot anywhere outside of the grocery store or the kitchen.

I ran a hand over my face, trying to block the sudden influx of memories. Hikari silently reached out and slipped her icy cold fingers into mine, squeezing my hand. She _knew_ what was going on with me without me having to admit to it. It was both alarming and convenient. It was also the reason I _only_ went grocery shopping if Hikari was coming with me. I couldn't trust myself with Ken. He always ended up in a worse mood after being near me.

And Takeru was annoying me with his ever present positivity. I couldn't figure out where he summoned up enough energy to play the character he'd cast himself into. I didn't understand why he did it either. It was logical to be upset. It was understandable to be miserable in our situation that had so little hope. But he was irrationally happy all the time.

I wasn't a violent person, but there were days when I wanted nothing more than to punch his stupidly positive face. I didn't do it, more because I didn't want to give Hikari or Ken anymore reasons to worry, than out of any sympathy towards Takeru. One day though, I wouldn't be able to hold myself back.

She held my hand tightly until we reached the check-out counter, and had to pack our choices into bags ourselves, because there were no employees. It was strange to reach over the counter to get the bags, and it was stranger to leave without paying for anything. I carried two large paper bags filled with the vegetables, while Hikari carried the other staples—milk, bread, cheese, eggs and the like—in a third.

The air was warm when we left the store, and the sun was beating down on us again. I didn't know if that was a good sign, or if Hikari was merely suppressing herself again. I could _never_ tell, and it irritated me. I could catch glimpses in her weaker moments, but there were times when her mask was perfect, and she would seem happy. I didn't like that I always had to second guess myself.

My eyes never left the cobbled stones, as I kicked a stone, balancing a bag on each hip. I couldn't do it. There was only one thing aside from the food that got me. I couldn't look at the window of the clothing boutique, and I couldn't trust myself _not_ to look, without staring at my feet. It hadn't been an issue at first, but at some point someone—my bet was on Takeru—had wished that the mannequins would be wearing Sora's digimon themed creations. I couldn't look at them anymore. I couldn't risk the memories that would come with the sight of them.

I kept my eyes on the street until the cobblestones shifted into pavement. That signified the end of town and the start of the housing district—which was just a single street. There were no cars, but we walked along the sidewalk out of habit anyway. Either side of the street was lined with houses. They were jammed right next to one another, fifteen identical townhouses in a row. The street ended with a cul-de-sac where five individual houses branched off. We headed there, for the first house on the left. We would've lived in one of the town houses, since they were closer to everything, but they weren't big enough. The houses in the cul-de-sac had enough bedrooms that we could each have our own, so it was in one of them that we found our residence.

The town houses were all red brick buildings, with one large bay window on the lower floor, and stoops that led up to their white wooden doors. There were three smaller windows on the upper level, and white eaves toughs under their black shingled roofs. Our house was similar. It was larger, but it was made of red bricks, and had the same white trim, with the same black roof. There were two bay windows though, and a walkway that led up to the door, which was on ground level. There was a white picket fence around our yard of perfectly trimmed grass. Flower gardens housed various flowers that shouldn't be blooming at the same time.

There were times when I toyed with the idea of taking up another residence, one of the town houses perhaps, that I could call my own, just so I wouldn't need to be surrounded by so many conflicting emotions—Takeru's optimism, Hikari's misery, or worse, Ken's consistent shifting between the two—but I knew I couldn't do it. I would miss the noise too much. I lived with three other people for three years—and before that, there had been five. I wasn't used to being surrounded by silence until the dead of night. Mimi and Palmon were loud individuals, and Biyomon had been such a chatterbox. Even at work, I'd had the council and my research team. I thrived with noise. But it didn't seem that that was the case this time. I couldn't get anything done.

Hikari opened the white door, closing it behind me when I walked through with my hands full. We headed directly to the kitchen, and set our bags on the grey, marble counter by the stainless steel sink. The cupboards were white, and the walls were a buttery yellow. Ken was seated at one of the white chairs at the glass topped table, bent over a photo album that he'd wished up ages ago and only got out on his worse days. I suppressed a sigh, and started shoving the vegetables in the cupboards. Hikari bit her lip as she watched me. I knew I was distressing her. The others were insistent that things be done the way they had been done on Earth, but I didn't want to be around Ken on a bad day, and didn't particularly want to walk passed him to the white fridge on the other side of the room. I could stuff them in the oven, and they wouldn't go bad if we didn't want them to. It didn't matter where we put them.

But it mattered to Hikari. She took the mango out of my hand before I could stick in with Takeru's junk food collection, and gently pushed me back. I didn't protest. I risked getting near Ken in order to grab my laptop from the island in the middle of the room, and saw that he was looking through his wedding pictures—or the ones he's remembered enough to dream into existence. He was running his finger over the glossy photos, tracing over Miyako's stomach. He was dwelling on the baby again. It was something I "couldn't understand". I didn't want to listen to him lecture me about how I didn't know what it was like, that I couldn't begin to understand. I'd lost everyone too. I might not have lost a child, but I'd lost the chance of them. It wasn't the same, I knew that. But I was tired of his moping.

I grabbed my laptop, and headed out of the overly happy looking kitchen, and stepped into our more neutral hallway. I could hear Hikari telling Ken she would make tea, and knew that Ken didn't respond. He was too miserable to bother.

The kitchen looked happy, but the living room was obnoxious. It was obscenely bright. Each wall was a different colour—light pink, yellow, purple and magenta, for our crests—and there were bean bag chairs on the floor and a giant, fluffy blue couch. Takeru was the mastermind behind its design. He'd added dozens of picture frames of various sizes to the wall, each housing a photo of one of our friends, or a group shot. I made a point to sit with my back towards the yellow wall where they hung. I had seen Ken sit for hours, staring at the family shot of him, Miyako, Wormmon and Hawkmon. I didn't know if it was healthy to let him do it, but he was a grown man, and I wasn't in charge of him. He could make his own choices. Hikari did the same sometimes, when she thought no one was paying attention. I doubted either of the others had seen her, but I couldn't be sure.

I would've sank into a bean bag chair then too, so I could pointedly ignore Takeru's collection of reminders, but I stopped in the doorway, surprised to see that Takeru was playing host to two visitors. Summer and Yume were sharing the couch, with tea cups set upon the wooden coffee table—that Takeru had painted bright orange, _just_ so that it was a "happy" colour—and little heart shaped cookies on a white platter. Takeru himself was seated in a new, fluffy chair that matched the couch in all but colour. The chair was green. The exact shade of Mimi's crest, just like the table represented Taichi, and the couch was for Yamato. The bean bag chairs were turquoise for Miyako at Ken's request as well, except for one, which was a deep yellow, for Iori, who Takeru insisted was his brother, and therefore tremendously important to him. I glared at the new chair, and sat on one of the bean bag chairs, doing my best to ignore the loud conversation going on around me. They'd seen me, and I didn't want to offend them by walking away. They were the only way out of this world. I couldn't have them turning on me and leaving me behind if we ever found Trust and actually _got_ to escape.

It was harder than I'd have liked to ignore the conversation. I couldn't even type out more than a single word, before Yume's loud recollections became too loud to block out.

"I tell you, it was real superhero work," Yume was telling Takeru, who was just gobbling it up. "There was this one woman, who was—you know. I don't think I can actually tell you. Dreams should be kept private after all, and she never gave me permission to share this."

"Oh isn't that just so sweet?" Summer asked Takeru. "You're so thoughtful, Yume."

"I try," Yume said with a wink and a grin. Summer giggled. She _giggled_. It was nauseating. I wanted to gag, but I didn't, because it was childish. I also distinctly remembered a time when Jou, Michael and I all acted the same way towards Mimi. I was incredibly embarrassed about my past behaviour—especially if _this_ was what it looked like to an outsider. I glared at my computer screen, angry that I'd found another reminder that Mimi was gone. It was ticking me off. Couldn't I go through _one_ day without a reminder?

I couldn't help but wonder why she was here gossiping and flirting when she ought to be finding a way out of this world. Her relaxed persona made me jump to the conclusion that she'd already figured it out. I couldn't confirm this, but the idea of it was enough to make me even more irritated than before.

"Have either of you had any luck finding Trust?" Takeru asked. "We've been trying, but we just can't seem to find him."

"Alas, he keeps evading me," Yume said dramatically. I rolled my eyes and closed my laptop, knowing I wouldn't be getting any work done while they were here. I'd have to work all night to make up for the delay. I wasn't bothered by the idea. I was planning to do it anyway.

"We must truly believe in our chances of finding Trust, or else we will never be able to achieve our goal of having you escape the confines of this world," Summer said, making literally no sense whatsoever. It was like she was spouting nonsense. She had also basically confirmed that she _didn't_ know how to get us out yet, and was hanging out here instead of actively helping us. I glared at my laptop.

"How profound," Yume complimented. She was over the moon thanks to his attention.

I had enough, and placed my laptop of the coffee table, before pulling myself to my feet. "I'm going out," I told them, excusing myself from the room.

"You just got back," Takeru called out confused, as I passed the kitchen. I paid little attention to the silent duo seated at the table. Both Ken and Hikari looked miserable as they looked through the photo album together, brooding into their mugs of tea.

"I forgot something," I lied through gritted teeth. I opened the front door, and stepped through it.

"What?" he wanted to know. I ignored him, shutting the door behind me. I was far enough away that I could logically use the excuse that I hadn't heard him, but I didn't really care whether I'd offended him or not. He didn't seem to care whether or not someone _wanted_ him to force his opinions on them. He was an equal opportunist with his positivity.

The sun was still glaring down at me when I reached the road. That was another thing I didn't like about this world. The sun didn't _need_ to set. It was perfectly willing to stay high in the sky forever. I closed my eyes and envisioned the sky without it, putting the moon in its place. When I opened my eyes, a midnight sky and the moon were all I could see. I furrowed my brow and summoned up stars, to help fill out the large emptiness. The sky felt wrong without them.

I didn't walk far. I threw myself on the stoop of the nearest townhouse, and looked up at the sky. The townhouses were all empty, so the only lights came from the four streetlamps, and the windows from our house—which they probably hurried to turn on when the sun suddenly disappeared. I smiled at the thought as I searched through the vast collection of stars. I cleared my mind of every thought except the stars. It wasn't long before I located a number of constellations. Hydra was directly above the townhouse across the street, and Hercules and Pegasus were next to each other, to Hydra's left. Perseus and Orion were on either side of Cassiopeia.

That wasn't right.

I mentally berated myself. I'd wished up the stars, but I hadn't been specific enough. These constellations shouldn't be seen together. They couldn't all be seen at the same times of the year. I was angry with myself for ruining the authenticity of the sky. For a moment there I'd been able to pretend I was on Earth, back in my room as a child when I'd been absolutely fascinated by the stars. I'd mapped out all eighty-eight constellations, boring my mother with all of the facts and stories behind their names. I'd listed out the names of the stars themselves to my father, whenever he'd let me. That was before I'd ever met Taichi, Sora and Jou in soccer club, and long before I'd met Tentomon or the others. It was a simpler time. I didn't have any friends yet.

Shaking my head, trying to rid myself of the memory, I located the North Star. I stared at it, focussing entirely on the way it glistened, and started listing off all the stars I knew the names for, just to keep my mind thoroughly occupied.

"Mimi loves the stars," Takeru said. I was caught off guard. Both because I'd been too focussed to know Takeru was even there, and because I didn't know that about Mimi.

"She never said," I told him.

"Well, I used to have the biggest crush on her, so I kind of know a lot about her," Takeru admitted, sounding embarrassed. I sighed. I _didn't_ know much about her. It frustrated me, because I wasn't going to get the chance to learn any of it firsthand. If I wanted to know any of it, I'd have to ask Takeru, and he wouldn't tell me, because "You'll see Mimi soon enough, you can ask her yourself" or something equally irritating. I settled on just ignoring him again, hoping that he would take the hint and leave, but of course he didn't. "You could surprise her with a picnic under the stars when we get back," he suggested. "She'd love that."

"We don't do that stuff," I told him shortly.

"What, random acts of romance?" he asked sounding incredulous. I supposed that to him it must be a surprise that not everyone was as sickeningly sweet as he and Hikari were. I shook my head and he snorted. "That's dumb. You've been dating for ages. You _need_ to do something to keep the romance going. Surprise her with flowers at the very least."

"Cut flowers made Palmon cry," I said, angry that he was making me talk about them—and that he insisted on using present tense, when he _knew_ I thought they were dead. It was irritating, but it shouldn't have surprised me. He was _always_ doing that.

It also felt like he was belittling mine and Mimi's relationship just because we didn't act the way he and Hikari did. So what if the most romantic thing we did for each other wasn't spontaneous. Mimi made me one of my favourite meals once a week and I did her finance reports. That was romantic, wasn't it?

I sighed. It really wasn't.

"You've got to put effort into it if you want it to work," Takeru told me. My relationship was longer than any of his ever had been. I figured we'd been doing pretty well, until the virus came. "It's not going to work on its own. I'd be happy to help you with ideas. I've got a lot of them."

"There's no point," I told him firmly. "Mimi's gone."

Takeru's face scrunched up and he opened his mouth to spew out some pointlessly optimistic words that wouldn't trick me into changing my mind. I glared at him, and simply said "Don't." He closed his mouth, but he didn't look happy about it. He stood there, awkwardly for a few minutes, probably waiting for me to cry or something—anything to prove I'm not a robot—but I wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. I turned away from him and resumed cataloguing the stars.

 _ **Willis Kennedy:**_

"Well that just sounds lazy to me," Terra said as her dark hair blew gently in the breeze that cooled the night. I rubbed my hands together to warm them, but decided to shove them in my pockets instead. I was never a fan of cold weather, and nothing good ever happened in the colder months of the year, so shivering now didn't make me excited about the prospect of my walk with Terra. The moon was enormous tonight, and took up a giant portion of the sky, but looked as though it were rising from the ground. I couldn't help but stare out at the water where there were dark stone towers emerging from the depths, standing tall and blocking out some of the moonlight that shone and sparkled along the water's surface. No matter how cold it got, it would never stop being beautiful here.

In the distance I could hear the chants and screams from 'The Wizards' who were having another one of their 'special bonfire nights' that happened every few days. I didn't see how something could be special if they did it so often, but who was I to judge? Their supposed 'enemy' that's who.

"I don't think it's about laziness," I said, kicking a crushed pop can out of my way as I walked along the dirt that made up the beach we were walking on. There were massive mounds of junk on our other side, and for some reason the people of this world were all interested in crap like that. Some of it was kind of fun I supposed, like I could see a jack-in-the-box, but it was clearly broken, just like everything else in the piles. "They just can't cut down the trees."

"I know that," Terra said kindly, stopping in place while I moved around her. She had apparently found something that caught her eye in the piles of crap. She hoisted her skirt up over her knees and set off, climbing up the pile, somehow keeping even footing even when the items under her feet shifted and slid down. She reached down and picked up a long copper pipe. She turned it over in her hands a couple times and then hopped off of the pile. "This might come in use," she told me. "Anyway, I know they are not permitted to cut the trees. Gravimon simply won't allow that. It is his home after all, and not only his either. You must be aware by now that there are more residents to this world than simply those to which you and your friends have acquainted yourselves with." That made sense, but I'd never really gone into the woods to see any others. Just during the first night when we had been searching for firewood. The cave we resided in was just on the outskirts of the forest, and I'd never seen anyone inside. "But there are other ways to expand their land."

That was the problem; there wasn't anywhere else to expand. There were too many 'Fallen Angels' to reside in the church grounds, and so they desperately needed more space. It had been a long time coming too, and it seemed that they could not come up with any other ideas, unlike Terra who seemed to have a couple buzzing about in her head.

"Instead of expanding," she said thoughtfully. "They could simply move. I know of a very nice place over by the Western Shores, and that way they won't be close to their enemies." It seemed like a good idea in theory, but I knew the others well enough to know that they would never pack up and leave their home. I wouldn't even bother suggesting such impractical ideas to them. I knew what it was like to be far away from a place you had known as home for so long.

There was a welsh word that had no direct English translation. 'Hiraeth'. It meant to have a deep longing for a home that you cannot return to. It was a feeling one would feel if their home no longer existed, or perhaps never did. It couldn't be confused with mere homesickness though, because it was much deeper than that.

That's what I felt. I had a connection, not to my country as the word would usually refer to, but to my _dimension_. I wanted to feel the way the sun felt on my skin because no matter how beautiful the moon in this world was, floating up there in the crystal clear sky, I could never personally feel right again unless I had Earth's basic rituals thrust upon me once more. Rituals like a sun that rose every day, or peeing in a bathroom that held a working, flushing toilet.

"I guess," I agreed absentmindedly, kicking the can as I caught up to it once more. Terra stopped once more and leaned forward to examine something she might have seen amongst the junk but she decided it wasn't of any importance. "So what are we doing here?" I asked as she began walking ahead again, her bare feet twisting in the dirt as if she could not get enough of the feeling of the dirt between her toes.

Terra looked over her shoulder to me and her eyes twinkled again as she smiled. She was beautiful, really. Her dark skin was the clearest and most beautiful I had ever seen, and the way she moved was like she could not stop dancing gracefully. I had always been too afraid to ask how old she was, but she didn't seem any older than myself, and that confused me. She and the others claimed they had all been here for a very long time. "Every month the waters here in the East wash up many more lost items." She looked ahead of herself again and her hair blew back toward me as the wind picked up. I pushed my hands further in my pockets and hurried to keep up with her. "That's why we call it the 'Discover-shore' you see."

"Yeah, but it's mostly junk," I said, shrugging my shoulders as I let my eyes scan the piles again. "That's probably why it's lost." I just couldn't imagine Terra putting any of these things in her Garden. It was such a calming and beautifully clean place it just seemed ridiculous to imagine her putting even that copper pipe in her petunia patch.

Terra nodded in agreement, and then stuck her copper rod out to poke at a soggy cardboard box. It fell apart as if it were made of complete mush and there was nothing inside. Terra looked upset and kept walking. "Usually that is the case, Willis," she agreed. "But this time I know something interesting has turned up."

"How can you know that?" I asked.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "I just do."

"What is it?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders and kept walking. "If I find it, I'll be sure to bring it to you."

"I would imagine so," Terra said with a wide smile. "Everyone always does. It has become a sort of rule around here that any new finds be brought to me." I knew that, she'd already told me. Everyone had told me. Anything interesting or new needed to be brought to her attention. If we didn't show her all of our new finds then we would never know if it could be used to help us escape the world. Terra was the only one who knew things from all points of view. She travelled the entire continent gathering information from all that she encountered. If anyone could figure out how to escape, she sure could. "So how is Rei doing?" Terra asked. "I'm sorry that the chair didn't work out."

Terra had created a wheelchair out of wood and vines, for Rei, and even though it looked _incredibly_ cool and enchanted, it served no practical purpose outside of Masks Square, because the wheels simply weren't strong enough to carry her along the uneven ground of the world. "She's alright," I said passively. "She's really caught up in this book right now, so she hasn't left home in a couple days."

"I noticed," Terra said, pressing her finger to her lips as she thought. "I haven't spoken with her lately. I do miss it."

"I'll tell her," I smiled.

"So what is this captivating novel about?" Terra asked.

I faltered, Rei had been telling me about it last night, I knew there was a complicated web of characters and plots, but I had been too tired to pick most of it up, I did however remember the basics. "It's about World War II and the holocaust."

"The _what_?" Terra asked, completely confused. "Pardon me?"

"It's just about our world's history," I explained awkwardly. I sometimes forgot that Earth was an entirely different field of existence, not everyone here—or anyone really—could know what had happened in the past.

"Tell me about it," Terra requested softly.

"It's not a very nice story..." I admitted quietly as I kept up with her quick pace.

She seemed upset by this. "Well, tell me about your own life," she offered. "Tell me something positive. There is no reason to ruin the mood of this fine stroll along the beach. Tell me something good."

There were a lot of good points in my life, and I couldn't pick just one, so I started on a long rant about my life, starting with my mother. She was the strongest person I had ever met. She _was_. Until she gave in to temptation and allowed her true self to fall to pieces amongst the relief of removing her stress. She went a little dark for a while, and I nearly casted her aside from my life completely, but she pulled together and she was back to her old self. I missed her a lot though. I told Terra about Terriermon and Lopmon and about how I was given them in the darkest parts of my childhood. I told her how they helped me grow and keep strong and helped me stand up to my bullies and opponents. They tried to stop me from creating Diaboromon, but I didn't listen. That all ended up alright though, until Lopmon felt the loss of Alice and allowed her entire makeup to shift into a virus format. We did visit Alice though, and Terra seemed to adore that part of the story, even shedding a single tear near the end. I told her how my family had been expanding for so long, gradually but surely I had a tight knit group of people I could trust with my life, and hopefully Kiyoko and Rei could join them. And I tried to bring up Mari too, but it didn't seem appropriate, like somehow I knew I could never find the right words to say what I needed to.

"Your life is filled with love," Terra noted when I'd finished telling her about Jenna and Michael. "I wish I had more who I could love here. All those who live around these parts are untrustworthy. I must keep my eyes peeled at all times." I understood what that was like. I did spend every day with dark digimon.

"Well, what was your life like before you got here?" I asked her.

Terra looked to me as if she had never been asked such a personal and meaningful question and she sighed, looking to her feet. "Not particularly happy. Not like yours," her voice was quiet when she spoke as if she were afraid someone from her past might be listening to her talk ill of them. "I had no real family. I grew up all alone."

"Where?" I asked, curious but not sure how to react to her short but sad story. "What world is your home?"

"Well, this one of course," Terra said, perking up again. "At first I could not find peace with this new land, but I have grown to love the way the moon lights up the sky, and the way everyone thrives on excitement or passion. I have found a place where I belong and I can feel love for myself. This is my home, and nowhere else." That could not have been any more positive if she had tried. I was sure of it. "Now hurry along," she said quickly. "We must reach the end of the shore before anyone else arrives."

"Why are you in such a hurry?"

"I do not know what item has fallen into this land," Terra responded. "But I know I need it. I don't know how I know, but I _know_ , and so I must find it before anyone else takes it to the dump." The dump was a place people avoided on most occasions because it smelled like actual crap, and it was, well it was a dump. I could understand why Terra wanted to avoid the dump, but either way, she would find what she was looking for. "Have you visited the dump?"

"No," I admitted. "Walked past it once, why?"

"Well there is this horrible spirit who lives there," she explained. "He takes what he wants and is violent towards those who wander too far inside. He lives there and guards what is brought to him."

"That's why you don't want to go to the dump," I realized. I then pulled my hands from my pockets and clapped them together. "Okay, so let's find this—whatever it is." Just when Terra looked excited that we would be more focused on finding her new item, someone arrived at the top of the grassy slope just beyond the pile of junk. Astamon. I narrowed my eyes in his direction. The two of us didn't get along well for no particular reason other than the fact that he was bossy, snooty and rude, and that my incredible personality was too powerful for him to fully understand. Astamon stood in his pinstripe suit, looking down at the two of us. He was leaning against the long black gun that he held in his left hand and his robes and wings were blowing gently in the wind. "It's you."

"It is I," Astamon said, mocking me childishly. Terra waved her hand in his direction to get him to stop talking. Astamon straightened his postured and adjusted his suit before addressing Terra. "My Lady," he said bowing gently causing Terra to purse her lips in mild frustration at his cordial behaviour. "The two clans are at it again."

Terra let out a sharp breath and put her hands on her hips. "Can they not get along for just one _day_?" she questioned seriously. Astamon shook his head apologetically. "Could you sort out the argument, Astamon? I am a little busy just now."

Astamon's apologetic look did not falter, "I have already attempted it, My Lady... They would not listen to reason. I fear only you could put an end to this particular dispute." Terra looked to the remaining stretch of junk and looked sad.

"Don't worry," I assured her. "I'll look through it and find whatever you're looking for."

"The chances of you finding anything are slim," Astamon pointed out in his drawling and yet crisp voice.

"That's one hundred percent untrue," I snapped back. "I could find something in a second flat."

"Nothing useful," Astamon snarled.

"I beg to differ."

"Boys, please," Terra sighed, shaking her head in bewilderment. "Do boys never get along? This place simply needs more women. Please stop arguing for a moment."

"Yes, My Lady," Astamon bowed his head.

"I'm not arguing," I said flatly. "I was simply explaining why I was correct." Astamon looked like he wanted to bite my head off but Terra put an end to that quickly by leaping into the pile of junk and reaching up to her companion who was then forced to help her up to where he stood.

When Terra was up on the hill with Astamon she straightened her skirt out and brushed some grime that she had picked up from the pile off of her leg and then turned to look down to me. "Willis," She said. "If you could keep looking that would be wonderful, but do not worry if you cannot find it. I'm sure it will turn up eventually."

"Everything will be run by you eventually anyway," I agreed.

"Right," she smiled positively before turning and telling Astamon to guide her to the dispute. I began wondering if perhaps Kiyoko was involved in the argument. I strongly doubted that he would have stayed with Rei because he constantly found himself as restless as I did, always wanting to get out and do something else. I hoped he had spent the day with Gravimon though, because if Terra was needed to end one of the arguments I knew it had become physical, and I didn't want Kiyoko caught up in that mess.

I spent the next few minutes scanning the piles of junk. I was sure I wouldn't have to look hard; whatever Terra wanted surely would have to jump out at me. Not necessarily _literally_ —hopefully not in fact, but I was sure that whatever it was would have to catch my eye. And if it didn't, then eventually it would be shown to her. Everything here would have to be shown to her.

When I was finally nearing the end of the pile I heard something moving from underneath. I paused and wondered if what Terra wanted was perhaps not a _object_ but rather a living creature. I stared toward a pile of tattered clothing and watched as it rose and fell as something underneath as if it were breathing. There was a choked cough and a clash of metal and I suddenly found myself rather nervous.

I moved forward and tried to be brave as I pulled the clothes from the pile.

My first reaction was to scream, but I held it back, understanding how rude it might be. The creature I was staring at was a bluish purple colour with stitches across its face and arms. Instead of eyes there were two thick silver strings crossing one another into an 'x' shape. There were two small blades sticking from his head, and strange grey cords making up his ears. There was another one attached to a mask that was in place of his mouth that strung down and connected his mouth to a small heart shaped patch on his chest. And of course, to make it worse there were sharp blades protruding from each of his limbs. There was a small porcelain doll in his hands as he looked toward me, curious. I couldn't have imagined anything more terrifying if I had to.

"Hello!" a muted, almost stifled, but excited voice rang out. I didn't respond. I couldn't find a way to form words as I stared into the beady eyes of the broken faced doll in his hand. "Is this your doll?" The digimon held the doll out for me to take and I shook my head nervously. "Can I keep it, do you think?"

"S-sure," I nodded, "I can't see why not."

The digimon hummed excitedly and held the doll close to his chest adoringly. "I haven't ever seen a human around here," the digimon pointed out when he was done hugging his new friend.

His words seemed to diminish most of the fear that had built up, but I was still caught up—entirely disrespectfully, I could admit—in his disturbing appearance. "B-but you _have_ seen one before?"

"Sure, sure," the digimon nodded. "A while ago. She was cuter than you are though. Smaller, more talkative too. And she didn't stare at me with as much fear in her eyes." I froze and the digimon laughed, but his laugh had to be creepy too of course. I tried to apologize, but my words came out in mostly a stammering sort of foolishness. "It's okay," the digimon assured me. "I don't mind. I'm Porcupamon."

"Oh," I said, nodding calmly. "I'm Willis."

"That's a weird name," Porcupamon said thoughtfully. "My other human had a prettier name than you too."

"Yeah?" I asked, more amused now than I was afraid. "And what might that have been?"

"Kurayami," Porcupamon informed me. I stared at him in total disbelief. It did not seem likely that he had met the _same_ Kurayami. It couldn't be possible even, and yet somehow it seemed even more unlikely that a small girl had come in contact with digimon, named Kurayami and didn't find fear in the mangled creature that lay before me if it hadn't been the same one. "She helped me get here too. What a nice girl."

"Yeah, she is nice," I told him, still shocked. "I think I know who you're talking about."

"Do you really?" Porcupamon said nervously. "She's okay then? Fanglongmon didn't keep her?"

I didn't know what the correct answer was, because telling him the whole story—even what little I knew, seemed like a bad idea, so I simply shrugged and said. "She's fine," and Porcupamon seemed to be content with that. "So hey," I said awkwardly. "Do you spend a lot of time in the trash?"

"Sure, yeah," Porcupamon nodded.

I smiled, hopefully he could help me then. "Have you found anything unusual that might be able to get us out of this world?"

"Why would you want to leave?" Porcupamon asked in exasperation, but upon seeing my serious expression he sighed, understanding that not everyone must love it here as much as he did. "Well no, I haven't. What might I be looking for?" I realized then that this plan was a dud before it had even begun because I could not answer that question. I had no idea what I was looking for, so how could I ask anyone for help. "Right," Porcupamon said, correctly reading my expression. He then pulled himself out of the trash and revealed that he was maybe as tall as my waist. He was holding his doll under his left arm, and then used his right one to pull a large dirty blue backpack over his shoulder. It seemed to be filled to its maximum capacity with junk. "I should be going home then."

"I'll walk with you," I decided, realizing I had no chance of finding what Terra was seeking. Porcupamon seemed excited to have the company and eagerly clambered up the hill using all four limbs as he crawled. I watched him struggle and then jump with excitement when he had reached the top. I followed him up and then the two of us set off. "So where do you live?"

"The best place in the whole wide world," Porcupamon said with more excitement. He was apparently _very_ fond of this world. "It's my home and it's not yours." It was the equivalent of talking to a four year old, really. It was as if he understood what I was saying to him for the most part, but everything sort of dissipated when it tried to register inside his brain. He giggled pointlessly at random things, like the shape of a rock we passed, but he was also trying to remain very serious.

It became very clear where Porcupamon lived when the stench of rotting flesh filled the air. Sure, I was exaggerating, but the dump was not a very nice place to hang out. Porcupamon, who seemed to breath air straight from his own heart, seemed to disagree. I supposed it fit with his obsession with random broken items. "Well, this is me!" he said brightly. "Thanks for walking me home. You're my best friend now."

"Am I?" I asked with a grin.

"Sure," Porcupamon said happily. "I'll see you some other time!" And then he was running through the wooden arch that connected itself to the cedar rail fence that kept the piles of crap contained inside. I watched as Porcupamon tried to climb the piles but failed three times so he gave up and began digging a whole straight through the middle. I smirked and turned to leave, but something caught my eye.

I froze. Standing atop the tallest pile, near the middle of the dump there was a hooded figure standing, staring directly toward me. Probably. The hood was pulled too low for me to see anything underneath, but the body was facing my way and that was enough to send me running.

That must have been the spirit of the dump that Terra had mentioned earlier. I didn't stop running until I was sure that there was no chance of the spirit catching up with me. So I didn't stop until I was _home_. I wasn't going to risk that. That thing was creepy, and I certainly didn't want to deal with it, not while alone in a world that was perpetually night time and filled with dead people. And fish.

I caught sight of more of the fish as I crossed over the bone bridge on the way home. I still couldn't believe that the people of this world _ate_ them. They were fleshy and rotting in their living state, chunks of their flesh was missing and their bones stuck out at odd angles. They were literally the most disgusting creatures I had ever seen and what was worse, was that more than once I had seen someone eat one of them. Raw and alive.

I shuddered.

Soon enough I was home though, home sweet home. Or I wish it had been anyway.

Instead of a comforting welcome I walked into an argument. Outside the cave door, which was propped open, Kiyoko was standing, his arms crossed as Phelesmon, one of the 'Fallen Angels' was shouting at him. "As if someone as dumb as you are would understand!" he was shouting. "Your whole team is wrong and selfish! I cannot believe you could come into the middle of a war and pick _their_ side!" he then caught sight of me and pointed. "This idiot understands. He picked us!"

"And just because you feel this way, that means you're correct," Kiyoko surmised calmly. "Yeah, that makes sense. You couldn't possibly be wrong. All of the other digimon have opinions too, but they shouldn't matter because bossy, prissy Phelesmon here calls all the shots."

Phelesmon looked like he was about to rip Kiyoko's head off and I was kind of afraid that he might do just that, so I jumped forward and stood between them. "Phelesmon, go home." He looked thoroughly betrayed, but I threw my hands up in surrender. "I'll talk to him!" I assured him. "Just go." Phelesmon took one last hate filled glance at Kiyoko and then turned, storming off in the other direction.

I looked to Kiyoko who ran his hand through his hair irritably before turning to the cave. "I don't care what you have to say, Willis. I've been arguing all day with your annoying little group of demons, and I've heard everything they have to say."

"Is this about the land dispute?" I asked as Kiyoko sat down on the rock at the other end of the cave, preparing his computer. He looked up and nodded briefly. "Well it's just that the 'Fallen Angels' need more land to fit their people. 'The Wizards' have enough room to double their numbers."

"And they were here _first_ ," Kiyoko assured him. "The land is called Witchenly for a reason, Willis. Otherwise we'd call it Demonly, and that's terrifying. The demons came along after and now they want to take over land that doesn't even belong to them and I'm not going to stand for it." He then slammed his finger down on his keyboard and I knew he had Masks Square ready. We couldn't continue the argument inside because Rei would never allow it. It was probably for the better because sometimes, like now, Kiyoko found himself too caught up in the affairs of this world. I was sure I did too, but I couldn't see it.

"You're right," I agreed pointlessly. "I'm sure there's another way to get more land." Kiyoko seemed to agree and he calmed a little. "Like maybe your guys could just hand over _some_ land." Kiyoko's eyes seemed to fill with rage as the light engulfed us. The light faded slightly, but mostly just filled in with random swirls of disgusting colours and we were standing on the invisible floor of Masks Square near the 'kitchen' where a table was set up.

Kiyoko slammed his computer on the table and grabbed the charging cord that he always left there, plugging the computer in to charge it for the night. "That won't work, it's not fair," Kiyoko said bitterly.

"You're home?" Rei's voice called out immediately from wherever it was she had decided to stay.

Kiyoko and I looked to each other as if silently asking if we had to take this back outside, but Kiyoko finally broke eye contact, looking away. "Yeah, we're here," I called back to her. "Do you need anything?"

"Nope, I'm alright!" Rei responded.

Kiyoko and I stood in silence for a moment, not looking to each other and then Kiyoko took a deep breath. "Look, it doesn't matter anyway," Kiyoko decided, letting his anger subside. "Apparently whenever disputes get too violent, Terra takes over. There's this competition being held tomorrow. I guess whoever wins, gets their choice over the land."

"That seems like a horrible idea..." I said quietly.

"At least we agree on something," Kiyoko said, scooping up a water bottle and turning to head back over to Rei, plastering a smile on his face.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Kari and Kiyoko find themselves collectively Haunted in different parts of the worlds.


	35. Haunted

**Y/N:** Kiyoko is always fun to write, and he had an especially fun world to explore, and he had a bit of a whimsical plot to deal with as well. It was really fun, and I liked it a lot. He's going to be doing some personal growing in these few short chapters. But he's still going to be him, underneath it all. It's really nice to finally get a chance to really explore his character, now that the rest of Alias III has been stripped away.

 **U/N:** Yay Kari :D I mean not exactly a happy chapter, you can tell by the title probably, but at the same time it's... well it was happy for me, because for 03, 04 and 05 we had Kari's development moving so slowly, because we never found a chance to put focus on it, but here we did and it's actually time for her to like shift and grow and yay :D She might even start thinking about her own life in her in-head narrative finally.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Land of Dreams and Witchenly**

 **Chapter 35: Haunted**

 _ **Kiyoko Izumi:**_

Gravimon and I were on our way to the dump. I'd never been there before, but Gravimon knew of it, so I let him take the lead so I didn't get us lost. We'd been instructed by Zanbamon to meet there before the Fallen Angels arrived, but I knew that it was a hopeless cause. Phelesmon flew around spying on the Wizards all the time, so chances were that the Fallen Angels would arrive first. Willis had been gone for an hour before I left this morning, so the chances were actually fairly high.

When we'd learned that _Terra_ had been brought in to settle the disputes, we'd been told that we would have to partake in a challenge. The winner would get the land. It was stupid and it wasn't fair. The land belonged to the Wizards. The Fallen Angels could go anywhere they wanted. They didn't _have_ to stay in their creepy, broken old church. Witchenly was huge. There _had_ to be space for them somewhere. They didn't _have_ to take my new friends' homes. But _Terra_ thought it would be the best and fairest way to reach a decision.

But what if _I_ was enough for Terra to choose the Fallen Angels instead of the Witches?

It was a fear that kept me awake long into the night. I didn't like her and I didn't make a secret out of it. None of my fellow Wizards overly _cared_ about my opinions. They didn't ostracize me because of them at least. But they also didn't understand them. The Wizards, just like everyone else in this entire world, were enamoured by Terra. But I wasn't, and I was worried that maybe Terra would hold that against the Wizards.

But she wouldn't. I knew that logically. She was a kind and generous woman that had suffered greatly, and lived in Witchenly now, trying valiantly to keep the peace. I couldn't find an actual fault in her. I couldn't find a reason to _not_ like her, other than the fact that she was _too_ likeable. I didn't trust that. I couldn't understand _why_ though. Thinking about her too long gave me a headache. I didn't even _want_ to understand my dislike of her. I didn't care why I didn't like her; I just wanted to keep on doing it.

No one could tell me what this challenge she'd planned was going to be. I didn't like that she was keeping it a secret either. I wasn't good a challenges if I couldn't cheat to win them—which was actually probably the reason she was keeping it to herself. Witchenly was full of people that were willing to do just about _anything_ to win.

I'd invited _Gravimon_ to participate on the side of the Wizards for goodness sake. All the digimon were terrified of him. Going to see him was my initiation for joining the Wizards. I'd impressed them by coming back with a smile. It felt good to confront that fear—after I'd done it anyway. The woods had been so dark, the moon was far from full, and the dead trees all looked like evil spirits looming over me. I kept my eyes closed and focussed entirely on humming a happy tune, trying to block out all of the creepy sounds that created this world's natural soundtrack. I'd actually met Gravimon when he'd saved me from falling off a cliff. He berated me for my stupidity whilst keeping this aloof demeanor about him that claimed he didn't really care that I was still alive, he'd only saved me because he was bored. It was perfect, exactly what I needed to find any sort of happiness in my life now. I needed him. He kept Hideto, Mari and Neo in the forefront of my mind, but he also wasn't exactly like them. He reminded me of them, but wasn't a replacement.

It was one of the healthier choices I'd made for my mental and emotional health. I was pretty proud of myself on that front. And Gravimon was actually one of the most amazing digimon I'd ever gotten to know. He let me float around in zero gravity whenever I was feeling sad, just so I didn't "fill the air with whiny, annoying tears".

So, maybe I was cheating by bringing the most feared digimon in Witchenly—that we knew of at least—to participate in a mystery challenge. But I wanted to win. It was so important to me that we win. I knew Willis cared a lot about the Fallen Angel's home situation, but he also didn't associate himself with the Fallen Angels to the extent that I did with the Wizards. I'd found a group of people that accepted me even more readily than Alias III had. They'd become a family to me—a family I'd never truly had. And I didn't want them to lose their homes just because Terra thought it would be nice if we played a game together and gave their property—their _homes_ —to the winner.

I took a deep breath, kicking a broken branch that had fallen off of a dead tree. Gravimon looked down sharply after I did and I apologized. The forest was _his_ domain. He was the King of the Woods, according to the Wizards. He protected the woods with a ruthless determination. It was how he became the most feared digimon in the first place. He didn't want anyone harming his dead trees. I could understand that. I'd joined the fight against DWD voluntarily. They were fighting against something I'd protect with my life. I'd broken into a high security government building and stolen supplies from every store within reasonable distance for that cause—and for Alias III's personal pleasure, which was coming in handy a lot now that we'd been trapped in Witchenly indefinitely.

The supplies were actually lasting a lot longer than I'd initially predicted. Rei and Willis weren't eating any of the food or drinking any of the water. I was the only one using any of it. The others were only eating and drinking whatever Terra provided for them. They said it was because the food and drinks were delicious, like drinking pure happiness that tasted clean and pure and healthy. I didn't _care_ how healthy her food was, I wasn't about to eat anything she gave me. One of the only good things my parents actually taught me was to _not_ take candy from strangers. And yes, I'd lived on the streets for years and ate literal garbage because Sigma had decided it was enough nourishment for my body. But I'd _never_ taken candy from strangers.

Allowing Neo to offer Hideto's home for me and Sigma to live in _didn't_ count, even if we _did_ eat his food.

Hideto and Neo never made me as anxious and nervous as Terra did. I'd trusted them almost immediately, which should _actually_ be a point in Terra's favour, because Neo was only interested in us because we could help him destroy the Digital World—Sigma was another point in her favour, actually. I didn't usually have a very good sense of judgement. My instincts were off. I'd heard Sigma talk for a grand total of half a minute before I let him take control of my body—which he continued to do for _nine_ years. In contrast, everything about Terra told me it was safe to trust her. She was everything Sigma wasn't—everything Neo, Hideto and Mari weren't even—but I could not find it in me to trust her.

"You're quiet," Gravimon noted. He didn't exactly prompt me to speak, but I could read between the lines. He was done with silence. He could get that in his forest. I smiled to myself. He was good for me. He gave me confidence to confront the other digimon in this world. They had to be the scariest assortment of digimon I'd ever seen, but Gravimon, with his giant stature and his frightening demeanor was the biggest and scariest of the lot of them. And he was in my corner. I was always safe when I was with him, so I felt more inclined to take risks. His hands were about my size, and he dragged them along the ground, since his crooked arms were so long. He wore a mask that really ought to have made me more wary, but I actually found it comforting—it reminded me of Piedmon, but it was a lot creepier than Piedmon's mask was—and he had this billowy, black cloud of smoke that I was at least partially sure was his actual hair. He was really scary, but I didn't even notice that anymore. And because of my confidence with Gravimon, I was able to talk to Zanbamon and the other Wizards without fear. Not everything that _looked_ scary really was.

Theoretically, I should've known not to judge a book by its cover, but I'd done it with all the digimon I'd ever met—and almost all of the humans too.

I was a bit of a baby—maybe more than a bit—when it came to my fears, but slowly but surely, Gravimon was helping me overcome some of them. I was still afraid of the dark, but Gravimon always made sure to take me out when the moon was full, and the Wizards invited me to all of the bonfires—which had scared me to death the first night we'd arrived, but were actually tons of fun now. There would probably always be things I was afraid of, and I knew I couldn't expect miracles in such a short time—two months wasn't that long in the grand scheme of things—but I felt _good_ being in Witchenly. I wished I could share all of my progress with Alias III, but I couldn't. They weren't here with me. Willis and Rei had complete faith in Terra, and fully believed she would be able to get us out of here. I was far more skeptical. If she'd been here as long as everyone claimed, she _should_ have been able to get out ages ago.

Maybe I was just a little _too_ adamant about not wanting to be around her...

"Willis and I fought last night," I told him quietly, not liking to admit it out loud. Rei and Willis were the only connection I had to Earth left. I didn't like fighting with either of them. But they were too devoted to Terra and it was causing a rift between us. I'd felt it coming the moment Willis met Terra, but I didn't want to believe it. I wanted to fix it before it became an issue, but I just couldn't trust her. I tried really hard. I'd almost even drunk some juice once—but that was the last time I went to Terra's garden at all. It just felt wrong somehow. Rei warmed up to her though, nearly as quickly as Willis had. I didn't like that. She was an honorary member of Alias III, and I wanted to keep her to myself, but she spent nearly every day with Terra now. And she couldn't find it in herself to warm up to Gravimon either. She didn't like to be around him, which I thought was dumb, because Gravimon was my favourite digimon in this world—and only came in behind Tapirmon, Warg and Melga in the others. He was top notch, and she couldn't see it.

But maybe it was because Gravimon reminded her too much of Neo. Maybe she wasn't as happy about that fact as I was. She missed Mari and Neo and Hideto as much as I did. I knew that. And Gravimon was kind of like them. Maybe to her, it was like rubbing salt in an open wound.

"Oh?" Gravimon asked nonchalantly. I smiled again. He was so perceptive. He knew I didn't want to be treated like a brainless child—something the Fallen Angels would _never_ pick up on I was sure. He may be cold and distant at times, and he didn't like to openly do nice things—because he was secretly a softy—but he understood me, and that was all I'd ever asked.

"It was bad," I admitted. "We didn't leave it outside. That's the first time since Rei implemented the rule that we failed to follow it. And when we _did_ stop fighting inside, it was only because Rei was there. But we couldn't talk at all after, because we knew we'd just fight again if we did. I didn't have anything pleasant to say at least."

"Pleasantries are overrated," Gravimon assured me.

"Maybe," I sighed. "I worked on my speech for Hideto instead, but I don't think I can use any of the additions I made. They turned into rants about how stupid Willis is being, and they don't really have any place in my declaration of love, you know?"

"I do _not_ know," Gravimon corrected me. I flushed, embarrassed. "I'm a digimon that thrives on scaring others away."

"I know," I told him. "I like that about you actually."

Gravimon sort of smiled at me. It wasn't a full smile—I didn't know if he was capable of those—but it was nice in any case. We talked a little, speculating about what the stupid challenge would be, and he asked me to tell him more about Earth, so I tried to explain grocery stores and movie theatres to him. He was impressed, and I felt sort of humbled, realizing that those ordinary Earth locations would never have an equivalent in this world. I made a mental note to take Gravimon home with me some night so we could watch a movie on my computer. He needed to experience one. They were amazing. I hadn't gotten to really watch them until I'd moved in with Hideto—and even then it was only whenever Sigma didn't have plans. My parents were rather overbearing and controlling. They didn't want me to waste my mind on such drivel.

Gravimon held his hand out and I ran into it, not expecting it. I stumbled backwards and he caught me with his gravity manipulation, lifting me back onto my feet before dropping me back onto the ground. I thanked him, and peeked around his hand. We'd made it to the dump. It looked just as its name implied. There were mountains of junk and a smell that nearly knocked me off my feet with its potency. He let me walk around him and go in first. I tried to keep the entirely disgusted look off my face, but I wasn't successful in the slightest.

"That's unacceptable!" Phelesmon sneered at me, looking at Gravimon. Phelesmon was my least favourite of the Fallen Angels. He followed me around a lot, thinking that I was the weak link in the Wizards' armor. But I wasn't. I knew what it was like to be forcibly removed from my home—its happened four times now (first when my parents threw me out, then when Alias III's landlord kicked us out, and then the DWD locked us out of Earth, and finally the virus leading us to Witchenly)—and I wasn't about to let that happen to any of my new friends. It wasn't fair to ask that of them. They were here first. For all anyone knew they could be the native people of this world. They shouldn't have to move to make way for the ones that came later. "It's not fair that the Wizards get _Gravimon_. He's not a Wizard. If anything, he should be on _our_ side."

Willis was standing near to Phelesmon, and he didn't look all that happy about it either. I smirked at the both of them. I was a full-fledged member of Alias III. We didn't play fair. We played to win. Willis was wiser than Phelesmon at least, because he didn't open his mouth to complain. That meant Gravimon's attention was dedicated to Phelesmon and Phelesmon alone. He turned his head to the side and Phelesmon let out a startled cry of indignity. He was lifted into the air and was slowly rotating until he was upside down. A toothy, evil smile spread across the lower half of Gravimon's face. It was chilling—and exhilarating. It reminded me of the look on Mari's face when she sent that lawyer into the Dark Ocean. It was so...refreshing.

"I do believe the choice is my own," Gravimon announced in a deep, menacing voice. "I will help whoever I want, and who I want is _not_ you."

Phelesmon crashed to the ground, throwing his hands above his head to try and catch himself before he slammed against the piles of trash and junk. Willis' eyes lit up, and I thought he might laugh, but he didn't—he probably thought Gravimon was being mean. I thought it was hilarious, and I wasn't the only one. My bubbly giggles were joined by Witchmon's high cackling and Karatenmon's amused squawking. I saw that they were standing by Reapmon—who was not amused, as always—and Zanbamon. Gravimon and I went over to my team, and we were welcomed like heroes. It was all very flattering.

"Good show, Kiyoko," Zanbamon complimented me. "Scaring the enemies is an excellent tactic."

"Did you see Phelesmon's face?" Witchmon asked Reapmon, elbowing him in the stomach. He raised an eyebrow at her, but didn't comment. He was bored. He was also a night owl. Sure, there was always a night's sky above us, but it didn't mean that time passed any differently here than it did on Earth. He slept through the day as if he were a vampire, and thrived during bonfire nights. Not a lot interested him though, and this challenge didn't seem to be catching any of his attention. "You're no fun!" Witchmon complained.

"I saw it," Karatenmon said, consoling her. "And it was the funniest thing I've seen in a while."

"Since the _last_ time Gravimon put that bully in his place, you mean?" Witchmon clarified. She and Karatenmon fell into another fit of laughter. Zanbamon waved a sword absentmindedly in their direction, calling for their attention. They struggled for a few a minute to catch their breath, but eventually they calmed down.

"Now, we need to talk strategy," Zabamon announced. "We need to win this. You are the team chosen to represent all Wizards. You need to act accordingly and make us all proud."

"But we don't know what the challenge is," I pointed out, rolling my eyes at him.

"Very true," Zanbamon said solemnly. "Which is why you are going to get it out of that friend of yours. She's sitting there alone. Use that loneliness to get information out of her." He was right. Rei was seated at the smaller of two tables. The tables were freshly grown, made of vines and trees in the same way everything Terra created was. The second table was easily three times the size of Rei's, and was heavily laden with a vast array of refreshments. I looked away from it quickly, patting my pocket where I'd stuffed a water bottle and a granola bar. I'd be happy with my own sustenance, thank you very much.

I nodded my understanding to Zanbamon, even though I knew I wasn't going to literally use Rei's weaknesses against her. It wouldn't help much anyway. The challenge was going to start any minute now. I reached down and wrapped my hand around one of Gravimon's fingers as best I could and started dragging him behind me. He was willing enough though, or else I wouldn't have gotten anywhere. He walked with me over to Rei, who _was_ looking lonely, sitting there all by herself. She had a book on the table in front of her, but she seemed too excited to read it.

"Hi," I called with an excess of enthusiasm. She looked up with a smile that melted a little when she saw I wasn't alone. She _really_ didn't like me hanging around Gravimon. I was an adult though, not a child that she could monitor. I could make my own choices. And I chose Gravimon. "What're you up to all by yourself?"

"I'm going to be a judge," Rei said, keeping a wary eye on Gravimon. "I'm just waiting for Terra to arrive." I scrunched my nose up at the sound of her name. "Good luck with the competition."

"I don't know what it is though," I complained. She gave me a look, and I knew she wasn't about to break Terra's confidence in her—even if I did know Rei _longer_ than Terra did. I sighed and walked away. If Rei wasn't going to tell me anything, and was going to look at Gravimon like he was going to kill her at any given moment, then I didn't want to be around her right then—especially if she mentioned Terra's name again. I felt a little bad, for probably hurting her feelings, but she was ignoring mine daily, Willis was too.

Zanbamon looked at me expectantly across the sea of junk, but I could only shrug my shoulders and shake my head. He looked disappointed, and I hated that. I didn't want to be a disappointment. I wanted to save my friends and their homes. I couldn't bring myself to go back over there. I didn't want to be there for the pointless planning session. Witchmon and Karatenmon weren't paying attention anyway—and I was convinced Reapmon had learned to sleep with his eyes open for occasions like these, and was actually sleeping through all of Zanbamon's instructions.

"Didn't find it after all?" Astamon sneered at Willis. I looked over, as we passed, trying to gauge whether Willis needed help or not. "I told you that you couldn't succeed. 'I could find something in a second flat' indeed."

"I didn't see _you_ getting dirty looking for anything," Willis countered.

" _I_ was proving useful to my lady," Astamon said hurtfully. "You were ignoring your promises. Did you even look? No. I wonder how disappointed my lady will be if she were to find out that you failed to even _attempt_ to keep your word."

"I always keep my word," Willis said defensively.

"Whatever makes you feel better," Astamon said condescendingly.

"At least Willis doesn't need to threaten others to make him feel good," I snapped. "That's just you."

It wasn't the best verbal smack down I'd heard. In fact it was rather childish. Astamon turned his angry eyes my direction, ready to lash out at me in a way that would probably make me cry, but he didn't. He looked up passed me and I remembered how scary everyone thought Gravimon was, and I smirked, daring Astamon to say something. He realized how protective over me Gravimon was, and wisely stayed silent, slinking off towards Rei. _She_ could be bothered to converse with him. She actually _liked_ him. It wasn't fair. She couldn't see the good in Gravimon, but she could hang around _that guy_ daily. It made me angry to think about.

"Thanks," Willis said sharply. I nodded my head at him jerkily. We were still fighting. He was on the Fallen Angels' side and I would never be. It was awkward to be fighting with Willis though. I'd actually come to think of him as my best non-Alias III friend during all of our planning in the Digital World before the virus came. I still sort of thought of him that way. I didn't like fighting with my friends, but I also didn't want to give in. I always gave in. I didn't want to do that this time. I knew I was right—about the Wizards keeping their homes at the very least. I didn't care _how_ wrong I was about Terra. I just wanted the choices to be my own. Was that too much to ask for?

"Attention please," Terra called in a calming, sweet voice. I glared at her. I hadn't even thought that Astamon had come with Terra. He always did. I didn't want to think about what relationship they shared. We they in love, was he her employee? It didn't matter to me. It was easier to keep irrationally distrusting her when I didn't think of her as a person with feelings and rational thought. I tried to find something to fault her for, but her skin was beautiful and dark, flawless really. Her hair was luxurious, and I knew that Hideto would find a way to run his fingers through it if he were here.

I was actually glad he wasn't, in that regard.

Hideto was naturally flirty, I understood that, and it didn't bother me. But if he were flirting with her, and playing with her hair, I wouldn't be able to handle it. There _had_ to be something about her that was putting me off. My stomach was tying itself in knots, as I looked from the circlet on her head to her dainty, bare feet. I _needed_ to figure it out. There was something somewhere in her that reminded me of someone. I couldn't figure out who it was though. It was safer to trust my gut until I could figure it out. It was better to be proven wrong and find out she really _was_ as wonderful as Willis and Rei thought. I didn't want to make the wrong decision and get betrayed again. I ran through actresses on Earth, and all the women I knew personally, trying to find someone that fit.

"Today we are going to have a scavenger hunt of sorts," Terra announced in a bubbly voice. "There's something out there, _somewhere_ that is amazing, and will impress Rei, Astamon and myself. I don't know what it is though. It's up to _you_ to decide what it could be. You find whatever is interesting to _you_ , and bring it back to us. We'll judge it, and whoever finds the item with the most votes, will win the land. That sounds fair, doesn't it?"

No. It really didn't. I didn't say anything though. Zanbamon was nodding solemnly, seriously believing whatever she was spewing. It sounded to me like she wanted something specific, but couldn't be bothered to find it herself. I didn't think much of her rule about bringing anything found to her, so she could decide if she wanted to keep it or not. If I liked something, she was probably going to find something interesting about it and keep it for herself. That didn't seem fair. Whatever happened to finders keepers?

I sighed, knowing that my Wizards were happy about the game, and somehow thought it was a fair exchange. She raised her hands into the air, and then brought them down sharply, signalling for the game to begin.

Zanbamon and the Fallen Angel's leader, Tactimon, were standing on either side of the judge's table, where Terra sat between Astamon and Rei. The game was far too childish for either digimon to participate in, but they were here anyway, to support their teams. Homes were at stake, they couldn't miss this.

Reapmon bent down to the nearest pile and pulled out what looked like a clip for a bag of bread and dropped it on the judge's table. "I'm out," he drawled, before walking over towards a dead tree. He sat down and leaned against it, closing his eyes. His snores could be heard from across the dump where I was. It was disconcerting how easily he was able to get to sleep when his home was at stake. Obviously, Terra, Rei and Astamon were far from impressed with Reapmon's contribution, much to Zanbamon's dismay.

"Go on Salem," Witchmon cooed to her ghost cat. "Find me something nice." The black cat nodded his understanding and flew off above the mountains of trash. He flew in circles around NeoDevimon's head, irritating the silent Fallen Angel. Salem fled before NeoDevimon could swat at him though, thankfully. Witchmon climbed onto her broom and started flying above the trash herself.

Karatenmon joined her in the skies, trying to keep Phelesmon, who was in the air too, from finding anything interesting. Phelesmon was flying quickly, trying to shake the persistent crow digimon. It was effective for awhile, keeping Phelesmon out of the challenge, but Karatenmon caught sight of something and stopped in his tracks. "Oh, that's _shiny_ ," he cried, dropping to the ground. Phelesmon didn't like the sound of Karatenmon finding anything interesting and followed after him. He tried to take whatever it was that Karatenmon found, but Karatenmon swung his weapon at the devil digimon and Phelesmon stormed off to find another victim that was less likely to fight back.

Arukenimon was filing her nails while Mummymon sifted through the trash at her feet. He let out a triumphant shout and pulled out an extension cord—useless in this world, since there was no electricity—and waved it in the air. Arukenimon looked at it shrewdly, assessing it, to see if it was worthy, but she didn't get much of a chance, because Phelesmon came swooping down and took it from Mummymon's hand and flew off with it.

"That was Arukenimon's!" Mummymon shouted angrily.

"It was maybe going to be mine," Arukenimon said, still unsure that it was worthy. "We'll just have to find something better." Mummymon nodded, purposefully ignoring the part where she meant _he_ was going to have to find something better. He was just happy that she hadn't flipped her lid and tried to go after Phelesmon. I didn't think that guy had many morals. It was _one_ thing to steal from the other team, but he stole from his own. That was low.

"How about this?" Mummymon asked, holding up half of a skipping rope. Arukenimon shook her head dejectedly and he agreed, tossing it back to the ground. "Maybe if we look over here?" he suggested, and he led her off into the mountains of junk.

I decided it was time for me to start participating. I'd have to find something really cool that I also didn't want for myself to give to the judges. I found several shattered beakers, but those were useless. I contemplated taking a bunch of bits and bobbles and just _making_ a wind chime but realized that if I put effort into it, I'd want to keep it for myself. All of my crafts in the past had been for my friends—Alias III _and_ Team Mom. They'd meant something to me. If I was to make something for Terra, I'd probably end up making it with those glass shards and some discarded steak knives or something. It would be dark and everyone would probably turn on me for giving Terra something so ghastly, and I had a good thing going for me with my Wizards and Gravimon.

Something small shone in the moonlight, and I moved towards it, bending down and grabbing it, but I wasn't the only one. Willis' hand enclosed around mine, and I looked up to him and glared, trying to pull it towards me. He wouldn't let go.

"That's mine," I informed him rather politely, all things considered.

"Nope," he said, shaking his head. "It's like the only clean thing in this entire place. I want it."

"My hand is under yours, so technically, I got it first, meaning it's actually mine, and you'd just be stealing from me if _you_ got to keep it," I pointed out.

"I don't really care," he said. "It's clean, it's nice, it might win this thing for me."

"Look out," I gasped, ducking my head down sharply. "Phelesmon no!" I scolded, even though Phelesmon was nowhere near us. Willis ducked down too, protecting his head before turning to yell at his teammate. While he was distracted, I simply slipped my hand—and the object of course—out of his possession. I raced up the mountain of trash, knowing Willis was chasing after me, but I jumped off the top, calling out for Gravimon. He heard my plea and manipulated the gravity around me, floating me to his side. He set me down and patted my head—nearly shoving me to the ground in the process, since his hands were so large—before getting back to work.

He was cancelling the gravity of an entire pile of trash, and was reaching into the floating junk, picking out chess pieces to go with a board he'd found. None of the pieces matched, and he had too many black rooks and three white queens. There was wood and plastic and magnetic pieces, some glass ones and a couple very fancy metal ones. It was a very good choice. Chess was a game of the mind. I played it a lot lately, on my computer by myself. It was very good for calming my mind and my anger against the Fallen Angels and Terra before attempting to converse with Rei and Willis.

"What did you find Salem?" Witchmon called, and I looked to see she was near Willis—who looked upset about me tricking him. Salem flew at her, holding a mangled stuffed dog. "It's _interesting_ , right?" Witchmon said, trying to appease her cat. "I found this, but you know what, I think I like yours better." Witchmon tossed her candelabra back into the pile. Salem purred happily. I couldn't help but think the candelabra would have been more useful for Terra—who was the real judge of this thing. I held no delusions that Rei and Astamon were _really_ going to pick the winners.

"It's mine now," Phelesmon laughed, pulling the dog from her hands. He looked at it and grimaced, throwing it as far as he could. "That's disgusting. How could you think our lady would like _that_?"

"Get him, Salem," Witchmon ordered. Salem was all too pleased to jump onto Phelesmon's face, clawing at him with fervor. Salem had looked long and hard for that dog, and now it was gone. It was unfortunate, but I couldn't help but hope that Witchmon picked up the candelabra again, and started looking for candles to go with it instead of looking for the discarded toy.

While they were distracted, I looked at the shining thing that I'd found. It was white, and thin. There was a single notch cut into it. I wondered if it was maybe a dog whistle, but I wasn't about to put it in my mouth to check. There was something about it that made me think it was important though. I didn't know what it could be, but I was going to keep it. I "tripped" over an old shoe and fell into the garbage. I slipped it into my pocket in my scrambling to get back to my feet. No one would suspect a thing. I didn't look for witnesses, because that would only make me look guilty. I was going to own this with confidence. I would channel my inner Mari, and no one would ever need to know.

But I _did_ need to come up with another item that could hopefully help my Wizards keep their homes. I couldn't afford to give my white stick to Terra. I didn't know why, but it was _mine_ , and she wasn't going to have it. There was _plenty_ of junk out here. There was bound to be something interesting left to find.

"I don't think that will win..." Arukenimon muttered.

"It is beautiful," Mummymon said, holding up a half destroyed bouquet of artificial flowers. The colours of the blossoms had faded long ago, and there were cobwebs dangling from them.

"It really is," Arukenimon agreed. Mummymon bowed deeply and offered them to her. She took them, but I thought she was smiling when she did. "You're an idiot," she said fondly. He laughed.

"Let's find more stuff," he suggested. She agreed, and took his arm, as he led her off to a different pile.

I sat down at a pile that had a lot of shoes in it. Terra didn't have shoes. She could wear them if I could find some that matched at least a little bit. I didn't know if she'd _want_ to wear them, but that didn't matter.

"None of them match," someone told me. I nodded, agreeing, before looking to see who it was. I didn't recognize the voice. I was met with the sight of a demonic teddy bear. I let out a strangled scream, and tried to back away, but the teddy bear just laughed. "Do you go to people's homes often just to scream at them?"

"We're in a dump," I pointed out, stupidly.

"Well, one mon's trash is another mon's home," he said simply. His arms were full of junk, he could barely juggle them. I sort of searched through his items, looking to see if there was anything worthwhile in there. I couldn't steal from a teddy bear though, no matter _how_ cute it was. It would be like stealing from a baby. It wasn't right. I was fairly sure I'd done it before, with Sigma, but it wasn't right.

"Don't you mean _treasure_?" I asked, thinking of the common phrase.

"Well...it's not treasure, it _is_ trash," the teddy bear said slowly, and I remembered that the people of Witchenly didn't know all of Earth's phrases and colloquialisms. I felt dumb again. I wasn't dumb. I didn't like feeling like I was. But I actually felt that way a lot.

"Oh hey," Willis called from behind me. The teddy bear lit up at the sight of him.

"Best friend!" he exclaimed. "You have come back to see me?"

"Sure," Willis said. "And to get the Fallen Angels somewhere to live, you know? I'm multitasking." The teddy bear just nodded as though Willis was his hero or something. "You see anything super amazing that might win a contest in awesomeness?"

"I might have," the teddy bear agreed. "I couldn't carry it. I've got too much good stuff already." He lifted up his full arms just in case Willis somehow missed the pile of junk he was holding. Willis grinned. "It's just back that way, by the West Gate." The teddy bear pointed a direction with his head and Willis thanked him generously before running off. "You're going too?" he guessed, and I nodded quickly before hopping to my feet. I'd have to come back and meet that guy properly some other time. He seemed really quirky and fun. Now though, I couldn't let Willis go find something that could beat my Wizards.

Willis and I raced towards the West Gate. I never would have caught up if he hadn't tripped over a toy lion. He scrambled to his feet and still beat me there, and fell to the ground by a small box. I pounced on it, taking it from his hands, and opening it. A tiny ballerina was standing on a little stand that was meant to spin. It wasn't working. I popped open the bottom of the box, to see what it needed. It wouldn't be too hard to fix it though. It was missing a spring and a screw, but in a place like this, those were in abundance.

"Seriously," Willis said incredulously. "You just got on about how I was stealing from _you_ , and then you come and do it to me."

"Finders keepers,' I muttered.

" _I_ found it," Willis pointed out.

"And I found it in your hands," I countered. "I need a screw..." I shoved a tiny spring into place. I checked to make sure the winding key was in place, and it was, thankfully. All I needed was a single screw, and I could potentially win this thing.

"Kiyoko, just give it back," Willis said, rolling his eyes. "You're getting too into this."

"It's their _home_ , Willis," I snapped. "You're not getting into this enough!"

"What's that?" Willis asked. I scoffed. Like I was going to fall for the same trick I'd used on him just a short while earlier. But he didn't give up on it. He tapped my shoulder endlessly, until I turned to glare at him. He wasn't looking at me at all. He was looking up on top of a pile of garbage. I followed the path of his eyes and screamed. There was a cloaked figure waiting up there. "The spirit of the dump," Willis gasped. "Time to go. Kiyoko, _Terra_ is afraid of that thing."

"What?" I asked, sounding confused. I thought Terra was perfection. She shouldn't be afraid of anything. I squeezed my eyes and tried to force the thoughts away. As far as I was concerned, Terra wasn't relatable in any sense of the word.

"C'mon," Willis called, tossing a chewed up tennis ball up at our stalker—effectively distracting him—and he took the music box out of my hands, running off, disappearing into the garbage. I hastily ran after him, trying to catch up, but he was too fast for me. He was taller than I was. It wasn't fair. I'd stolen that from him fair and square! I hoped he didn't find a screw for it.

"It's time to hand in your objects!" Terra called loudly. I growled. I didn't have anything worthwhile. I wasn't going to hand in my stick. It was important, I could tell. I wasn't going to give it to someone I didn't trust. It was important to me that she never got her hands on it. I was so angry at myself for not finding something else that I was almost crying. I grabbed a roller skate, and prepared a short speech about how I thought she could use it as a flowerpot that was portable. I didn't have high hopes though.

I got back to the front, placing my skate on the table. Rei looked at me disappointed, but Terra looked it over carefully before disregarding it. My heart sunk. I'd failed my Wizards. Witchmon had followed my silent advice and found some mismatched candles to go with her candelabra, and Mummymon had handed in a frying pan saying it was from both him and Arukenimon—who was still clutching her creepy flowers. Gravimon's chess set was well received, and I thought maybe he could win this for us. Reapmon's bread tag had disappeared, and Karatenmon had handed Rei a pile of spare change. There were maybe a hundred coins there from all sorts of different countries on earth, and a bunch I didn't recognize that might've come from other worlds. NeoDevimon handed over a crumpled trombone that was missing its sliding and mouth pieces. It was useless, but it shone prettily in the moonlight.

Phelesmon handed over the extension cord he'd stolen from Mummymon, along with an alarm clock that he'd managed to realize could plug into one another. He was so proud of his discovery, but Rei thankfully explained that it required electricity to function, and Phelesmon's finds were discarded, just as mine had been.

"Is that everything?" Terra asked. She was keeping her voice light and calm, but I could hear frustrated impatience along with it. We hadn't found whatever it was that we were meant to find. I thought of the thing in my pocket and stepped away from the table further.

"Not everything!" Willis called, coming out from the garbage.

"There was a time limit for a reason," Astamon drawled. "You're late, your entry cannot count."

"Hush, now, Astamon," Terra told him. "I will look over Willis' discovery."

Willis made a big show of bringing the box to the table, and winding up the key before opening the lid. "It didn't work when I found it, but it does now." When the lid opened, the ballerina started dancing to a beautiful classic composition. Terra and Rei were delighted and I knew then and there that Willis had won this for the Fallen Angels. I shouldn't have started fixing it while in his presence.

"Willis wins," Terra announced happily. The Fallen Angels all started to cheer.

"I'm sorry," I whispered to Witchmon who looked at me in understanding. She too felt like she'd let her people down. Karatenmon landed on the ground, no longer excited about all of the shiny things he'd found. Gravimon was grave, as always. This didn't really affect him in any way. It didn't really affect _me_ either. But I still felt guilty, like it was my fault. But it wasn't. It was Terra's fault for making this game happen in the first place. I finally had a reason to dislike her, but it didn't make me feel any better.

I just felt like a failure.

I walked home in silence, leaving Willis to deal with Astamon in order to get Rei home. How could Rei pick Willis' music box? Didn't she understand what was at stake during that competition? The Wizards had all lost their homes tonight, and it was her fault too, not just mine. She could have chosen Gravimon's choice if she could get over her dislike of him. Those people were all homeless now and it sucked. Where were they even supposed to go? Would they have to travel a long way away? Would I never see them again? Didn't Rei and Willis understand how much I _needed_ them? I couldn't handle not having them. They were my new friends. I'd _just_ lost all of my other ones. I was holding onto the hope that I would get to go back to Earth and see them all again someday in the hopefully near future. If I lost my Wizards now too, I would go crazy.

Or I'd have to go with them, and I'd make Rei and Willis angry by making them come along too. And they'd have to, because I was taking my computer with me. They couldn't pull any stupid two against one rules on me, because it was _my_ computer and mask square was mine. It was coming with me no matter _where_ I ended up. I hoped they'd be happy with their decisions when they'd have to move who knew _how_ far away from their precious Terra.

I threw myself on the ground by my computer in the cave, realizing that I'd have to wait for them to come back before I could go inside. I'd never gotten around to teaching them how to take the computer inside. I didn't think I was ever going to either. It was another point in my favour for _me_ keeping my laptop if it came to separating.

Willis, Rei and Astamon came by not long after and I got to my feet without a word, not looking at either of them. I couldn't trust myself to. I was already barely holding myself together as it was. Astamon made a few nasty remarks, but I wasn't bothered by them. I didn't even really hear what he said. I didn't wait until Rei said goodbye either. I just transported the three of us and my laptop into Mask Square. I plugged the computer in and found a chair that I could cry in. And I finally let myself cry. It was big ugly crying and I was making a really big scene. Rei looked most affected by it, but she was also a little put out about my rudely separating her from Astamon before she was ready. Willis didn't care at all, and that made it worse.

"Grow up, Kiyoko," Willis sighed. "It was just a game."

"It _wasn't_ a game, Willis!" I snapped at him. "It was their lives and their homes."

"They'll just get to live in the church grounds now," Willis shrugged. "The Fallen Angels did it and they're okay. It doesn't really rain here so they'll be fine sleeping outside."

"What if they don't _want_ to live in the church grounds," I argued. "What if they want to live in the huts they made on the land they've lived on for as long as they can remember? What if they don't _want_ to be cast out of their homes and everything they've ever known, huh? Have you ever lived on the streets Willis? It _sucks_. And they lost their _homes_. I'm tired of that happening."

"You're taking it too personally," Willis said.

"If you don't care about these people's lives, then why were you helping the Fallen Angels?" I demanded. "Why would you ruin people's lives for a cause you didn't care about?"

"It was a game," Willis said. "I won it. That's all there was to it."

"No, that's not all there was to it," I snapped. "You didn't want me to win, you didn't want me to help people that deserved helping. You took my music box."

"No, you took _my_ music box," Willis argued.

"I fixed it," I shouted.

"I could've done it on my own," he pointed out. But I knew he wouldn't have put the effort into it if I hadn't already started. It was as he said. He wasn't overly into the game. "If you wanted to win so badly, you should've just handed over that white stick."

"What white stick?" Rei asked, curious.

"It's mine," I told them. "I found it."

"Everything that's found belongs to Terra first," Willis said firmly. "That's the rule. You _broke_ the rules."

"I'm Alias III," I told him coldly. "And Terra broke the rules first. She's _not_ the queen. She doesn't own the land nor does she own everything in it. It's my stick, I'm keeping it."

"Let me see it," Rei suggested. I pulled it out of my pocket, but I didn't hand it to her. I held it tightly. My lips were pressed into a firm line.

"Terra looks at everything in case it can get us out of here," Willis reminded me.

"I think if I found something useful, I could do that myself," I told him. "Terra is not getting her hands on this. I won't let her. I don't even want her to know about it. It's safe if we're the only ones that talk about it."

"It's just a stick," Willis pointed out, rolling his eyes at me again.

"Then I don't see why _Terra_ would need it," I snapped. "It's my stick."

"I'm giving that to Terra," Willis argued, reaching out to take it from me.

"She can't have it," I told him, pulling it closer to my chest. He kept trying to get it, and it developed into a full out wrestling match with Willis trying to overpower me until he could get my doodad out of my hand. Rei was sitting on a chair beside us, and we nearly knocked her out of it.

"That's enough," she shouted, reaching down and pulling the doodad out of my hand and slipping it into her pocket—the secret one on her jacket where she kept the key to Witchenly. "We'll talk about it tomorrow. Until then, get to bed. I'm done for tonight."

"But—" Willis and I both complained.

"BED!" she ordered. And we listened.

 _ **Hikari Yagami:**_

In a world where all of your dreams could become a reality, fear was a dangerous emotion rather than something to embrace and use for personal development. The reality was that anything could be a mirage and nothing was certain. It was the reason I was afraid of the door at the end of the hallway. I sometimes sat at the opposite end with my back against Koushiro's bedroom with my legs sprawled out in front of me finding comfort in the soft carpeted flooring.

The door I had been staring at for the past couple hours looked like a normal wooden door, a light brown complimenting the dull brown walls well. It wasn't the way that it looked that frightened me, but rather the way that it felt. It was impossible to ignore the pull that was drawing me in, curiosity trying to get the better of me, but I knew Ken well enough to know I did not want to look inside. Anything at all could be going on inside. Any horrible nightmare that Ken could cook up in his tormented brain could have already taken shape inside those walls. I had heard him scream or cry more than once. Without knowing specifics, I still knew _why_.

I had relived some horrible memories myself, things I regretted from my past, things that I thought might have happened, and now things I was _sure_ had happened. D'arcmon's scream followed me everywhere so long as I was alone. I was always thankful for another's presence to make the painful images and sounds disappear. It didn't seem that Ken was feeling the same relief whenever someone met up with him.

I remembered the day I helped him create that photo album. I had found him curled up with his head pressed against the wall and he had been crying. I cried too when he started talking about Miyako and we didn't stop for a long time. And he wanted me to go away so he could cry by himself, but I didn't let him, and to help him out I worked to create an album full of pictures. Once he stopped crying he had been able to join me and together we concocted the scrapbook of memories. I wasn't sure they were all true memories, in fact I was pretty sure some of them had been ideas or plans.

I just felt so bad for him every time he cried because he had a way of sounding like his heart was being constantly torn from his chest. In a lot of ways it was therapeutic to me, to take care of Ken. It helped me push aside the feelings that kept building up inside myself, and even if I'd been told a hundred times that it wasn't healthy I didn't think I could handle doing anything differently. I was content with keeping my feelings inside as long as it didn't hurt as much.

But there was a stabbing pain in my chest every day. It hurt so much to be here, to feel the way I did. I just wanted the pain to go away so I could help Ken and the others feel okay again.

Suddenly I was falling backwards as the door behind me opened up. I hit the floor and slowly looked up to Koushiro who was standing in the doorway of his room with his laptop propped open in one hand, resting on his forearm. He looked down to me and smirked, moving the door out of my way. "I apologize," he said before taking a step back to get out of my way.

"No, I'm sorry," I sat up quickly and spun around to face him. His eyes were bloodshot like he had been straining them for hours. I used the doorframe to pull myself to my feet and smiled to Koushiro, "You look awful."

He looked taken aback, "That's kind of you to say," he said dryly.

"No!" I said, pushing his shoulder lightly, "I just meant that you should really try sleeping every now and then." He furrowed his brows, but only momentarily and then smiled, shrugging his shoulders and stepping out of his messy and dim bedroom. "If nothing else, you should get off of your computer for a couple hours a day."

"Have you forgotten our task?" he asked, motioning to the stairs to the right and I waited for him to go first, but he simply stared with an eyebrow raised. I relented finally and took off down the stairs. "I do trek around this bizarre world daily, remember? I don't use my computer while I'm out."

"But you do on our breaks," I said, smiling as I looked over my shoulder, "You could try a full day of separation. You two could use the time apart, I hear it helps keep relationships healthy."

"Very funny," Koushiro said sarcastically. As we reached the bottom of the stairs the smell of gingerbread cookies became very prominent. That meant that Takeru was already awake. He was always very careful about making the house welcoming and comforting and each morning he would create a scent that reminded himself of home. So I was surprised to see an empty kitchen when we finally arrived downstairs.

I took advantage of Takeru's temporary absence and began preparing some breakfast, something that would make me feel healthier than pancakes topped with icing sugar which was about as healthy as Takeru's breakfasts could get. I decided upon a bowl of oat cereal with almond milk, and even prepared a bowl for Koushiro as well. He had already taken his usual seat at the back of the table. I slid the white porcelain bowl along the glass surface and he looked up, confused. "For you," I told him with a smirk. He looked thankful, but said nothing. "So what are you doing on your computer anyway?"

"The usual," Koushiro said flatly, holding the bowl of cereal over his computer, eating while never looking away from the screen. I gave him a look that I hoped would accurately relay the message that I really had no idea what 'the usual' could possibly be and he finally flicked his eyes up toward me. He looked down and tried to ignore me, but the silence was apparently too uncomfortable so he gave in to the pressure. "I would like to locate an escape route."

"Summer is working on that," I assured him.

"Is she?" his response came very quickly as though he were suspicious of her. He shook his head, "No, she is. I know she is." He looked back to his computer and set his bowl onto the table and focused his eyes back to the screen of his computer. "She is," he said again.

"She is," I agreed, "So what are you doing trying to find a way out?"

"Because you were right, Hikari," he said flatly, partially closing the top of his laptop and looking to me more seriously now. "Takeru has this idea in his head that we're going to be able to find Trust, and I think Ken is impressionable enough to believe everything Takeru tells him, but what you said, and what I've said somehow seems to be more realistic. The reason we cannot find Trust is because he doesn't want to be found. Or perhaps he was never here at all."

Koushiro stopped talking for just a moment, seemingly giving me time to think, but I didn't need the time. I had been thinking that for two months now. In a world where everything we wanted was handed to us on a silver platter it seemed pretty clear to me that unless the person we were looking for had no intention to be found, we would have found him already. But we hadn't.

"I've been thinking," Koushiro said quietly, using the silver spoon to absentmindedly stir the cereal in the bowl, "we call this world the 'Land of Dreams' but it doesn't have a true name. I think the name we had dubbed this world is a lie. It is not a land for dreams," he looked nervous so I reached toward him to take his hand, "this is a land of deceit."

I could see where he may have been coming from, but there seemed to be more than surface level interaction hiding behind the mask he wore. "Koushiro...?"

"I wished up a way to get back to Earth," Koushiro said quietly, "It gave me what I wanted. But it was not Earth. It was a mirage—an image designed from my own memory to torture me. I craved an internet connection, a way to interact with those outside of the walls of this dimension, and what I desired came to fruition."

"But it wasn't real," I surmised, he nodded, "A land of deceit," I agreed with him and he nodded again, "I'm sorry Koushiro, that must have been really hard for you." His eyebrows raised in a defensive sort of way as someone came barrelling in through the front door.

"Hikari!" Takeru shouted excitedly as Koushiro and I retracted our hands quickly. Koushiro propped open his computer again and Takeru appeared in the doorway. His face was bright and excited, and I tried to smile, but what Koushiro had said was still weighing on my shoulders and Takeru could sense that. He looked to Koushiro and his face fell slightly but he pushed through it. He pulled a chair out next to me and began tapping his fingers repetitively on the surface of the table. "Guess what I found?"

"Trust?" Koushiro and I blurted together.

Takeru looked disconcerted but shook his head, "No, you know I wouldn't go out searching without you guys, it wouldn't be fair." Koushiro was once more uninterested in everything Takeru had to say but I turned, interested in what would be so exciting for Takeru. "I found the perfect spot to have a picnic." I let out a small laugh of realization and felt one eyebrow rise suspiciously. "Okay," he surrendered, "okay, so I didn't _find_ it, I made it, but it's very romantic, and I think we should have dinner there tonight."

"I would love to," I told him kindly, taking his hand and pulling him toward me to kiss his cheek. He grinned and squeezed my hand. The smile I managed to force onto my face seemed to convince him that I felt what he expected of me, but when he looked away I could only feel guilt. The way he smiled like that, so happy and excited to keep things normal enough to keep us all in a healthy mindset made me feel _cruel_ for not feeling the same way. I felt fake, I felt like what Takeru wanted was being given to him by someone as disturbed as whoever created this world. My feelings for him were not fake, but my general emotions were, and to keep him happy, to give him everything he was hoping for I would have to keep up the facade, keep wearing the mask of the little girl who loved to smile.

I wanted Takeru to be happy, and I wanted to give him everything he wanted. To do that, I would have to smile. I could do that. A smile meant nothing of what went on inside, I could do that. I could smile. Even if it was wrong.

"Ken!" Takeru exclaimed startling the boy who had appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Ken stopped rubbing his eyes and looked to the table where Takeru and I were smiling to him. Koushiro didn't bother looking up and although it could have been perceived as rude it seemed to be the option Ken would have preferred at that moment. He didn't appear to want any attention to be drawn toward himself. "Good morning," Takeru said brightly, "Ready to get out there and search for our missing friend again?" Ken groaned in response and flopped himself into the chair across from Takeru. "Well, I'm going to wait outside, you can just join us when you're ready." Once again Ken chose not to respond so Takeru jumped to his feet and nodded awkwardly, then headed for the door. He froze and shuffled his feet before looking back to me, "Coming?"

"Oh," I said, taking a look at my partially eaten cereal, then to Koushiro. I nodded, "Sure, of course." I jumped to my feet and took Takeru's outstretched hand. He smiled, relieved and led the way to the front door. The smell of flowers and fresh air took over the cookie smell from the kitchen and I paused on the front porch, breathing in the air. It felt fake somehow after what Koushiro had told me. Everything seemed fake.

Takeru tugged gently on my hand and so I walked with him down the steps and down the path. He stopped at the road though, standing on the curb, scratching the back of his head. He cleared his throat and looked into my eyes, "Thanks for coming along," he said quietly. What did that mean? There was more to what he said than what was on the surface. Apparently my curiosity showed on my face though because he laughed and kissed my forehead. "Don't worry about it; I'm just glad you're with me." I found myself staring toward the ground, guilty again. He wasn't being honest with me, there was more emotion in his voice than what he was telling me, and it hurt to know he wasn't comfortable confiding in me. The guilt fell in the hypocrisy of it all. The false smiles being handed back and forth between the two of us were becoming more and more troubling. "Look, it's Summer!"

I turned, releasing Takeru's hand and spotted Summer who was sitting in a comfortable looking yellow arm chair in the shade of a beautiful willow tree. A tall lamp was standing next to her as she read the book in her hands. She looked up after a moment of us looking toward her with Takeru waving politely. Summer looked surprised and then waved back with her dainty hands and a small smile. Slowly she folded her book and set it on her lap, "Are you going out to search again?" her voice carried across the street with no effort at all.

"We sure are," Takeru conversed politely as though Summer were just a simple neighbor from down the street. Ultimately that's what she was, but the word 'simple' sure didn't apply. "I have a good feeling about today."

"And why is that?" Summer asked.

"Well it's a special day," Takeru announced, throwing his arm around my shoulder.

I looked up to him, "It is?" I asked.

"It's August first!" He exclaimed, holding me tighter, "It's _our_ day. We'll find him today. I know we will."

"That's the spirit," Summer told him, tapping her temple with her forefinger, "remember, you will only find him if you truly believe that you will." The sigh that sounded behind me _had_ to have been accompanied by a set of rolling eyes. I hadn't seen them, but I knew Koushiro well enough to know. I looked back and saw that he and Ken were now standing, fully dressed and ready to go, listening to what Summer had to say. "Good luck," she said with a knowing look, as her wide eyes trained in on me, before turning back to the book in her hands.

Takeru turned to me with a smile, "ready to go?"

"I am," Ken muttered.

"I suppose," Koushiro said.

Takeru took my hand and set off, stepping into the street, but he stopped when he found I wasn't walking with him and he nearly fell back. "Coming?" He asked with a grin. I tried to smile back, but couldn't. I shook my head.

"I can't go," I told him, the realization still washing over me.

"Why not?" he asked, his face looked hurt and I looked away, feeling the guilt again. "You can't stay here alone."

"Sure I can," I told him, retracting my hand, "I'm capable of handling myself you know. I can keep myself safe."

"But you shouldn't have to," Takeru insisted, reaching for my hand again, "There's nothing to keep safe _from_ , so come on."

I pulled my hand out of his reach and took a step back, pushing Koushiro aside. Takeru looked betrayed and once again I found that I couldn't keep eye contact with him. "I don't believe," I explained in a quiet voice, "I don't think we'll ever find him."

"Trust?" Takeru asked, "of course we will!"

"And you need to go find him," I tried to sound encouraging but it came out with a strong sense of urgency instead, like I wanted him to go away—but I didn't. Well, I did. But I didn't. "You heard what Summer said, Takeru. I don't believe we'll find him. He obviously doesn't want to be found. If we have any chance of beating his wishes, we need someone with stronger hopes. That's you, Takeru. If anyone can find Trust, it will be you, but not if I'm weighing you down with my negativity."

"You're not an anchor," he insisted, "you're an asset, Hikari."

"Not in this," I said flatly. There was a long moment of total silence where Takeru and I just stared to each other and I knew he wouldn't leave it like this, not with the hostility left unresolved. I faked another smile and waved my hand, "Just go!" I even laughed a little, feeling disgusted with myself, "please, go. I need a break anyway." He still didn't look convinced so I grabbed his hand once more, "I'll see you tonight," I told him, "we'll have a picnic together and pretend everything is normal."

Takeru finally smiled, and held my hand tighter before releasing it and stepping back, "See you then," he promised. Ken shuffled after Takeru who was still walking backwards until he was halfway across the street and then he finally spun around. Koushiro looked down to me, cocking his head to the side, as he passed but said nothing before he joined the others on their walk, adjusting the strap of his laptop bag.

I watched them go down the street, waving each time Takeru looked back to me, until they had turned the corner and were out of sight. I felt relieved to finally be alone, as if the fake smiles and lies didn't matter anymore and I was able to just relax and really be myself. I looked back to the house, thinking I could enjoy some quiet time and sit and finally think things through, or I could just take a nap, fall into a peaceful oblivion until they returned, hopefully with Trust. If they could find him we could go home. Not _home_ necessarily, but somewhere better than here. Anywhere was better than here. I had been tracked and tortured by so many enemies before, but never had any of them dug their nails as deep as this world had.

I had too many things to think about. There was no chance that I'd be able to nap, and so I figured I could just take a walk, a pointless stroll down the world that was nothing and everything at the same time.

I spun around and found that Summer was once again staring at me from where she sat under the willow tree. "Not up for it today?" she asked, turning a page of her book, "I could join you, if you would like some company."

I smiled politely and shook my head, "Thank you, but I think I can manage." My words came out more bitter than I had indented them to and Summer hadn't missed it. She nodded, uncomfortable and looked back to whatever it was she was reading.

"Stay safe," Summer warned.

I turned my head and started walking in the opposite direction that Takeru and the others had gone. It wouldn't be too hard to avoid them, but walking away from them would make it easier. It wasn't as though I had anywhere in particular to be running off to, but that didn't matter. This world would take me wherever it wanted me to go without my permission.

I tried to focus on the way the loose dirt under my feet shifted with each step and the way the breeze gently brushed against my cheeks and pushed my hair back. I could feel the moisture in the air and the inconsistencies of the winds pulsing nature sounded a bit like water. With my eyes closed I could pretend I was on the beach, walking along the shore toward Gatomon, or my mother. I could pretend Taichi was by my side and he was telling me about some romantic outing he was planning for Rei.

It was what I wanted to pretend anyway.

The wind was beginning to sound more and more like waves crashing into the shore, and the air began to smell salty and felt cool.

My eyes flew open in a panic and I stared toward the massive body of water that had seemingly appeared from nowhere. I relaxed when the vibrant shades of blue sunk in. These weren't the waters that I had been afraid of for so long, this was not a nightmare, but rather a faint, distant memory of a place where things might not be as grim as they were here.

"Taichi!"

My heart lurched as the small voice met my ears. I turned slowly to see a small girl running through the sand that had replaced the dirt and grass. As she ran her feet sank and slid, and she stumbled as tears ran down her face. I watched with wide eyes as the pale girl with the wet hair moved as fast as her little legs would carry her as she chased after the taller brunette boy whose arms were crossed with anger.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" the girl cried out, "St-stop!"

The boy stopped in his tracks and turned back to the girl and balled up his fists as his body went very stiff. "Leave me alone! Go away! Cry for somebody else!" The girl fell into a heaping mess in the sand as the boy walked off, stomping his foot with each step.

"T-Taichi!" the girl sobbed as she wiped her eyes with the sleeves of her light blue shirt. She waited, alone for a while until a man appeared next to her and knelt down beside her. "Daddy!" she cried, leaning in to hug the man.

"What happened, Hikari?"

I winced at his voice. I could try to pretend I didn't understand all I wanted, but if he were going to speak directly to me there was only so much I could do to delude myself of the truth. The girl looked up to her father and breathed in deeply, nearly choking as a result.

She and her father faded away to reveal a group of bossy and loud looking children playing in the sand with the brunette boy from before. And then the small girl came wandering by, digging her feet into the sand. In her hand was a big pink sand bucket which she dunked into the water to fill it up. She began humming to herself as she stomped her foot, letting water fly everywhere and then she giggled watching it fall down to the ground around her. And then one of the boys her brother was playing with moved forward and shoved her into the water where she crashed, face first, just as a wave came in. The boys began laughing but the girl flung herself out of the water, gasping for breath and coughing loudly. Her brother moved to her side quickly and pulled her to her feet.

"Are you okay?" he asked sharply, but she couldn't answer because she was still choking on water and tears were already falling from her eyes.

"She's jus' a baby," the boy who pushed her said, though it was clear he was nervous.

"She's really sick," her brother barked, "You can't do that!" he looked around, probably for his parents and he looked afraid now. Whether he was afraid to get in trouble or that something bad might happen to her, I didn't know.

"Well tell 'er to stop bein' such a baby," the boy said, laughing now, "I get sick sometimes too. I'm not a cry baby."

"She's not," her brother said quietly as the girl finally regained control of herself. "She's not a cry baby."

"Well she's cryin' over nothin'," the boy sneered, putting his hands on his hips as all of his friends began to back him up, "so she's a baby!"

"I'm not a baby!" the small girl shouted loudly, clenching her eyes shut, "I'm not!"

"Only babies cry!" the boy joked as his friends all laughed.

"Taichi cries," the girl said, looking to her brother as if he held all of her world, as if he could make these mean boys go away with just a single word. But he froze, and he panicked as all of his friends began laughing at him.

"Why?" the boy sneered, "Do you cry in the night 'cause yer scared?" All of the boys began laughing again, and Taichi, the boy looked away, hurt. "Taichi and his sister are babies. They can't even—"

"Knock it off!" I jumped in start at the sound of a new, high pitched voice. I looked and saw a girl with fiery red hair storming toward the group of bullies. "Stop being so mean to them!"

"Oooh!" The mean boy cooed as Taichi began storming off. "Sora's in love!" I turned away from the small version of Taichi to see Sora's face turn bright red in anger as she began to object loudly about how boys had cooties, and then the mean boys, along with Sora vanished, leaving only the small girl to chase after her brother, but soon they too disappeared and the girl was back, hugging her father who patted her back gently.

"It's not fair of you to do that to him," her father said after a short silence, "Hikari, you should not call your brother out in front of his friends. You have only caused more problems."

"B-but I was p-pushed," the girl cried.

"And maybe you should have laughed it off," her dad said sternly, "those boys might not have the best sense of humour, but it was just a joke. Maybe if you try to stop crying you would make things easier for a lot of people, Taichi included."

The girl slowly pushed away from her father before wiping her eyes once more and she stared up to her father, and slowly she nodded, "I-I'll tr-try," she decided finally.

And then her father kissed her head, "Big girls don't cry," the girl was hardly listening as she began standing up shakily and bursting into sand, swirling around in the wind until there was nothing left of her.

It was then that I became aware of myself biting down on my lip, hard. I wanted to pretend that this was another trick of the world, but I knew it wasn't. It was coming from my own subconscious memories, and I knew that because I could faintly remember everything just before it had happened, like a movie I had seen years and years ago but only barely remembered. I found myself staring toward the man I knew to be my father from the past and could not force myself to finally turn away. I was hurt, but couldn't find a way to blame him, though I'd seen him do it. He hadn't meant to do anything wrong, it wasn't his _fault_...

The way his eyes were looking to me though, they showed so much malice and hatred. It was as if he were looking straight through me with the intent to kill.

My heart pounded instantly and didn't stop when the realization that the figment was staring at _me_ kicked in. He stood slowly, his body limp and weak, and when he finally stood tall, his head hung to the side loosely.

I swallowed thickly and looked down to his feet where the sand began to dull and shift to the familiar colour of the Dark Ocean. I knew it was happening before it got too far, and that made me uncomfortable. I should not be so familiar with the sensation of emptiness that these sands brought to my chest, and I should not feel so used to seeing the dark waters that now lay before me.

I gasped when the mangled version of my father took a step toward me, "I-I'm not afraid of you!" I lied as the figure moved closer with every passing second. But then he stopped when he came close enough to touch. I was trying to keep brave, and strong, to stand my ground, but I couldn't keep eye contact. I looked back up to his face, and winced, looking away once more, but as I stared to the dark sands beneath my feet it became clear that he was not going to move unless I could muster enough courage to face him.

I counted to three in my head and then turned my face directly toward him and stared deep into the lifeless eyes before me. Instantly everything around the two of us turned completely dark as if there had never been light in the world

 _The land of the shadows was made to keep negativity alive._

A deep, twisting voice that sounded like it escaped a throat, scratching and clawing, like a creature escaping a prison.

 _Just like every other world, it lived and thrived. And, like every living organism, it needed to feed. Darkness feeds on light, just as light feeds on darkness._ The twisted creature who was still pretending to be my father smiled, and at first it seemed normal, but soon the grin spread further than should be possible, and it didn't seem to want to stop.

I tried to look away but I couldn't control my own body, and panic began to sink in once more.

 _The darkness stalks you, because you feed it with your light. If you stay put. If you let it have its way with you, then you will cease to exist, and the darkness will finally be done feeding._

There was not even a second of free time to register what he had said because I heard a faint cry, pulling me from the darkness. As the world faded back into existence it became clear that I was now waist deep in the dark, murky waters that consistently plagued me. I stumbled backwards, my limbs moving slower under the confines of the ocean, and I realized I could move again.

I turned and began running as fast and smoothly as I could as my heart beat faster and louder in my ears, but I caught sight of the shore, where a glowing ball of green light stood with an arm reaching out to me.

And then something had grabbed my leg and I was falling under the surface of the waters. It was as though the waters were not just preventing the air from reaching my lungs, but also emptying them faster than they should. I opened my eyes, ignoring the intensified gravity that was trying to drown me and spotted the pale face of my father, holding me down, pushing me further under the water.

I kicked and struggled, but he was stronger than I was, and there was just no way to save myself from someone who was so inherently strong.

And then his grip tightened and bubbles began to ripple from his grip as it slid down to my wrists. I screamed as his grip began to burn and sear my skin, there was no air left in my lungs now, and could feel myself giving in, but I couldn't resign myself completely. I couldn't ignore the burning of my skin. And then, through my blurred vision I saw the pale skinned face appear right in my face.

And I screamed again, but this time, it didn't feel like the air was leaving my lungs. It felt like fire. I winced in pain and screamed even louder as the pain continued.

And then I spotted three deep pink orbs floated above me, making their way to the surface of the water.

And then another hand had grabbed me, a long arm wrapping itself around my waist and with a sudden pull I was being dragged back to the surface, past the pink orbs that seemed to be boiling the water around them. Had they really come from inside... _me_?

I gasped loudly as the air finally managed to make its way to my lungs and I fell into the arms that were holding me close. "You don't need to breathe in this world, Hikari," the feminine voice chastised, "You cannot let him trick you into these nightmares."

I slowly looked up to my saviour as my vision slowly cleared itself and spotted Summer holding me tight.

An explosion of water distracted me and I saw, amongst the falling water, a long black serpent emerging from the depths of the sea. "It takes a little more than a garter snake to frighten me Akumu." Summer snapped her arm out, waving it quickly causing the snake to slip straight from the water and flip backwards through the air, slowly shifting into a horrific sight. Long boney _white_ limbs shot from a loose fit dark cloak, and underneath the deep hood a pale, hallowed face looked back to me. The eyes were narrow and slick, the nose was thin and the mouth was nonexistent. "Akumu, don't make me call Yume."

Akumu, the angry looking creature floated in the air growled. He was resting just above the surface of the water like he were standing on his toes, just barely evading the ripples that his splash had caused and he did not seem to enjoy Summer's company. His eyes looked to me and it was hard to keep eye contact, but I wanted to show I wasn't scared of him. I wanted to lie. Because I _was_ scared.

I was still breathing deeply when he turned his back on us, gasping for the air that I supposedly didn't even need. I relaxed, resting my head on Summer's shoulder knowing that Akumu was leaving now.

But he wasn't finished just yet, and he turned sharply, raising his arm, long misshapen fingers expanded and a massive wave of water came barrelling toward the two of us.

"Look who I've found!" A heroic voice boomed as the wave rushed across the water, drowning out my screams. Yume, shimmering in golden light, held his hands out and acted as a blockade, allowing the wave to crash into him before splitting into two and falling flat. When the wave died down it was clear that Akumu had gone. "Darn," Yume sighed, snapping his fingers in disappointment. He looked back to the two of us and shrugged, "I'll find him," he promised, shooting off through the sky.

"I know you will," Summer sighed dreamily. I waited a moment, looking to her with raised eyebrows, and then struggled to break free of her hold and she shook her head, "no no, I'll help you back to shore."

"You don't have to do that," I sighed, slipping through her grip and walking off without her. I heard the water splashing around as she followed me slowly, and I looked back to her as she scrunched up her nose, dragging her massive dress along with her. "You ruined your dress," I pointed out, looking forward again.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Summer insisted, flapping her wings and popping out of the water, soaking wet and dripping with water. She tucked her arms under my own and then shot off toward the shore. I wanted to feel embarrassed, but I was mostly thankful that I was out of the dark waters, though I could have done without the rescue mission.

No, I really couldn't have.

"Thank you for saving me," I said when Summer finally set me on the shore and began drying herself off, ringing the water from her hair and dress.

Summer looked over her shoulder and smiled, "Oh it's no problem, dear."

"It is," I argued, "You've saved me a couple times now." She looked confused. I kicked my wet shoes off and decided to leave them since I wouldn't need them anyway, "You asked Iori to save me, sending him visions and everything. He took a knife for me."

Summer rushed after me, holding her dress in both hands until she fell into stride with me, "That wasn't me, Hikari. I cannot relay premonitions." I stopped walking, thinking about who else it could have been and I came up short. "It was my sister," Summer finally explained, "Autumn."

"That's Michael's mother," I remembered seeing pictures of her when I lived with he and Willis in New York. She was beautiful and her hair was long and golden. Michael kept a large picture of her hugging him and his sister in the hallway outside his bedroom, but it wasn't a recent picture. There could be no recent pictures. "She's dead," I said quietly.

Summer nodded sadly, "She is," she looked like she wanted to cry, but she shook it off, tossing her wet hair over her shoulder, "I guess she's looking out for you from the world of Light," Summer surmised.

"Why would she do that?" I asked.

"I guess she wants you to hold on," Summer said, thinking deeply, "She has hope that you can live to fulfill your destiny."

"And what might that be?" I asked, remembering what Akumu had just told me. What if my destiny was to give myself and my light to the world of darkness, like it wanted, and to stop it from ever challenging the world of the living ever again? Was that fair? Could I give my own life to keep the darkness from ever destroying another life?

"I have no idea," Summer sighed, finally looking to me, but she narrowed here eyes suspiciously, "Do you?"

I avoided her eyes and shook my head, "Nope," I lied, "no idea."

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Rei and Ken have 'The Best Day' and one or both of those may just be sarcastic.


	36. The Best Day

**Y/N:** This chapter is full of random adventures. I don't know what else to say. Everything that happens is kind of important I guess, but I don't want to spoil anything, obviously.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Land of Dreams and Witchenly**

 **Chapter 36: The Best Day**

 _ **Rei Saiba:**_

I was sitting alone in Terra's garden. There was a wooden cup in front of me holding the most delicious beverage I'd ever had the chance to partake in, but I couldn't bring myself to drink it. I was at my wits end. I couldn't believe I was living with two such childish boys. I'd had to deal with Pal and Pul and Agumon before being trapped here, but that was different. They were playful. Willis and Kiyoko weren't messing around. Kiyoko was honestly furious at Willis for winning the challenge that Terra had set for them. Willis in turn was beyond angry that Kiyoko was messing with the rules of this world. It was one of the only rules we'd been given too, so I sort of saw Willis' point of view. But if I was honest, I was also kind of on Kiyoko's side, because it really wasn't fair to make the Wizards move out of their homes just so the Fallen Angels could move into them.

Yes, the Fallen Angels lived in an abandoned church that was far too small to fit them all. Yes, they had to sleep outside under the night sky in the church's grounds. Yes, those grounds were dead and barren. But the Wizards' home wasn't much better. It was just dirt with fire pits scattered about. They'd made the huts that they lived in from mud and grass. The Fallen Angels could have built houses of their own easily. And if they'd managed to get alone with the Wizards, they could all work together to do it as a sort of community project.

In a perfect world, that's what would have happened.

Instead, Kiyoko felt that Willis and I betrayed him by leaving his new friends out on the street, and it was giving him bad flashbacks to a time when _he_ was homeless and lived on the streets. I _could_ have pointed out that it was worse for Kiyoko than the Wizards, because he'd been possessed by Sigma and was otherwise alone, but I somehow didn't think Kiyoko would really appreciate the comparison. He was heartbroken at our supposed betrayal.

I couldn't help it though, that Willis' music box was more interesting and amazing to me than Kiyoko's roller skate had been. The chess game was nice, but I'd seen dozens of chess boards in my life. I had one back at mine and Taichi's house in the Digital World. Or I did have one, I guess. I didn't know if anything was still there or not. I hadn't put up a shield or anything. I _should_ have done that, or at least ensured that Taichi did, but it was too late to worry about that now. We were fine. I obviously didn't have any actual confirmation for that, but Willis seemed sure enough, and I was going with his gut. He had more experience with this sort of stuff than I did. He'd been to a couple of different worlds at least.

The cup was staring up at me, begging me to drink it, but I was far too upset to drink my liquid sunshine. I didn't _want_ to feel it warm me all the way down to my toes. I didn't _want_ to feel it leech away any of the poisons my body might have created within itself since the last time I'd drank it. It wouldn't make me happy, and I didn't want to risk tainting my memories of the wonderful experience.

I just wished the boys would stop being so childish. They were fighting in a way you'd expect from children. They were playing the silent game. They wouldn't look at each other, or talk to each other. Most of the night, Kiyoko had hid himself away from view so that neither of us could see him, and he wouldn't have to look at us. And then breakfast this morning was a total disaster. Neither Willis nor I really ate much of the food supplies Kiyoko had with him when the virus had struck. It was good, on a survival level. Kiyoko would have food longer this way, and Willis and I ate the fruit that Terra provided us with. The fruit filled us up for longer periods of time. We didn't need to eat nearly as much in order to get the amount of calories we'd need for the day.

But Kiyoko was a stubborn one, and he refused to so much as touch Terra's fruits. He had a cup of hot tea and a bowl of instant oatmeal every morning, trying to tempt us with the smell of it. It _did_ smell good, but I was never hungry enough to want it. We sat with him at the table anyway. I was trying to promote togetherness, but this morning it wasn't working.

" _Rei, tell Willis to pass the sugar_ ," _Kiyoko has said pointedly. I looked to Willis, hoping he'd play the part of a grown up, but he legitimately pretended he hadn't heard Kiyoko speak at all._

" _Willis, can I have the sugar?" I asked, impatiently._

" _What do you need it for, you're not even eating," Willis said with a shrug. He didn't pass me the sugar. I looked at him, trying to best him in a match of wills, but it was no use._

" _Don't make me crawl over there," I pleaded. I couldn't even walk over to get it for Kiyoko, but I also knew Kiyoko was never going to get it for himself—and he couldn't stand oatmeal or tea without sugar. When he didn't eat, he got grumpy, and if this was how he was going to be today, I didn't want to risk making him into even more of a grump._

" _Fine," Willis snapped, sliding the sugar bowl across the table. It slammed into the side of Kiyoko's bowl and dumped over, pouring far too much into his oatmeal._

" _He ruined it," Kiyoko cried, trying to salvage his breakfast. I gave Willis an I-do-not-approve-of-your-methods look, but he ignored me, choosing instead to get up and disappear into our Laundromat, pretending that he heard the dryer go off, even though there weren't any clothes in the dryer at all._

I didn't know how much more of their behaviour I could take. I wasn't their mother. I wasn't a mother at all. I didn't even hang around any mothers on a regular basis. The closest I got was Momoe and Kurayami, and neither of them were what I would consider close friends. I didn't have experience dealing with squabbling children. And I wasn't old enough to deal with it either. Momoe might've been ready, but I was not.

"Not thirsty?" Astamon asked, startling me out of my musing. My face flushed. I was embarrassed around him a lot. He was always carrying me to Terra's garden and back to the cave we called home. It was embarrassing and a little condescending to have to be carried everywhere. I would've given anything for that wheelchair to have worked, but it didn't. I just wanted to be able to move around on my own without having to resort to army crawling along the forest ground. With a wheelchair, I was under my own power. It wasn't ideal. I'd grown accustomed to walking around in the Digital World, but I _did_ visit Earth, and on Earth I needed a chair. I could still handle one.

I wished I'd thought to make Kiyoko carry one in Mask Square.

Whenever we got back, I was going to make sure he always had one with him, just in case we ever ended up in a situation similar to this one again. I wasn't a child either, and I didn't want to be carried around like a helpless infant. I was twenty seven years old. I was far from a baby.

"Not yet," I said, answering Astamon a little late. I hoped he wouldn't hold it against me. My mind was just so full today. I wouldn't have come out at all, preferring to stay inside and not need to be toted around like an adult-sized baby, but I could _not_ be around Willis and Kiyoko anymore, and had come to see Terra out of sheer desperation to get away.

"Too bad," he said. "Terra has a present for you, she wishes to know if you will accept it. If you'd rather not, I will tell her."

I wondered if it was a new beverage, since he seemed focused on my drink. I thought about it, but knew that I would accept, and nodded to him. He looked pleased, as he slipped into the solitary door in the garden. It led to Terra's personal chambers. I'd never been inside them, but I didn't feel the need to pry either. She was a mysterious woman, but she was good. And I trusted her. She wouldn't hurt me.

Swirling around my liquid sunshine, I sighed. I couldn't help but let my mind wander back to the Digital World. That was my home. It had been for the last three years. Taichi and I had made a life there among the digimon, and they'd accepted us so easily. It hurt me to know that the humans couldn't be nearly as accommodating as the digimon had been. They had decided to attempt a mass genocide of the digimon race, and let loose a virus that was meant to kill us all. Taichi had been out in that virus too. I just didn't know if he had a key that could help him escape, or if he'd been close enough to a barrier that he was okay. But Willis thought he was. So I tried to do the same.

It was Neo that actually was getting to me the most. No one knew where he was _before_ the virus hit. I didn't know what world he was in, I didn't know if he was safe, or captured. I didn't know anything.But Neo was a survivor. He would survive this. He needed to. I didn't know what to do without my big brother. I missed going out to the bar every week. I missed watching him go up to the pretty bar tender and chat with her. He always pretended he'd just ordered a drink, but I'd seen Hideto do the same and it never took as long. I wondered if I'd ever get the chance to watch that friendship flourish into something special. He _needed_ friends at the very least that weren't involved in all of this digidestined stuff. I worried about him all the time. He was too much of a recluse. He needed to get out there and find people interested in the same stuff as him—though preferably _without_ the desire to rebuild the Digital World. I kind of hoped Neo had grown out of _that_ particular desire.

"Rei," Terra greeted happily. "I'm so glad you agreed to this. I've been looking forward to seeing your face. You won't be sorry."

"I'm sure I won't," I agreed, though I didn't know what was going to happen. She set a steaming wooden cup full of liquid in front of me. It was a mossy green and looked rather gross, but I wasn't going to tell Terra that. She was so excited to share this with me. I couldn't disappoint her. I took a breath, and gulped it down in one, two, _three_ swallows. It tasted like dirt and grass, and I shuddered as it went down. I couldn't get rid of the taste on my tongue. "That was...sure something."

"I'm afraid I couldn't change the taste," Terra said, laughing at my disgust a little. It was nice to see her acting relaxed. With the Wizards and the Fallen Angels around, she had to try and act the way they expected her to, and it wasn't possible to be that way all the time. It was a treat that she let loose around me. It made me feel trusted and like a valued friend. She could be herself around me. I smiled at her and laughed despite the gross taste that still remained.

"What was the surprise?" I asked. "The taste?"

"No, no, no," Terra assured me, calming her laugh down to a giggle. "There was something you said once, about the different digimon that lived in this world. I finally have a completed location to show you. I've been working hard on making this just right, and I want _you_ to be the first to visit. But, before we go, we must wait for your legs."

"My legs?" I asked, but now that she'd brought attention to it, I could sort of feel a tingling in my toes. I tried to ignore it. There was no point getting my hopes up. Chances were it was a phantom feeling that I'd developed through sheer desire. But the tingling spread from my toes to the arch of my foot and then to my heel and up to my ankle. Soon the tingling spread from my ankles to my knees and up to my hips. It started out as pleasant, but then it grew painful. I gripped the sides of the table, trying not to scream out in agony, but it was the most painful thing I'd ever experienced. It felt like my bones and nerves were moving about at the base of my back, and were trying to right themselves.

"That would be the nerves reconnecting," Terra confirmed, and I tried to look at her through the tears that had swarmed my eyes. I couldn't understand what she was saying; my ears were too full of the sound of my heart pounding and blood rushing through my veins.

But then, all at once, the pain stopped.

I let out a sigh of relief, taking a few cautious breaths to see if the pain would return. It didn't. Terra and Astamon both looked happy for me, and I couldn't resist the temptation. I wiggled my toes in my mind, and my toes followed the mental order. I rolled my ankles, and my foot did as it was bid. I pulled myself onto my feet and didn't fall down to the ground instantly.

"Oh my god," I gasped, spinning in a circle. "What did you do?"

"I should think it was obvious," Terra said looking at my legs. I grinned, and did a couple of stretches. It had been two months since I'd last been able to move of my own power. My muscles were getting weaker, and I knew I couldn't overdo it. I needed to pace myself. I wouldn't be running marathons anytime soon. But I could walk a short while, I was sure. I was too excited not to.

"Thank you," I gasped while I bent down and touched my toes. My back was a little sore with that particular stretch, but otherwise I was pain free. I wanted to do some cartwheels and do a little jig, but I couldn't bring myself to risk it. I didn't want to end up hurting myself and ending up back in a chair—though in this world the chair didn't work, so I'd be scooped again.

There was a clattering sound, and I realized it came from within Terra's personal chambers. The door was closed though, and both Astamon and Terra were with me. My confusion must have shown clearly on my perplexed face, because Terra was quick to offer an explanation. "That's just Phelesmon. He's a suck up and he wants to clean for me, so I let him."

I laughed. "I could clean for you, if you want. I need to do _something_ to thank you. You gave me back my legs."

"No, no," Terra said quickly. "You don't need to do that. Just come with me to see the digimon, and tell me what you think of the home I built for them. Be honest. I don't want you to sugar coat it. Can I trust you to tell me the truth?"

"Always," I assured her. It was so weird, feeling my feet again, even after just the two month hiatus. I'd never wanted to go through that again, but no amount of wishing could have prevented the virus. I was happy we'd ended up here. I really liked hanging out with Terra and Astamon. They appreciated a good conversation, and they didn't fight like little children. It was a nice change from the boys. "You know, I think you're just about the most amazingly talented woman in the history of the worlds for giving my legs back to me."

"I agree," Astamon said with a smirk.

"You guys are too much," Terra said seriously. "I was just doing whatever I could to help a friend. And I really do think of you as a friend, Rei. I haven't known you very long, but that doesn't change anything. This place _needed_ another woman. I was getting so tired of being only one of three. The other two don't come by for conversation you know. They just come by when the Fallen Angels are fighting with the Wizards. It's so nice to have a woman to talk with that doesn't want me to solve all of her problems."

"You _did_ solve my problem," I pointed out.

"But you didn't ask," Terra told me. "And I appreciate that more than you know."

"Oh," I said, flushing red again. I was so easy to embarrass it was ridiculous. I missed the days when Kiyoko was the one that was always blushing. Hanging out with Gravimon had cured him of that for the most part. I didn't like Gravimon and the amount of influence Kiyoko allowed him to have. It was unsettling to say the least.

"Now, let us go and see the digimon," Terra suggested. "They'll be waiting for you."

She led me along, wrapping one of her arms securely around mine, while Astamon took the other. They were letting me walk on my own, which was nice, but it might've been more freeing if they weren't holding me so closely. I wasn't going to fall. I was going to be careful, but I also supposed it was kind of sweet that they were protecting me from my own two feet.

We passed through the dead trees of the forest, and I kept my eyes open, looking for Gravimon, waiting for him to jump out at us. He took pleasure in scaring others, and it was the one trait I was hoping Kiyoko wouldn't pick up from him. I wanted Kiyoko to remain the sweet, adorable guy that he'd been before. I understood that he was going through a life changing time. He and Gravimon were working through his fears, and he was finding confidence in himself. He wasn't so afraid to speak during the Wizards' group bonfires anymore. It was cool, I guess, to see him grow into the man he wanted to be, instead of the remains of the man Sigma had turned him into. But it might've been nicer if Hideto, Mari and Neo could have been around to see the changes happening too. Maybe _they_ would've been able to help him, and he wouldn't have had to be around that terrifying digimon all the time. It was strange to think that Alias III could be a better influence than _anyone_ but in this case, I was sure it was true.

Soon enough, though, the dead trees began to show signs of life, and still Gravimon hadn't shown his face. The ground beneath my feel became softer and I looked down to see moss and grass growing in abundance. The trees grew more lively the further we went on, and I saw a clock tower in the distance.

"That's where we're going," Terra informed me. "That clock tower was actually once a part of a different world too. Neverland, is what it was called. Most of it has scattered through the other worlds, from what I've learned. It has always struck me as strange that just this clock tower came here to Witchenly, when _this_ is the land of lost things."

"You're right," I asked, finding it funny. "You'd think most of it would come here."

"Things happen how the universe wants them to," Terra sighed. "It would be nice though, if more had come here. It is such a beautiful clock tower. There are so few beautiful things in this world."

"Oh, I can think of a few," I said, sending her a wink. She flushed prettily and Astamon laughed as we continued moving towards the clock tower. When we reached it, the first thing I noticed was the small clearing at its base, where colourful cloth tents were pitched sporadically. I kept my eyes peeled for any signs of digimon, but I couldn't see them. Terra laughed at my desperate search.

"Come out my friends, Rei is here to see you!" she called, and small blue dinosaur digimon came racing out of the tents to greet me. I nearly fell to my knees at the shock of seeing so many of a familiar face. They were Veemon. There were at least a dozen of them, probably more.

"I thought they were next to extinct," I gasped, covering my mouth when I realized it was probably a touchy subject for the digimon to talk about. They didn't seem to notice my slip though. They were more focussed on dragging me around to give me a tour of their little village. It was very sweet and cozy, and I told them as such. They were all very pleased with my assessment. It was so nice to be surrounded by digimon that didn't look like they were seriously debating on how to kill me.

I spent the entire afternoon seated in a circle with the Veemon scattered about me, telling stories of a very brave Veemon who often got into trouble that was too much for him to handle, but it was okay, because he always had his best friend Daisuke with him to help save the day. They were particularly impressed with the way that Veemon had managed to reach his mega level, and kept asking me to describe him. It was hard to come up with different descriptions, since I'd only seen him a couple of times at best. But it was nice to share _some_ of my friends' stories, and to give these Veemon someone they could really look up to. I was sure Veemon would blush and sheepishly kick at the ground if he found out about how much I'd been talking him up, but I didn't care. I _needed_ to talk about the friends we'd left behind, and I knew I couldn't do it with Willis—who seemed adamant that it wouldn't matter as soon as we found a way out of here—or Kiyoko—who was likely to break into tears if the topic was ever brought up in his presence. It was very cathartic, and I spent a lot more time sitting on the ground than I would've liked, just because I couldn't stop talking about Veemon.

But, eventually it was time to go, and I nearly cried when they told me not to go. I needed to, but I promised I'd come back to visit them again. I had a lot of other digimon friends I could tell stories about, and I had one other Veemon gem that I'd saved back. The story of Veemon bravely working together with Taichi when Daisuke was unconscious and Agumon was left an egg while they faced off against Arkadimon. It was a scary story, but it was also a true testament to how close of friends the digidestined and their digimon had all become over the years. Veemon trusted Taichi to give him the strength he needed to keep fighting. It was enough to bring tears to my eyes, it was such a beautiful thought.

I hoped Pal and Pul trusted Agumon and Taichi that much while I was away.

I shook the sad thoughts away. I could walk again. That _must_ be enough to stop the boys from fighting anymore. At the thought, I hugged Terra and then Astamon—who generally just seemed annoyed by the attention.

"You don't need to bring me home today," I pointed out with a smile.

"Are you sure you can make it?" he asked, sounding concerned. I winked at him. I wasn't going to let him carry me, no matter _how_ concerned he sounded. He nodded his head at me, and stepped back. I stuck my hands in my coat pocket, and felt the heavy key to Witchenly press against my hand. Kiyoko's doodad was in there too. I felt guilty, keeping it away from Terra. She'd just given me back the use of my legs. All she asked in return was that I trusted her. And I did. I knew that she'd been looking into ways out of this world. Sure, Kiyoko _might_ be able to get us out, but he hadn't been collecting data as long as Terra had. I knew it was the right choice to make, and I pulled out the key and Kiyoko's prize.

"Terra," I called. "I found something; I thought you ought to take a look at it." I trusted Terra but I knew Kiyoko didn't, so I _did_ keep back the origins of the doodad. I didn't want him to get in trouble. It would only give him another reason to continue disliking Terra—even though his reason seemed nonsensical.

"Oh my," Terra gasped, looking at the white stick Kiyoko had been _sure_ was important. She looked to the key to Witchenly and then up to me, curious.

"That's the key that brought us here," I said. "I never even thought to give it to you, even after you told me about your research. I didn't think it would be much use, since it only leads to _here_ , but you might as well take a look at it, right?"

"Thank you, Rei," Terra told me, her voice full of awe as she looked over both items I'd been protecting. "For you to give me this, even just to look at, is amazing. This could help move my work along exponentially."

"I hope so," I said with a smile. "I'd like to get out of here too. The world we left was in chaos, and we really need to get back to fix it."

"You have a good heart," Terra told me. "Thank you again."

"Not a problem," I assured her. Then I went home, walking back through the forest, sighing when the lively trees drifted into the dark, depressing dead ones. It was actually a long walk back to the cave. There was a moment or two that I thought I wasn't going to make it. My muscles were just too tired to deal with more walking, but the looks on their faces when I walked right in to Mask Square was the motivation I needed.

The scene that was waiting for me in Mask Square was _not_ the happy one I'd been envisioning. During my time with the Veemon I'd managed to forget about their fighting, and was very disappointed to find out that they were arguing when I got there.

"Just give it to Terra, Kiyoko! I want to go home," Willis shouted.

"You're a genius, Willis, and so am I, we could do it without her! We don't need her," Kiyoko yelled back.

"Yes we do," Willis insisted. "We don't know anything about world travel."

"Speak for yourself," Kiyoko snapped. It occurred to me that he might know a _little_ about travelling between the worlds. Sigma sure knew a lot, and some of it had to have rubbed off on him. If only I could get him and Terra talking. Maybe we could get out of here a whole lot sooner. It was just too bad he couldn't even say her name without grimacing.

"Stop being so childish," I yelled at them. They paused and looked to me. Disappointingly they didn't even _gasp_ at the sight of me walking again. They just glared at me for interrupting their argument. Kiyoko looked away from me pointedly, crossing his arms over his chest and huffing.

"Are you ready to give my stick back?" he asked with a falsely calm voice.

"I can't," I said, realizing how foolish my impulsive gift to Terra really was.

"You gave it to her, didn't you?" he asked coldly.

"I did," I admitted.

"Why is it that you always pick the Taichi over the Neo," he wanted to know. I was confused, so I couldn't answer. He decided to explain. "You chose Taichi over your own brother, and here in Witchenly, there's Gravimon that you won't even give the time of day, but he's so much like your brother its crazy, and then there's Terra, who's so happy go lucky all the time and everyone looks to her for advice even though she'd not _technically_ in charge, but she is, because everyone says she is. She's the Taichi of this world. And you chose her over Neo."

"To be fair, I chose Taichi when Neo had kidnapped me and locked me in a prison," I pointed out. But I did understand what he was implying. Neo had made a bunch of mistakes, and had been really threatening and scary for awhile, but he was my brother, and he managed to redeem himself when given the opportunity. But I loved Taichi, I was literally in love with him. Terra didn't really remind me of him. Her situation in this world _was_ disturbingly similar though. "You're right. I haven't been fair to Gravimon. I should give him another chance, but I don't understand the rest of it. If Terra is this world's Taichi, why is it bad that I gave her that stick and the key?"

"You gave her the key too?" he groaned. He slammed his head against the wall at my supposed stupidity. "Shouldn't these things be a unanimous group decision? Shouldn't I get _any_ say in what we do here? You can't just follow Terra blindly. The last thing I know for sure that Taichi did was start a war with Earth. You've got to be careful."

"So I should trust _Neo_ more than Taichi?" I guessed, thinking it sounded ridiculous.

"One of them always tells the truth," he reminded me. "No matter how hurtful it is to hear it. You'll _never_ catch me abandoning Neo. He's Alias III. He's my family. If he didn't trust Taichi, I wouldn't work with Taichi at all."

"Does Gravimon not trust Terra?" I asked, confused.

"He does," Kiyoko muttered bitterly. "But not explicitly. He only trusts her to keep the Wizards and Fallen Angels out of his woods. If she goes back on her word, he won't trust her again though."

"This is all pointless," Willis interrupted. "You're analogy doesn't make sense, and I get that you're trying to piece it back together, but it got lost in the transition from your brain to your mouth. Rei already gave Terra the key and the doodad. It's too late."

"Just ask her to give them back," Kiyoko insisted, looking incredibly hurt that no one was buying into his story. "She can't have them. I don't like it. She's...she's...she just reminds me of someone okay."

"Like who?" Willis asked, rolling his eyes.

"I don't _know_ ," Kiyoko cried. "I think maybe it's my mom."

My heart sank. Of _course_ Kiyoko wouldn't like Terra if she reminded him of his mother. His mother was never very good to him. She was good to other people outside of her family. She was the perfect housewife to the neighbours. I know she showered him with affection when she thought he was the perfect child, complimenting him for following the strict rules and guidelines set by his father, for not having any thoughts that were his own, for wanting only what his parents wanted him to want. It was such a secluded and trapped childhood that he'd had, and it was sad to think that he viewed playing host to Sigma as a brighter point in his life. With Sigma he'd at least got to do interesting things. He's actually told us that once, when he'd had tried a couple of drinks at the bar. He liked his time with Sigma better than with his parents. It was heartbreaking.

But Terra _wasn't_ his mother. It wasn't fair to force him to like her if she reminded him of her, but it wasn't fair to Terra to aim all his anger and frustrations his mother had created at her.

"She did the right thing, Kiyoko," Willis said gently.

It was the wrong thing to say. Kiyoko screamed in frustration—literally screamed—and then stormed off again. He was too frustrated to form words anymore. I knew that he'd been trying to make a point with the Neo and Taichi comments, and I wished I knew what it was. He sometimes had trouble forming his thoughts into words. He couldn't always convey the idea in a way that made sense. I wasn't as good at understanding what he meant as the rest of Alias III was.

I wished they were here with us now. Maybe they could talk some sense into him and Willis. But I was done with it for now. I was going to go to bed, and I hoped _one_ of them might realize I was walking in the morning. It was just depressing that neither had bothered to mention it.

 _ **Ken Ichijouji:**_

Takeru was worried about Hikari. He didn't seem to be able to go more than a single minute without reminding Koushiro and me of that fact. He was always biting his lip, and glancing back over his shoulder, as if he could still see her. I clenched my fists each time he did this. I tried to be objective. I tried to look at this from his point of view, but I was having a hard time bringing myself to feel _any_ sympathy for him. Hikari was just staying at home. Hikari was fine. We _knew_ she was physically fine at the very least. She was always smiling. She was always offering me an ear to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, a friend to lean on. She wasn't as weak as he was making her out to be. I was fairly certain she would actually be rather offended by his obsessive worrying.

"We should probably go back," Takeru said, talking more to himself than either Koushiro or myself. He stopped walking down the cobblestone street he'd wished up—he was always wishing them up, in case we wanted to bike some of the way—and nodded his head. "Yes. We're going to go back. We need to go be with Hikari. It's August first. We should all be together today. It's important."

"You know, Hikari wasn't even _with_ us on August first. We didn't find out she was the eighth child until days later," Koushiro pointed out.

"That's irrelevant," Takeru said waving a hand in Koushiro's direction. "We need to be with Hikari now. We shouldn't be doing this without her. It's not right."

"You're going to have a romantic dinner with her later," I reminded him, trying _not_ to feel like I was stabbing my heart with a large dagger of jealousy. What would I _give_ to have Miyako with me right now? How far was I willing to go, for the chance to just _know_ that she was okay? I was willing to do or give just about _anything_. And Takeru knew that. I tried not to take it personally each time he brought up the fact that Hikari was his girlfriend, that he loved her. I tried not to wish that it was Miyako that was here instead of Hikari. I actually _liked_ that Hikari was here. She was really helpful. But there was always a bitter part of my mind that whispered horrible wishes. I would never be able to share them with anyone. They were too horrible. They were the reason I kept my bedroom door locked each night. I couldn't risk any of those secret wishes escaping. This world was equally wonderful and terrifying. Any wish could at any point become reality. And the Boogeyman—Akumu—was out there waiting to prey on thoughts like the ones I kept buried. He'd preyed on Hikari, creating an illusion of my wife. He'd created an illusion of my child, still a fetus, bloody and dead. It was the only image I had of my son or daughter.

It _killed_ me.

Each night, every time I closed my eyes, I would see it. It haunted me. It always started a montage of horrible memories and fears. Each morning, I awoke drenched in sweat, shaking like a leaf, surrounded by a fog of darkness, smothering my screams and sobs into my pillow. I had to pull myself together before I could disperse the darkness. I waited five or so minutes, to ensure the darkness wouldn't return, before I unlocked my door and decided to brave the day.

Some days were better than others. Some days I could barely pull myself out of bed. Sometimes it took so long to disperse the darkness that Takeru would come up and knock on my door, trying the handle, only to find it locked. There was just so much pressure to keep it together, and I couldn't always live up to his expectations.

And I supposed I was bitter about that too.

He seemed so intently focussed on me and my wellbeing. I hardly ever saw him show the same concern for Hikari or Koushiro. I knew I was fragile, but it wasn't helping me to have such a dedicated cheerleader. I needed time to myself, to sort out my own thoughts, and to come to terms with what happened. I needed to form my own opinions, instead of clinging to Takeru's just because they made me feel better.

But the constant reminders that Takeru was happy here, and was with the love of his life, weren't helpful in the slightest. I couldn't tell him to stop talking to or about Hikari though. It wouldn't be fair of me. No matter how jealous I got, no matter how many painful thoughts got brought up watching them together.

No matter how much I wanted Miyako.

It had been two months. I _should_ be getting better at this, but I wasn't. If anything, I was getting _worse_ with each passing day. The darkness was just a little thicker in the morning, the nightmares were just a little more frightening, and each step took a little more effort.

I shook my head, ridding myself of the negative thoughts as if I was brushing away cobwebs. We needed to keep looking for Trust. It was our mission. I needed our mission. It was the only purpose I had to look forward to. It was the only reason I didn't let the darkness linger in the mornings.

"You should let Hikari have this time apart if you don't want her to get irritated with your ridiculously positive attitude," I told him slowly, trying not to sound _too_ bitter. "If I didn't have each night away from you, I'm pretty sure I would have decked you by now."

"Rude," Takeru said, before snorting, and throwing one arm over my shoulder, and pulling me close to him. "But you're right. I should do as she wants. I can't turn into Taichi. She wouldn't appreciate it. It took her _ages_ to get out of his overprotective shadow. I can't just shove her into my own. That's not fair. I know what it's like. Yamato was _my_ Taichi, after all."

Koushiro and I stayed silent after that, both silently dreading the moment that Takeru's resolve would waver and he'd decide once again that we needed to get to Hikari. Thankfully, that moment didn't come. Instead, he summoned up a small telescope, and looked through it, scanning the distance, as though we were pirates out at sea, looking for land. He threw himself into the search, though we were no better off than we were before. It was expected by now that we would come up empty handed.

"You know," Takeru said when he eventually got tired of the silence. "Hikari thinks that my hope will be enough to find Trust. Isn't that sweet of her? I think it's sweet."

"That's not what she said," Koushiro told him, bursting Takeru's bubble. He looked to Koushiro, irritated, but Koushiro continued speaking regardless. "She said that she thinks we'll have a better chance without her negativity."

"Well, whose fault is that?" Takeru challenged Koushiro. I was confused, and I wasn't the only one. Koushiro raised one eyebrow questioningly at Takeru. "I'm always trying to keep everyone hopeful and positive and _you_ , Koushiro, keep poisoning our mind with your "logic"."

"How do we know that it's not _you_ that is poisoning our minds?" Koushiro argued, still looking as cool as a cucumber, despite Takeru's ire. "Perhaps it is _you_ and your consistent, all consuming positivity that is the problem."

"I'm not totally positive _all_ the time you know!" Takeru burst angrily. He threw his hands into the air exasperatedly. "I actually do have negative thoughts, but I push them aside because... _what good are they_? They only make people—including me—feel bad. If you think negatively it will exude out of you and you'll be a jerk and no one will like you." Takeru rubbed his hands over his face, and when he pulled them away, he looked so unlike himself I mightn't have recognized him if I hadn't been standing there staring at him the entire time. He was so withdrawn, his face was pale and there were worry lines on his forehead. His eyes were dull now, where they'd been glistening before. "I dislike so many things," he admitted, as though he were telling the world's biggest secret. I hadn't even _once_ imagined that he liked _everything_. But it was actually nice to have him confirm it. "I don't like my dad's marriage."—he looked rather guilty and ashamed about this particular opinion—"I think it's weirdly codependent, but I love him and he's old enough to make his own decisions. I know if anyone thought negatively about my relationship with Hikari I wouldn't want them to tell me. It's none of their business because _I'm_ happy. But that doesn't mean the thoughts aren't there. I just don't feel the need to _share_ them."

"Well, aren't you Mr _Perfect_ ," Koushiro muttered sarcastically. I sighed, remembering when he was bitter and mean towards _me_ , and actually _missing_ those days, because at least then we were all together, and I had Miyako to help me through his seemingly random hatred.

"I'm not perfect!" Takeru screamed, burying his fingers into his hair and pulling on it, looking rather wild. "I'm _not_. So stop pretending that I am. It makes me feel like crap. I'm positive because I have to be. People expect it of me, but I've never once pretended to be perfect."

"Yet you are allowed to force _your_ opinions on people," Koushiro commented. "I'm not, because I'm negative, but not everyone wants your positivity forced on them. It's tiring. If I can't have my own thoughts and theories, don't share _your_ opinions without being asked. Otherwise, you'll become a hypocrite, and wouldn't suit you."

"It's not a weakness to show emotions, Koushiro," Takeru told him. " _Just_ because you're an emotionless robot that doesn't care how much the facts can _hurt_ , how your impartial theories _hurt_ , doesn't mean you should spread them around. They hurt people."

"The facts are concrete!" Koushiro argued. "They can't _hurt_ anyone. How people perceive them is their choice. I find the facts to be perfectly comforting."

"Yeah, well, I show empathy," Takeru muttered far too quiet for Koushiro to hear—not that he seemed interested in continuing this conversation. "People actually _like_ to be around _me_."

I doubted I was meant to hear him.

I couldn't help but wonder if he was stating a _fact_ , which Koushiro was so fond of, or if he was reassuring himself. He was always trying so hard to keep all of us uplifted. He didn't want any of us to dwell on the past. He wanted us to be happy, no matter how impossible the idea seemed some days— _most_ days, to be honest.

Regardless of his meaning, I was glad Koushiro had not heard him. I was tired of this fighting. I wanted to keep going on our seemingly endless—if not pointless—mission of finding Trust. The least I could do was locate the final digidestined. Meiyomon had trusted Michael and me with the final crests, and Trust was the recipient of the final one. I might feel better if I could finish that task for Meiyomon. It helped, to know that Summer was going to get us out of this world when we found him.

I simply couldn't let my mind wonder over what it was that we would find when we left. I couldn't bear to think about Koushiro's facts, but sometimes, focussing on Takeru's hopeful imaginings hurt just as much.

We continued walking along the cobblestones in silence. Takeru was still using his telescope, but I stopped looking too hard. In fact, I just started staring at the grass on either side of our street, trying hard to bring myself to wish a blanket of flowers into existence, but finding myself only able to conjure up white, puffy dandelions that had gone to seed. They weren't exactly the pick-me-up that I'd hoped for. The wind that Takeru wished up when he started to sweat under the heat of the sun blew the seeds off of their stems, and I watched as they fluttered into the distance, landing on cool, grey sand.

I blinked.

It was sand. My brows furrowed, and I looked behind us. There was sand everywhere. It reached back as far as I could see, and it stretched out for miles in front of us. The crash of the waves was loud, and I knew that there would be a large, black expanse of water to my left. I was almost too scared to look, but I did it anyway.

I was right.

Somehow we'd ended up on the beach in the Dark Ocean. A chill settled into my bones as I remembered my last encounter with this world. Daemon had taken my wife, and I'd gone to find her. I'd drunk the water, and experienced the tortures they conjured up for me. I had dropped my digivice into that same water, and the water had turned it into a D-3 and pitch black.

I couldn't be here.

How _was_ I here?

"Ken?" Takeru asked with a shaky voice. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Not anymore," I admitted, unable to look away from the black ocean ahead of me. I was in a trance.

"Do you suppose it's Hikari?" Koushiro questioned.

"No!" Takeru yelled. "She's happy. She's fine."

"Is she?" Koushiro asked pointedly.

"She'd tell me if she wasn't," Takeru argued urgently. "She would. She trusts me. She'd tell me if it was this bad. She wouldn't let it fester. She knows she doesn't have to hide anymore."

"She'd do it anyway," I whispered. "It's not me, and she's the only other one in this world that is plagued by the Dark Ocean." I didn't like disappointing Takeru. I didn't like learning that I'd been reading Hikari wrong either. I'd thought she was so happy. She was always smiling, always helping me. But she wasn't happy. She was just pretending. I felt guilty, knowing that I was so wrapped up in my own issues that I didn't realize she had any of her own.

"Is that..." Koushiro murmured to himself. "There's someone out there."

"Where?" Takeru demanded. I knew from the urgency in his voice that he feared it was Hikari. I started searching myself. Knowing that someone was in danger was enough to snap me out of the trance the water had put me in. I knew now that I wasn't actually in the Dark Ocean. That was already a step in the right direction.

My eyes landed on a flash of gold in the endless black waters. It wasn't Hikari. It was Yume, the sandman. He was struggling. Why was he struggling? I strained my eyes, trying to see what was happening, and gasped when I realized what I was seeing. The sandman's arch nemesis—Akumu, the boogeyman—was holding him down with the help of several deranged, demonic spirit creatures. He couldn't hold off all of them at once. He needed help.

Before my mind could catch up to the rest of me, I was kicking off my shoes, and ripping off my socks. I was in the water before Takeru caught hold of me. It was only _then_ that I realized he'd been shouting my name.

"KEN!" he yelled. "Don't do that."

"I need to help him," I snapped angrily. I swore to help people when I'd stopped being the Kaiser _and_ when I took up the badge.

"You can," he said. He held out his hand, and suddenly planks of wood started joining together. I understood. He was making a bridge. It would get me there faster. I nodded to him, and raced along it, even though it wasn't finished yet. I knew Takeru was still on the beach, wishing up new planks as I needed them.

I was getting close. I was also getting slivers in the bottom of my feet. I _could_ have wished that it was impossible for me to get them, but it didn't occur to me until after it had already happened. The pain didn't matter anyway. It was inconsequential compared to Yume's danger. The distance was shrinking. I could clearly see four creatures assisting the boogeyman. They weren't shadows—the creatures that inhabit the Dark Ocean—as I'd assumed they would be. They weren't _anything_. They were twisted, distorted shadowy demon creatures. Their limbs jutted out at odd angles, and there were an odd number of them. They didn't have just two arms; they had three, four, or _five_. Two of them had tails, one had horns on its head, and the other had spikes down its back.

I didn't take any longer to look them over, because I'd reached them, and swung my fist into the boogeyman's face, catching him off guard. He fell into the water, and I took the opportunity to pull on the one creature's horns, pulling him off of Yume, and shoving him into the water too. I kicked one of the monsters with a tail, and by that point, Yume was able to fight off the last two before the others got back. He shoved them away, and pulled himself onto the bridge, holding his hand out to summon his staff. Akumu the boogeyman came flying out of the water and Yume blasted him with a bright light.

He was so busy with Akumu that he didn't realize the other four had come to their senses. He was busy with Akumu, but _I_ wasn't—and they noticed. The four of them came for me, and I high-tailed it out of there, racing back down the bridge Takeru had created. They smashed the boards behind me, giving me _just_ enough motivation to not slow down. I kept running passed Koushiro and Takeru on the beach, having noticed Takeru's hands were out. He had a plan, and I was going to let him put it into action.

I turned back in time to see Takeru summon a glass box around the creatures. They didn't notice it, and crashed into the back of it, toppling over into a heap. It would've been hilarious if I was in any mood for humour—and they didn't look so disgusting.

Koushiro didn't look all that happy that Takeru was constantly wishing things into existence, but I was too happy that the danger was gone to care. Personally, I wished things up all the time as distractions, so I didn't have the same reservations that Koushiro seemed to. He never seemed to wish for _anything_ —except the ability to simply not sleep.

I stared at the glass box of fallen creatures, afraid that they would escape. It wouldn't be hard. They simply needed to wish the box away. I wondered why they didn't. They didn't seem particularly smart though. Yume tossed a tied up Akumu on the ground next to the box, before tapping on it and grinning.

"Caught all the nightmares, did you? Excellent," he said. "I've got Akumu. Together we've foiled his latest plan! It's not every day you get a chance to help a genuine superhero take down his arch nemesis. How does it feel boys? Pretty good, I'd think."

"More than good," Takeru said eagerly.

"You're right," Yume agreed. "Obviously, I would have been able to do it alone, but it is nice to have help sometimes." It only occurred to me then that he couldn't possibly have been drowning. He didn't need to breath. He could also wish he was a fish if he wanted to. There was no possible way that Akumu would've been able to kill him. I felt rather foolish for rushing to his aid. I was far too used to the rules of Earth. If he'd been on Earth, I would've been a hero instead of a rash idiot. I kicked the sand, debating whether or not to put my shoes back on just so I wouldn't have to meet his eye.

"Who summoned these...creatures?" Koushiro queried. Takeru sucked in a breath, afraid that the answer would be Hikari. I was afraid it would be her too.

"Akumu did," Yume explained, as if it were obvious—as if we didn't have a friend that was a ticking time bomb of doom and destruction and sadness, without any of our knowledge. Well, except for Koushiro. He'd known. He always knew everything. It was kind of irritating. And depressing. It was hard to accept. His opinions on the fate of my wife and child weren't favourable in any way. "He collects these nightmares by setting them free of the dream bubbles in the field of dreams. It's something he does often, despite my best efforts to prevent it."

"Oh?" Koushiro asked, quirking his head. He was curious. I sighed mentally. We would be here for ages. He wouldn't rest until his curiosity was sated. "Would you be open to providing a more detailed explanation? I would like to understand this phenomenon. Perhaps that will help us in the future, should we come across similar creatures."

"That might be good," Yume agreed. "We don't know how long you'll be here before Summer can get you out. You could be back-up heroes. Not _super_ heroes, mind you, but regular heroes."

"Yes, sure," Koushiro said, sounding entirely uninterested. He just wanted to understand the mechanics of it all. I didn't really care about that stuff. I didn't need any more information. I just needed to know that they would try to kill me—which was enough to keep me from letting them succeed in doing so.

Yume, however, seemed to be tickled pink at the idea of explaining his nemesis's various tactics and how exactly Yume was able to stop Akumu from succeeding with any of those plans. I groaned. When I was still, when I wasn't working towards finding Trust, my mind had a tendency to wander. I was afraid of what might happen when it did—especially being in such close proximity to the Dark Ocean, no matter how fake it was. It didn't matter that Hikari had accidentally—I hope—wished it up. It _felt_ real. And it was still pulling me in. I was so scared of it, but my body wasn't listening to my logic. I wanted to walk into it, to feel the water rush over me.

Takeru tugged on my sleeve, and I followed him willingly—anything to keep me from giving in to the pull. He dragged me behind him, glancing back at Koushiro and the others every few seconds. Maybe he was hoping they wouldn't notice our disappearance, but I doubted they could miss it. It didn't seem to matter anyway, because he wasn't stopping.

"We're going to keep looking without Koushiro," Takeru explained when we got far enough away in his opinion. I was confused, and it showed on my face. I knew it did, because he looked at me and chewed on his lip anxiously. "The two of us have the best chance of finding Trust. If Hikari is right, then Koushiro is just holding us back, the same as her."

"And _I'm_ not?" I asked him, just as confused as before.

"Of course not," Takeru protested. "You want this just as much as I do. You probably want it _more_. We need to find Trust in order to get back to Miyako and the others. No one wants that more than you. You're the perfect guy to take on this mission."

"Miyako?" I asked with a strangled voice. I could picture it as he said it. I could see us meeting up with the others, and running to my wife. I would take her in my arms and I would just hold her close for a good long while. I wanted to hear her voice, I wanted to talk to her, tell her the things I'd never thought to say before we'd been separated. I wanted to feel our baby wiggle and kick. I wanted to share that with her. I'd been absent for so much, and to hear Takeru offer this to me, if only I found Trust? It was perfect. It was like he'd said the magic words.

I sent all thoughts that weren't focussed on my absolute necessity of finding Trust away. They weren't helping. I needed to believe I could find him. I needed to want it. And I did. Now that I'd sent all other thoughts away, I didn't want anything else. I was really starting to believe that Takeru might've been right this whole time. Maybe all I really needed was to be a bit more positive. We could actually find him. No. We _would_ find him.

Focussing my thoughts, I started walking down the beach, further away from Koushiro and Yume, who were still asking and answering questions next to the fallen form of the tied up Akumu, and his friends who were trapped in that glass box. Trust wasn't with them. I needed to move away. Takeru followed after me. I could hear him talking, but he wasn't talking about Trust, so the words sort of went in one ear and out the other. I might've felt bad, but I was too focussed on Trust to care at that moment.

I didn't know how long we'd been walking. It could have been hours, days or just minutes. I couldn't tell. I was too focussed on my new mission. I was letting my desire to find him lead the way. I didn't know if I would get any favourable results, but I didn't think about it too hard before those thoughts were sent packing as well.

We continued walking until my trancelike state was shattered at the sound of a battle cry. Takeru was immediately on guard, and I was looking towards the water again, thinking someone else might be drowning. No one was there. Takeru tugged on my sleeve again, and I looked to him. He was looking at something with such excessive enthusiasm, that I needed to get a look myself. I was curious. What I saw was a young boy, fourteen, maybe fifteen at most, facing off against more of those twisted nightmares. He was using what I assumed was _meant_ to be martial arts, but wasn't any _proper_ form of it. It looked to me like he'd developed his own fighting style after watching a bunch of movies. It didn't matter how unpolished it was, because it was working for him.

His white and red running shoes crashed into a nightmare's chest as he performed a high kick. He was wearing cargo pants that were a deep olive green, and a grey long sleeve t-shirt. He had yellow gloves on his hands, which were curved into fists, and a red bandana tied around his neck. He was also wearing some sort of armor over his right shoulder that was strapped across his chest with black bands.

For just a second, my mind flashed to a different image. The same boy, but dressed in a blue shirt with those same cargo pants. He seemed younger. But the hair was the same. The same reddish brown spiked mess. And his eyes, his very blue eyes were familiar too.

But I blinked, and was brought back to the present. The boy kicked another nightmare, this time into a digimon's path. I'd been so focused on the boy, that I'd missed the presence of a digimon altogether. It was black with armor on his head, shoulders, and thighs. He had silver blades protruding from both of his forearms. He had four red wings that matched the boy's neckerchief. The digimon was familiar too. Not to the same extent as the boy, but I knew I'd seen him before...

No.

That was ridiculous. I'd have remembered seeing this digimon, and since I couldn't remember, I was making it up. The Dark Ocean was providing me with ideas that I didn't want. I stepped away from the water, trying to put distance between us. I wasn't helping. Memories of travelling across a desert were flashing through my mind. There was some giant monster that I needed to fight and pieces of... _desire_? I didn't understand what was going on with me.

The digimon shouted out "Cyber Nail!" and proceeded to slash at the nightmares with the blades on his arm. The boy scolded his partner.

"Don't hurt them," he ordered. "It's not their fault. They were perfectly happy dreams before the boogeyman got a hold of them. They can become dreams again."

"Sorry," his partner said sounding incredibly disappointed. He didn't try to slash them again though. He instead, decided to rally them up, separating each one from the herd, and protected the kid while the boy worked a little magic of his own, trapping the nightmares back into a dream bubble one by one. I was more than a little impressed. He turned to his partner and shot him two thumbs up when they'd finished returning each nightmare to their bubbles. And then he caught sight of us.

And he fled.

He and his partner both started running away from us. I didn't know if they thought we were the boogeyman or _what_ exactly, but I didn't have time to chase him down again. Maybe he was trust, and maybe he wasn't, but this boy had something to do with my past, and I needed to know what and how.

"No, don't run!" Takeru shouted. "We need you! You're Trust. We've only been looking for you forever!"

The kid didn't stop, and neither did his partner. He was running away. If I waited much longer, he'd be gone and we'd be back to square one. I needed to do something. But what could I do? I didn't really know him. I had memories, but no answers.

"RYOU!" I yelled instinctively before he could escape my sight entirely. He skidded to a stop, and his partner followed suit. He looked back to me, his face contorted into confusion. He looked me head to toe, but clearly didn't understand how I knew him. I was a tad disappointed. I'd been hoping for answers, but they didn't matter too much. I needed him to come with us so that we could drag him to Summer, and tell her to get a move on and get us out of here already. "Ryou, I need you to come with me. If you don't, I may never get to see my wife again, may never get to meet my child. I might never even know if they're alive."

"That's not fun," the boy said. "We can't have that." I was confused now. He didn't even question the idea that I knew his name. He just changed his tune entirely upon hearing my sob story. "What do you think, Cyberdramon? We should help them, right?" His partner nodded. It was a Cyberdramon then. "Okay then, I guess we're going with you. Lead the way!"

"Are we sure he's Trust?" I asked Takeru, as we followed his lead back down the beach. He was the only one that knew how far we'd gone. I hadn't been paying attention. As it turned out, we hadn't gone excessively far at all.

"Yeah," Takeru said. "How many people actually live here?"

I had to give him that, and relapsed back into silence as we hunted down Koushiro and Yume. I couldn't wait to share the news of our discovery. Hikari had to take credit though. If she hadn't shared her theory, we wouldn't have ditched Koushiro, so we never would have found Ryou.

I wondered why it was exactly that I knew this boy's name.

We found Yume and Koushiro sitting on two armchairs in a collection around an open flame. I was more shocked to see that Koushiro was willingly seated on something someone had obviously wished into existence, than I was to see that Summer and Hikari had joined them. I looked to Takeru, and he seemed annoyed that Hikari was willing to spend time with Koushiro, but _not_ with him. He didn't have long to sulk though, because Summer caught sight of us and jumped to her feet. She squealed and pulled Ryou into a hug.

"I knew you could do it!" she cheered. "You've found Trust. You've found the final piece of the digidestined puzzle. This is amazing."

"I _told_ you," Hikari teased. "You could only do it without me."

"Yeah, we needed a complete lack of doubt," Takeru said dryly. I noticed that his eyes never once strayed from Koushiro's back. Hikari seemed to understand his train of thought and didn't appear to approve.

"Why do I know you?" I asked Ryou. He shrugged his shoulders, unsure. "I can't know you. You look the same as you did in my memories. You _can't_ be the same kid. If these memories are real, then I knew you since I'd first encounter with the Digital World. That was _sixteen_ years ago though, and you are clearly younger than that. You _have_ to be."

"I can explain all of that," Ryou said with a shrug. "If you've got the time?"

"Sure we do," Yume said gallantly. "I would love to hear of how you managed to get into Land of Dream."

"But," I said, nearly whimpering.

"I will continue my work, while he talks," Summer promised. "Why don't you tell us your story dear?"

"Okay," Ryou said. "It started in the park, of all places..."

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Ryou takes a turn telling a story and how he Never Grows Up. :)


	37. Never Grow Up

**Y/N:** This is Ryou's story. It was a long one to tell, and it was really difficult to piece together enough of his actual story so that he could fit in our world, but still be true to the character he's meant to be for the Tamer's story. He's that elusive character that somehow was in all sorts of games and in 02 and in Tamers and he's kind of confusing. As such, it took a really long time to even want to tackle it, and so his chapter was actually the last part of this story to be written. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but it was really intimidating when it was still unwritten. His one-shot (part of the Gennai one) is actually the opening of it, since it seemed like a pretty important part of his story, and I didn't think it made sense for him to skip over the beginning of his tale when he was telling it to Takeru, Hikari, Koushiro and Ken. But I hope you enjoy what I managed to cobble together, and I hope you end up liking our version of Ryou.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 3: Land of Dreams and Witchenly**

 **Chapter 37: Never Grow Up**

 ** _Ryou Akiyama:_**

I was being stupid. Yeah, I was mad at my dad, but storming out of the house wasn't probably the right way to deal with that anger. I should've gone back immediately to face the music, but I couldn't. I knew he was wrong. I was totally responsible. Granted, my running off did not help my case any, but I was generally a pretty positive person, and I've found over the course of my life—however short it'd been thus far—that positive thinking was typically rewarded with positive results. It wouldn't take too long for me to prove just how responsible I was, to earn dad's trust. I knew how hard getting a pet would be, and especially so for the dog I so desperately wanted. I'd have to take him on walks daily, clean up after him, buy food and treats, purchase dishes, brushes and toys, groom him, train him, teach him tricks. It was a lot of work, but I was up to it. I wasn't just a little kid anymore. I was growing up. It would be good for me to have such a big responsibility. I had to start preparing myself for the big world out there sometime didn't I?

But dad wasn't as sure as I was. In fact he was my exact opposite. Where I always found a ray of sunshine, he desperately searched for storm clouds. He was the most negative, pessimistic person I'd ever met. Mom wasn't much better—strictly neutral on almost all topics. I couldn't fathom where I got my sunny disposition, but I wasn't complaining. I was very thankful for it actually. It made me a ton of friends, and I just loved being around people. Dad hated it. He was always telling me to be thankful while it lasts, because once I get lost in the storm of real life I wasn't going to be able to hold onto happiness. Just look at him.

Yeah…

That was one conversation between us that I couldn't find a positive spin for. He hated his life. Not that it was anything new, he hated _everything._ It was just that mom and I were a part of his life too. And Uncle Tadao. God, dad hated him more than he hated anything. Tadao went places with his life, unlike dad. Tadao traveled the seas with some ship he called Whamon. I'd never been allowed to ride on it though. I'd never even seen it. I would someday though. I was sure of it. And I'd love every minute of it, because Tadao and I, we were like two peas in a pod.

Tadao always told me that I reminded him of the stories my grandfather told him, from when grandfather was younger. I had the "same spirit" he'd say. I didn't know what it meant exactly, but dad always forced Tadao to leave after he said it. Our visits were never as long as I'd like them to be. Sometimes—very rarely, mind you—I wish that Tadao would just take me with him when he left. Dad would probably be happier in his negativity if I wasn't there. I was pretty sure my sheer happiness made him more miserable than he was on his own. He needed a break, and for a chance to go somewhere exciting, I was more than willing to give him one.

I kicked at a stone on the path in front of me, watching it bounce along the cement walkway before kicking it again, making a game out of it. I'd wait just a few more minutes before going back to see dad. I wasn't getting a dog just yet, I knew that much, but I could probably talk him into a gold fish, and that would be fun too.

"Well—" the loud voice of a girl came behind me. No. Not a girl, a young woman. She slammed into the back of me. I was going to tell her it wasn't a problem, since she started to apologize. It was never a problem when a really pretty girl—young woman—knocked you down. Ever. And she was really pretty. She had wavy light brown hair and bright eyes that were just brimming with stories of adventures long past. Oddly specific, I know, but Uncle Tadao had the exact same look whenever he looked at me and told me stories of his life. The young woman was loud though, and had several companions with her. One with her hair tied back with a clip and a pencil skirt and blazer, like reporters on television, and the second clearly had a severe humidity problem, because her hair seemed to be growing by the second in the hot summer heat. It was the third companion—a pink and green flower with eyes, legs and arms—that puzzled me though, but I didn't get the chance to say anything about it.

I didn't get a chance to do more than glance at the lot of them.

Suddenly, _just_ as sudden as their appearance, they were gone. But so was the park. I was still falling through the air, never having reached the ground. The trees and the path melted into a dark cave-like tunnel. There was only one sign of life there, and that was a horrifyingly disfigured and discoloured tree. I stepped towards it, reaching out to touch it. I wanted to know what was wrong with it. I'd worry about being lost in some weird tunnel—and wonder how I got there—later.

But I didn't get a chance to touch the tree either.

The tunnel melted away to a path in the woods. If I didn't know better, I'd say it was the very park I'd been walking in just moments before. But it clearly wasn't. The trees were far more vivacious, and the sky was clear, not a sign of smog or pollution to be seen. I could hear the gentle rush of soft waves rolling into the shore, and took off down the dirt path—not concrete—towards the sound. I emerged from the trees to see a beautiful, crystal clear lake in the middle of the forest. What was that doing there? I could've sworn there wasn't a lake there. If there was, wouldn't someone have mentioned it? But it was far too pure to have been discovered by human eyes before. Someone would have capitalized on its beauty by now.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

I turned to see a man walking towards me, seeming far livelier than his age would suggest. He was clearly an old man, short too.

"Prettiest I've ever seen, sir," I agreed, and turned back to continue staring at it. What would Tadao give to be able to take his boat out on this? He wasn't going to believe me when I told him.

"I've been waiting for you to arrive," the man told me. "I wasn't sure how you could get here, to a place so far from your own time, but I'm pleased to meet you regardless."

"Who are you?" I asked, not being able to tear my eyes away from the water. This place was surreal. I couldn't figure out where I was, or how I got there, but I didn't even care that nothing made sense. It was too awe inspiring to worry about.

"I am Gennai," he informed me.

"I'm Ryou," I replied.

"Ryou Akiyama," Gennai elaborated. "I know. You have a great destiny before you. You must complete it in order to return to your own time."

"Wow," I gasped, finally looking away from the sparkling lake to look at Gennai more carefully. He seemed to be honest, and so I took his word for it. "I time travelled. That is so cool."

And it was. It was probably the most exciting thing that would ever happen to me in my entire life. No one would believe me, but who cared? I time travelled! This was great!

"Where am I then?" I asked bouncing excitedly on my feet.

"I think the better question might be _when_ ," Gennai said with a low chuckle. "It is, on Earth, the year 1999. Here we have experienced far more years than they have. Our time is out of balance, but I expect it will be a problem soon dealt with. As for _where_ , you are in the Digital World. It is a world that lives in tandem with your own. Do not worry."

"I'm not," I assured him. He sent me a small smile.

"You will have many adventures here," he promised. "You will have to. There are many years between now and your home in 2027."

"You're right," I said with a grin. "I'll have way more adventures than Uncle Tadao ever did on Whamon."

"Whamon?" Gennai questioned quietly.

"It's his boat," I explained.

"Whamon is not a boat," Gennai corrected me firmly. "A Whamon is a digimon. A digital monster, he's one of the inhabitants of the Digital World."

"Okay, cool," I said. I was a pretty calm guy. I wasn't going to get all huffy because Tadao didn't tell me something this big. I would just roll with the punches and see where it got me. "So it's like a whale then?"

"Exactly," Gennai said smiling at my easy acceptance. "You have a partner as well."

"Another Whamon?" I asked.

"Oh no. Yours is specifically tailored to your needs. All partners are. They are two pieces to the same puzzle," he said.

"Like soul mates," I decided. Mom was a hopeless romantic, which kind of sucked since she married Dad, but whatever. She was always telling me that someday, if I'm lucky—so as not to get my hopes up—I would find my other half, the missing piece to my puzzle. She wasn't wrong. She just didn't realize that I was missing _two_ pieces. No big deal. She didn't realize she was missing another one either, so it was cool.

"I suppose so," Gennai said slowly. "Unfortunately, your partner is lost. You'll have to find him on your own. We didn't realize you would be here so soon. 2027 is still a ways away, you see. We thought we had more time to find him."

"Not a problem," I told him. "That could be my first mission."

"Perhaps," he said cryptically. "I do need you to promise me something."

"Sure," I agreed easily.

"You need to _trust_ in other digimon to help you along the way. You cannot do it alone, and until you find your digimon partner, you will need all the help you can get," he told me seriously.

"I can tell who to trust, no problem," I said. "Maybe I'll see you around?"

"Someday…maybe…" Gennai told me awkwardly. He hugged me then. A totally random thing to do to a guy you'd just met, but I let him. I even hugged him back. A small price to pay when it made the old guy so ridiculously happy. "Goodbye, Ryou Akiyama. Take this digivice, it belongs to you. Your partner will explain its workings when you meet him."

"I'll take good care of it," I promised. "And the Digital World."

"I have no doubts," Gennai told me.

I hurried off into the trees, completely stoked about the journey lying ahead of me. I couldn't wait to explore this new world. I had loads of time. Twenty-eight years worth of time, give or take a few, since the Digital World wasn't on track with Earth right then. This was going to be great!

I started running, desperate to meet a digimon, and see more of the world. I had to stop on a dime though. I heard a noise to my left and _had_ to know what it was. I tried to be as quiet as I could, so I didn't scare whatever it was. There was a blue dinosaur-thing standing in the trees, eating some fruit he'd just picked from the branches. He looked completely trustworthy. I decided I'd better go and talk to him.

"Hey," I said happily. The digimon paused his eating, a piece of fruit was raised halfway to his mouth. "I'm Ryou."

"Hello, _Ryou_ ," the digimon said confused. "Do you need something?"

"I'm on an adventure," I told him. "And I've been told I'm going to need some digimon's help. I was wondering if you'd be that digimon for now."

"Yes!" the digimon cheered, playing along with the suggestion as well as I had been. I knew we would get along great. "Where are we going? What are we doing?"

"I don't know yet. But we'll find out," I said with a grin. The digimon tossed his uneaten fruit on the ground and hopped to his feet, and started running ahead of me. I rushed after him, laughing as we ran through the trees. "By the way, what's your name?"

"I'm Veemon," the dinosaur told me. "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

"Yeah," I said happily. I didn't need a pet. I'd have digimon friends instead. If some old guy that I'd never met could trust me with the fate of his home world, I was definitely responsible enough to do it. He seemed like a pretty smart guy. And no goldfish could give me this much of an adventure. "Let's save the world!"

Veemon and I didn't save the world together, like I'd originally thought we would. It wasn't meant to be. But we did have a lot of fun over the year we spent together. We became really good friends, and we helped anyone we saw that was in trouble. We saved a little Pagumon from drowning, and I thanked my Dad for insisting I took swimming lessons for _years_ , because the current in that river was _tough_ to swim against. He was always such a downer, so pessimistic, but for once, his fear of me drowning really paid off—and the Pagumon thought so too. We spent a good two weeks trying to navigate through the woods and desserts and fields, trying to find the Pagumon village, so we could bring the little guy home.

"Are you _sure_ you don't know where it is?" Veemon asked, tired of walking around in circles. "We've been looking for forever."

"I don't know!" Pagumon insisted. The little grey guy looked kind of like a dog's head, and I wondered if _he_ was my partner. He was a dog, and I'd always wanted one. That made sense to me, but Gennai had said that my partner would _know_ who I was, and would explain my digivice. Pagumon hadn't done that yet, so I guessed he wasn't my partner, but I kept hoping.

How cool would it be to have a dog digimon for a partner? My dad would never see it coming. The red eyes were a little unnerving sometimes, but I was sure I'd get used to them if Pagumon turned out to be my digimon soul mate.

"I just digivolved from Zurumon," Pagumon explained. "I just left Primary Village."

"What's that?" I asked, always eager to learn more about the world I was meant to save. It was so much more interesting than going to geography class. It was more fun to actually explore too. I didn't know how I was _ever_ going to be able to sit through class again. I also didn't know if I'd _have_ to. I was twenty-eight years in the past. I was only fourteen when I got here, so that meant I'd be forty-two when I got home….

That was _great_! I wouldn't have to go to school anymore, and I couldn't wait to see the look on Dad's face when I got home. He was going to be so surprised to see me. I'd be over _forty_. That was so old. It was going to be great.

"It's the place that all digimon hatch out of our eggs," Pagumon said. "Elecmon watches over us all, and all digimon are born there."

"Not even true," Veemon said shaking his head. "I wasn't born there."

"Are you sure you're a digimon?" Pagumon asked with childlike innocence.

"Yeah," Veemon said, sounding annoyed. "I'm sure. I think I'd know if I was a digimon. I was born in the same place as all of my tribe…I think. I don't remember being born actually. It was a _long_ time ago."

"Like, forty years?" I wondered, still stuck on the idea of being so old myself.

"Longer than that," Veemon said, sounding like he was thinking of the distant past. He was caught up in his wonderment. "I've been around since the Digital World was. I was here longer, I think. It's hard to remember. I just know that the rest of my tribe aren't here. I was taken from them long ago…I don't remember who took me. But I was taken from the wild lands. And then I was with the humans. But the humans didn't want us…so then there was darkness. Only darkness. But Gennai came and gave us a home. I remember that bit, because I was so happy to see the moon again. I always missed the moon."

"You're really _old_ ," Pagumon said in awe. Veemon sent a playful glare Pagumon's way, and then stuck out his tongue. "I'm not that old. Do you think I _could_ be?"

"Probably," Veemon said with a grin. "But it'll take a real long time."

"I can wait," Pagumon said. I laughed, because he would _have_ to, but it was an admirable goal. I hadn't even realized that digimon _could_ get that old. I wondered how long my partner had been waiting for me, and I felt kind of bad that I wasn't able to get here sooner. But, I mean, I had to _time travel_ to get here _this_ early, so really, my partner couldn't complain. There wasn't much more that I could do. I'd done something that I'd thought was impossible, you know?

Eventually, we _did_ find the Pagumon village. I didn't want to say goodbye, but I had a partner to find, and a world to save. We couldn't exactly stick around forever, even if I wanted to keep hanging around Pagumon. He was happy to be in his new home, and the other Pagumon's welcomed him excitedly. He would be happy and had lots of new friends to play with, so Veemon and I moved on our way.

Our next venture was building rafts. We were eventually planning to make the journey across the ocean, leaving File Island behind us, and making our way to explore the Continent of Server. Veemon and I always worked together. It was more fun when we weren't alone. Also, Veemon insisted that I wasn't allowed to _be_ alone, since the world was so full of potentially dangerous monsters that I didn't stand a chance against. It was a nice gesture on his part.

While we were wandering through the forest, looking for fallen trees that we could actually lift—since neither of us knew how to cut a tree down—we heard a soft whimpering. We looked everywhere, behind all the trees, and we couldn't find anything. We figured we'd both just made up the same sound somehow, but then we heard it again. It wasn't coming from the ground, like we'd thought. It was above us. We shrugged and looked up. High up in a tree, there was a tiny digimon. It kind of looked like a cat, but without the typical cat body. Instead, it was just the head and a tail. I couldn't understand how it had gotten up there in the first place, but it was a _cat_ , and they could always find their way _up_ —it was getting down again that gave them trouble.

The problem _we_ were having, was that neither of us could fly—though that would be _awesome_ —and there weren't a whole lot of branches in order to climb. It was a true adventure, and we both wanted to have a go at it. We played rock-paper-scissors to see who'd get the first go. I lost, but I was really excited to see if Veemon would be able to do it, so I wasn't upset by my loss.

Veemon's arms and legs weren't as long as mine, but he did have claws. He had to use them too, because he couldn't reach around the tree to hold himself up. He got only half way there when he tumbled down to the ground. After checking that he was alright, I laughed at him, and he groaned, because he lost.

It was my turn now, and I wrapped my arms around the tree trunk. My legs squeezed the sides of the tree, and I slowly inched my way up, laughing triumphantly when I made it to the lowest branch—higher than Veemon had managed. He stuck his tongue out noisily at me, and I laughed harder. I had to climb up the branches before I could reach the cat. When I found it, I sat on the branch beside it.

"What're you doing way up here?" I asked.

"I'm stuck," the cat said. "I can't get down!"

"I'll help you," I said simply. "I'm Ryou."

"My name is Nyaromon," the cat told me. I smiled, happy that I finally had a name to call her. It wasn't nice thinking of her just as a cat.

"When did you get here?" I asked.

"I was hatched here," she whispered. "I've been stuck here a _long_ time."

"Are you ancient, like Veemon?" I wondered.

"No," she said quickly, glancing down at Veemon who was waving cheerfully. "I'm not _that_ old, but I've been here my whole life, and that's a long time to be stuck."

"Sure is," I agreed. "Have you never tried to get down?"

"I'm waiting," Nyaromon told me. "I'm waiting for my partner. She's going to come for me. I think. Maybe not. I hope so though."

"You shouldn't just wait around for your partner," I decided. "Mine's not hanging around for me. We're both on separate adventures, and once we meet up, we'll get to tell each other all about it. You don't know when your partner is going to get here, so you might as well live your life while you wait. She could take _years_ to get here."

"Do you really think so?" Nyaromon asked.

"Sure," I said. "You could even digivolve, that's a thing right? You'll be able to protect her better the stronger you are. Don't depend on someone else to make you strong. You can be that way all on your own."

"You're right," she said. "I should digivolve. I've been waiting, because I thought she should be here."

I got to see my first digivolution that day, as Nyaromon digivolved into Salamon. We parted ways not long after that, because I knew she wasn't my partner, and I wasn't hers. We had different journeys we had to take before we could find the ones we were meant to be with. She was headed for an incredibly creepy castle, and Veemon and I were looking out at calm, clear seas. I mean, if I was her, I wouldn't have picked the castle, but it was her choice, so I let her make it.

After we said our goodbyes to Salamon, Veemon and I got to work on our raft. It was almost done. We only needed a few more ropes—which took forever to make because we had to weave them with vines—and something to make a sail out of, and then we could be off. It had only taken us a month or so to whip together. I had twenty-eight years—well, twenty-seven now—to kill, a month was like no time at all. Aging in the Digital World was different too,

"We're almost done!" Veemon cheered, as he wove fibers of vines together. The sail wasn't even close to being done, because we needed to weave it as tightly as possible to prevent the air from just passing through it, but otherwise he was right, and it was very exciting.

"I know!" I said, grinning. "Do you think I'll meet my partner on the Continent of Server?"

"I dunno," Veemon said. "Maybe you will—or maybe I'll finally meet _mine_."

We were so busy being excited that we didn't even notice the woman that was watching us. She scared the crap out of us—thankfully not literally—when she spoke. "You won't meet yours there, Veemon," she said knowingly. We screamed and jumped, dropping the vines we were working with. She was smiling at us, and had really pretty curly hair. She was wearing a ball gown that was red and purple, which I thought was strange, because we were on a beach, and most people don't wear ball gowns while at the beach, but it looked good on her. I told her so, and she smiled at me.

She also had wings, but I wasn't too surprised by them. I'd seen a lot of weird things during my year with Veemon. The ball gown was definitely weirder.

"Where will I meet him?" Veemon asked.

"Soon," the woman said. "He will come for you, and he will need your help, but he will not find you if you are wandering the world. He will come to the Digital World, and he will find the Digimental of Courage. When he does, he will refresh its power, and you will be able to digivolve in a way that no others have for many, _many_ years. But you will need to be within the Digimental."

"I'm not gonna fit," Veemon said sheepishly, sounding like he may already know what a Digimental was. I didn't though, but I was interested to find out. "I'm not a Chibimon anymore."

"It's not a problem," she said. "I've got magic. But I need to know you are willing. You have a great destiny ahead of you, should you chose to accept it."

"I don't know…." Veemon said hesitantly. "Ryou needs me."

"No," I said quickly. He looked to me, confused and a little bit hurt. "I'm not going to be selfish, Veemon. You have a chance to find your partner. You're going to go on so many new adventures. I don't want to take that from you. I'll find something else to do. Just, tell me about your adventures if we ever meet again, okay?"

"Deal," Veemon decided as he hugged me, and then he went with the winged woman, disappearing in a flash of light, and then I was alone on the beach.

The raft wasn't such a fun idea anymore, since Veemon wasn't there to help me, and it would take two people to properly sail it anyway. It was kind of a waste since we put all that work into it, but I didn't want to do it without him. I had to find another digimon that could help me on my quest to find my partner.

It was three months before I found anyone. I'd seen plenty of other digimon, mostly living in villages, and I'd seen a factory that both manufactured and disassembled their product, which seemed pointless, but it was fun to watch. I'd spent four days just wandering around, watching the different machine's do their job. It was very entertaining.

I'd left the factories and the villages behind and trekked through the forests, first Misty Forest, and then I headed for Tropical Forest. I only knew which was which because of a helpful Numemon, who was kind of gross, but really cool anyway.

Deep in Tropical Forest, I decided it was time to find a place to sleep for the night, and I stumbled upon a cave. I thought it was really awesome that I found it, and since it looked like no one was around, I walked right on in. There were leaves scattered all over the floor of the cave, and there were markings on the wall—images that showed brave warriors fighting to protect a little winged…thing. I didn't know what they were trying to tell me, but I was starting to think that the cave wasn't as uninhabited as I'd thought. I didn't let that stop me though. I was just going to have to ask for permission. I wasn't planning to be a bother.

I finally reached the heart of the cave, and saw that there was a pedestal that was home to that same winged thing that was on the walls. There was a symbol that looked a lot like a heart, but wasn't quite right, in the middle of it. A fire was lit in the centre of the bulbous room, and the warm light danced across the silver object. It was very beautiful, so I went over to get a better look. I reached my fingers out to touch it, and a feather imbedded into the wall next to my hand.

"Next time I will not miss," a deep, frosty voice assured me. I turned to see a bird digimon. He was red, and he looked like a pretty cool guy, even if he _was_ threatening me.

"Cool," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "I'm Ryou. I came to ask if I could stay here for the night."

"That's absurd," the bird said sharply. "How could I possibly allow a thief to stay in my shrine? No. I would be a disgrace to all Hawkmon, to all my people. I can't allow it."

"Aw," I whined. I was tired, and I wanted to go to sleep. I couldn't fault him though. It _was_ his house, and it probably _did_ look like I was going to steal it, even if I wasn't. "I'm not a thief," I told him. "I'm just a teenager."

"A likely story," the bird— _Hawkmon_ , I assumed based on what he said—sneered. "Yet here you are, hand still outstretched as you try to take the coveted artifact of my people. I am the last of my kind, and you sir are not walking out of here with that Digimental. You'd have to kill me first."

"I'm not going to kill you," I assured him. "I don't even need a Digimental. I can't use one. I don't even know what they're used for, except Veemon will get to digivolve with one, so I guess they're used for _that_. I don't know. I don't even have a partner. What about you? Do you have a partner?"

"I haven't _time_ to have a partner," Hawkmon said shortly. "If you could back away, I would greatly appreciate it. I don't _want_ to hurt you. But I will. I swear I will. I'm the last of a warrior race. I can beat you without trying."

"Probably," I agreed. "I don't know how to fight, and you're a digimon, so you've got extra attacks."

"You don't plan on leaving," Hawkmon guessed. I shook my head. It was getting dark, and there were plenty of hostile digimon that called Tropical Forest home. I was better off taking my chances with Hawkmon here. He sighed. "Very well, just know that I _will_ harm you if you attempt to take the Digimental of Love again."

" _Love_ ," I realized, slapping my forehead. That was why there was a heart symbol on it. It made a lot of sense now. I wondered what the symbol for courage looked like, momentarily, before shrugging. It wasn't like I was going to stumble upon the Digimental that had Veemon inside it. It wouldn't matter if I did. I wasn't his partner, and only his partner could free him.

I noticed that Hawkmon had been out foraging for food, and I offered to share my supplies with him. He was skeptical at first, but he was very hungry, and he gave in. By the time we'd finished eating, I'd completely won him over. He was still very secretive, and got defensive if I asked too many questions about the Digimental, so I didn't ask any after awhile.

Morning came and went, and I didn't leave. Hawkmon was alone in his quest to protect the Digimental, and that didn't sit well with me. He couldn't watch it all the time, not if he needed to forage for food. It was better that he had someone around that could help him. I offered, and though he wouldn't let me guard the Digimental, he was more than happy to let me go collect food.

We spent seven months together, just the pair of us, guarding that Digimental. By the second month, Hawkmon was going stir crazy, and he finally trusted me to protect the Digimental while he left the cave. After that, we developed a system. I spent the morning outside, and he spent the afternoon out and about. We both stayed in during the evenings and nights, except when we went to the mouth of the cave to watch the stars.

On the fourth month, while we were out doing just that, Hawkmon told me his story. It wasn't happy, but it was a story he needed to tell. He couldn't hold it to himself anymore. I let him go at his own pace, never taking my eyes off the stars, so he wouldn't feel pressured to continue if he didn't want to.

"I was part of a mighty race," Hawkmon said. "We were warriors, and we were numerous. We were entrusted by Gennai, to guard the Digimental of Love as it was detrimental that no evil being got its hands on it. Love is the most important of the traits you know. It's the most universally known."

"Love makes the world go round," I murmured.

"Exactly," Hawkmon said. "And my people were entrusted with protecting it. It was an honourable task, and we swore oaths to the cause. I hadn't. I wasn't old enough. I wasn't there during the wars that raged over it. All evil digimon tried their hands at taking it one time or another. But none have ever succeeded. But one almost did. I was newly hatched then, just a little Pururumon. The only task that was given to me, was learning of our history. We were taught young, right from the egg, of our mighty clan."

He paused for a long time, and I thought that maybe that was all he wanted to share. But he took a deep breath and continued with a shaky voice.

"The darkest of all evils came for the Digimental while I was receiving a lesson. I could feel him right down to my digi-core. I was so scared. I was too small to be of any use. I would be in the way. I was collateral. They should have left me, but they didn't. My mentor, a wise, old Valkyrimon refused to listen to my pleas. She took me and stowed me away with the Digimental, joining the battle when it was nearly lost. The monster, he was ruthless. He slaughtered them all. I'd been taught that digimon regenerated, when they were killed, and that you could see their data before it reconstructed. But there was no data. The monster— _Apocolymon_ —he'd concocted a virus. His attacks did not refresh them as all others did. It ate away at their core until there was nothing left."

He started crying then. I didn't want to move, for fear of startling him, but my heart went out to him. It was horrifying to know just how evil the digimon could get. I wondered if this Apocolymon was the evil I had to save this world from. I couldn't even guess at how I was supposed to do that. I was just a kid—and I had no partner. I could stand no chance against a virus spreading horror.

"It acted slowly," he continued, tears still streaming down his feathery cheeks. His voice was hard to understand now, with how it warbled, but I worked it out with a little concentration. "He left, angered that he could not find the Digimental. He thought that we were a front. That Gennai spread a rumour to keep the real guards from being found. He didn't try to find me. He thought he'd gotten everyone. I wormed my way out of my hiding hole, and I saw the destruction. Our once mighty race was lying in ruins. They were dying slowly, and there was nothing I could do to save them. I was a baby. Valkyrimon would not let me touch her, when I found her. She did not want to risk spreading the virus to me. She hid her pain, as did the others, and continued to teach me of our people. Days passed in the same way. Poromons were lost first, not having the strength of the others, and we mourned their passing together. The Hawkmons were next, and once again we all mourned. The Sylphimons and Valkyriemons passed last, going one at time, each trying desperately to hold on longer, to share part of our people's vast wisdom with me."

He stopped, unable to push through the tears as he relived losing each member of his race. His friends, his mentors, his neighbours, they were all gone. His sobs rang through the night, and I could no longer leave him be. I put my hand on his shoulder, and he leaned against me, crying for all that could have been.

"Valkyrimon was the last to go," he said, after a long while. "She and I were all that was left. She made me swear, with her dying breath, to not try and avenge them. I wanted to. I wanted to become powerful enough to destroy Apocolymon for what he did, but she would not let me. We had taken an oath to keep the Digimental safe, and from her dying lips she asked for me to take that same oath. I could not refuse her dying wish. I took the oath, and here I am, still protecting the Digimental with all I have, even though I don't have much."

"She would be proud," I assured him. "You've taken your people's oath seriously. It's still here because of you."

"But my people are not," he told me. "They are gone. There wasn't anything left of them! The virus destroyed them entirely, and Apocolymon leveled our village. I am the last of my kind. I am not enough, I can't be."

"You've got me now," I reminded him. And he did. Those seven months might not have been as fun and exciting as my year with Veemon, but I learned a lot from Hawkmon. And I knew that he needed a friend after such a long time of being alone. He needed someone to understand. He was the only one of his people left, and I was—as far as either of us knew anyway—the only human in the Digital World.

Our time alone ended, though, early one morning while it was still dark, when a loud yelp woke us. I was on my feet as fast as possible, but Hawkmon had still beaten me. He was already flying for the cave's entrance. He called back to me, "This is it! An enemy has come for the Digimental. Protect it with your life!"

"I will," I promised him. I followed after him, until I was at the cave's entrance. I couldn't stray any further. I could not leave the cave open for intruders. From where I stood, I could see a small, yellow digimon being chased by what appeared to be shadows. I rubbed my eyes, convinced I was seeing things, but they were still there. There were shadow men chasing a crying digimon…and the digimon was headed straight for us. I didn't know what to do. Hawkmon had sent his feather attack towards the shadows, but they didn't appear to be effective in any way. Shadows weren't tangible. There had to be _something_ thought that could dissipate a shadow.

 _Light_.

I raced back into the cave, and grabbed one of the sticks from the fire. I was glad we'd decided to keep one lit, now that the weather had gotten a tad colder. It wasn't a big fire, it didn't need to be. It just needed to keep the chill out of the air, but it was big enough for what I needed. I took my burning stick and ran back to the entrance. The little yellow digimon was already in the cave, running passed me, nearly knocking me off my feet. I didn't bother to worry about him. He didn't seem to be the issue. It was the shadows that needed taking care of first.

The shadows fled when I started waving the fire at them. They couldn't bear the light it gave off. I laughed triumphantly, and looked to Hawkmon, thinking I'd find him just as happy, but he wasn't. He was staring at the cave with horror. I thought maybe I'd missed a shadow, but it wasn't that. The little yellow digimon was inside, and no one was guarding the Digimental. He flew in there faster than I'd ever seen him move, ready to attack the digimon if need be.

But as it turned out, he didn't have to.

The digimon was huddled up beside the fire, so close that he was practically on top of it. His eyes were shifting about, as if the darkness in the cave was going to reach out and grab him. He was terrified. He wasn't here to steal the Digimental. Even the ever paranoid Hawkmon could see that. He dropped out of his fighting stance, and walked over to the digimon, placing his wing on the little guy's shell.

"Are you alright?" Hawkmon asked.

"Are they gone?" the digimon countered.

"Yes," I said.

"Then I guess so," the digimon decided. "But they'll come back. I know they will. I'm so scared. I don't want to go back with them. I _won't_. Don't make me."

"Why would we do that?" I asked, confused. "They weren't very nice."

"They're horrible," the digimon confirmed. "They chase after me and the others. They don't want us escaping. They try to sacrifice us for a chance to enter the land of the living again. Is that where I am? Is this the land of the living?"

"This is the Digital World," Hawkmon supplied.

"What do mean ' _of the living_ '?" I asked, curious about the distinction.

"Those were the spirits of the damned," the digimon explained. "We were in the Dark Ocean, and then we weren't, but I don't understand how. The last thing I remembered before I got here was trying to run from them. They were going to use me to get their chance in the sun."

"Maybe they _did_ use you," I suggested.

"No," Hawkmon countered, shaking his head. "He's still alive, for starters. And if that's how it worked, I would've seen more digimon like him around here."

"All of us Armadillomon are in the Dark Ocean," the digimon said sadly. "We're servants there. We weren't always, but I don't remember that far back anymore. The Dark Ocean is so dreary that it makes the happy memories fade."

"That sucks," I said. It was an understatement, but it was still true. He nodded.

"And the rest of them are still stuck there?" Hawkmon asked. Armadillomon nodded, and started crying at the very thought of it. Hawkmon sighed. "There's nothing to be done about it. You'll just have to stay here with us."

The two of us became three, though it took awhile for a real friendship to form. Hawkmon was still nervous about letting anyone but me near the Digimental, and Armadillomon was rather quiet most days, caught up in his memories. It was difficult at first to get them to open up to each other, but by the time our four months together came to a close, no one would've been able to tell, since they acted like they'd been friends their entire lives.

We were out watching the stars again, when we received guests. Two winged women arrived, similar and yet very different to the one that took Veemon away. Both were wearing ball gowns, though the blue one was sleeker than the green, which seemed to have a life of its own with how big it was. Their wings were glimmering in the starlight. It was a very pretty effect.

I had a feeling I knew what they were there for, and I resigned myself to going off on my own once again. These two were needed on a new adventure, and I really needed to continue on with mine.

"Hawkmon," the one in the blue said. "You have done admirably, protecting the Digimental, but now, it is time for you to join it, and await your partner. She is coming for you, and together, you will be strong enough to keep the Digimental out of enemy hands. In fact, you will get to _use_ it."

"It will be safe?" Hawkmon clarified.

"You will be within it, and no one except your partner will be able to move it," the blue fairy assured him. He looked to me, hesitating, but I nodded encouragingly and he accepted her offer.

The green fairy knelt down in the dirt, in front of Armadillomon. "You've been through so much," she murmured, running her hand over his head. "But there is much yet for you to do. I will make sure your partner finds you. You shall hide within the Digimental of knowledge, and no shadow will ever reach you there."

Armadillomon didn't hesitate for a second after hearing that. "I'll do it," he said quickly. She laughed, pleased, and then the light came, and they were gone. I went back into the cave alone. It was empty, without the two digimon, and the Digimental had disappeared along with them. It was me and the fire, and once morning came, I put that out.

I was starting a new journey now.

I left the Tropical Forest, since it had little to offer me now, without my friends, and tried to find another fun adventure to take. I ended up on a beach, though it was different than the sandy one I'd been on with Veemon. The edge of the land was sudden, as though it had been cut off. It was above the water that crashed against the face of these tiny cliffs—if they could even be called that. I spent an afternoon tossing rocks, trying to get them to skip, succeeding a few times.

But the last rock I threw didn't bounce; it didn't even sink into the deep waters. It just sort of floated there. I was understandably confused, since the rock wasn't moving, but then it started rising, and as it did so, the water fell away, revealing the rubbery skin of a whale.

"Whamon," I gasped.

"Are you the one throwing rocks?" Whamon asked me, grumpily.

"Sorry," I said, still in awe. I didn't know if this was my uncle's partner, but it was definitely a Whamon. I tried to picture Tadao sailing around the world on the back of this noble creature, and it was amazing. I wished he could take me along with him. Not for the first time, I got excited about the idea of being a grown up when time finally caught up for me. Dad wouldn't be able to refuse me. Having spent more time in the Digital World, I realized I was aging slower than expected. I hadn't even grown a whole inch yet, but I was sure I would keep growing. Time was still passing, and time would always have an effect, no matter how strange it seemed. I had been here two years, and two months, but I had nothing to really prove that, other than the fact that I'd been counting the days.

"Are you going to keep staring?" Whamon asked, sounding embarrassed by the attention.

"Do you know my uncle Tadao?" I asked him. He didn't, and I was disappointed for a few seconds, before I realized that it didn't matter. He didn't need to be my uncle's digimon partner for him to be amazing. "Do you want to sail the ocean with me?" I asked, excited about the prospect. I could have a story that uncle Tadao could relate to. He'd be so surprised to hear that I sailed around the Digital World on a Whamon just like his.

We spent that day traveling across the water. We didn't stray too far from the shore, because he wanted to test out my stomach. He didn't want to go for a long journey if I was going to get sea sick. I didn't, and that night, he brought me to shore so that I could gather supplies for a long journey. We were going to take a scenic route, rather than a direct course. It would be more of an adventure that way.

I couldn't help but feel like a pirate as I collected fruits and nuts for the trip. I would be sailing the seas, hunting for adventure. Maybe I'd even find some sort of treasure at the end of it. It was exciting to think about. Whamon told me to sleep on the shore, because he was going to sleep at the bottom of the ocean, and I wouldn't be able to breathe down there.

We'd picked pretty much the spookiest place ever for me to sleep. We were next to Overdell, which turned out to be a graveyard filled with ghostly digimon named Bakemon. They made haunting noises all night, and I tried to mimic the sound, in case I ever needed to tell a scary story, because they were bone chilling. It was exhilarating. I wasn't able to sleep much that night, but it was okay. The excitement that was building in me about our sailing trip was enough to keep me awake for the day.

Whamon and I traveled to all the little islands between File Island and the Continent of Server. It was so much fun to see the different fruits and digimon that lived on each one. They were all very welcoming—for the most part anyway, once Whamon refused to let me get off, because the digimon that inhabited the island were all trying to summon an ancient digimon called Daemon, and Whamon didn't want me to be there if it worked. Apparently, Daemon was as evil as it got. I wasn't too bothered by missing out on _that_ adventure.

We spent four months traveling on the sea to different islands and places along the coast of Server. Whamon left me on land each night so that he could sleep, and I could restock my supplies. It was absolutely amazing. I couldn't wait to share everything with uncle Tadao…

But I mean, I _would_ wait, because I had to.

I was still in the past, and even if I waited until it was 2027 again, I still didn't actually know how to get out of the Digital World.

Whamon was curious about my story, and he waited patiently while I explained about my time travel, and my quest to find my partner—who wasn't Whamon, as it turned out, just like Gennai had told me—and how I was going to be a whole lot older by the time I finally got to go home to see my parents and uncle again.

"That's unfortunate," Whamon commented.

"Yeah, a bit," I said. "But it can't be helped. I'm too far in the past, and I don't know how to go into the future. I only time traveled because some girl tripped me through the time stream. It's okay though. It won't make _that_ big of a difference. I just won't get to see my friends anymore, because they'll still be kids, but I'll have a whole bunch of new friends, right?"

"I can offer you something better than that," Whamon insisted. "I'll bring you to Neverland. Time doesn't affect things there."

"I won't grow up?" I asked, confused by the thought.

"You'll stay a child, yes," Whamon explained.

We sailed around to the farthest reaches of Server, and when we arrived, all I saw was a forest. He insisted that it was Neverland, and I believed him. Whamon and I had to say our goodbyes, since he couldn't cross the land, and wouldn't fit down the little stream that connected Neverland's lagoon to the sea. It was sad to see him go, but there was so much left for me to do.

I wandered through the trees, trying to find anyone that could help me find a place to stay. When I finally found a pair of digimon, they were fighting one another. They were dueling, and the smaller one looked to be winning.

"I'll get you yet, Petermon," the pirate promised.

"You can try, CaptainHookmon," the kid taunted. The pirate left then, and the kid spotted me. He blinked, and tilted his head. "You're a long way from home," he commented.

"A lot longer than you think," I said. He didn't understand, but he didn't give me time to elaborate. Instead, he dragged me through the forest to a small collection of huts. There were dozens of small digimon playing in an open field, and a tiny fairy came flying towards us when she caught sight of Petermon.

"Hey Tink," he said, with a smile. She beamed at him. "Do you think you can help the new guy?"

"Him?" she asked, looking me up and down. Compared to the digimon around here, I was pretty big. But I was still just a kid. Petermon nodded, and she reached out and took hold of one of my fingers with her tiny hand and led me to the largest of the huts. It had to be Petermon's home, because he would not fit in any of the others. She settled me in on a mat on the floor, and flew out the door, coming back not long later with a coconut shell filled with some sort of sweet beverage. I took it, and drank it. It was delicious. I told her so. She smiled.

I got settled easily enough. I just had to wait a whole bunch of years before it was 2027 again, and I wouldn't be an old man. Well, I guess forty-two wasn't _that_ old, but it sure seemed it to me. Now that I didn't have to be old, I was kind of glad for it. The things I thought would make it exciting weren't enough for me to want to leave Neverland, and the timelessness that it offered me.

Once the digimon stopped thinking I was a grown up because of my size, we played games all day, and had a ton of fun. I was never allowed into the actual city of Neverland where Petermon often ran off to, but I didn't mind. I was still encompassed in Neverlands timelessness and that was enough for me. Maybe one day they would let me see the city. It wasn't hard to believe almost eight months had passed since I'd arrived. It didn't feel like it had been that long. It actually felt like I'd just gotten there. It was so strange.

"So what exactly is Neverland?" I asked Tinkermon. It had been a question that had been niggling at the back of my mind the entire time I'd been there.

" _This_ is," she told me with a smile, but her smile faltered. "Well, this is what's left of it."

"What about the city?" I asked her.

She looked up, "Huh?" Then she realized, "Oh, it's not really a city. More of a junk yard. It's where the city fell apart. There are all kinds of odds and ends there, but nothing real useful."

"What happened?" I wondered, figuring maybe _this_ was what I was brought here to do. Would one of these Neverlanders be my partner? I could only guess.

"We were ripped from the homeland," she said. "It wasn't a clean break. We were scattered. The Tunnel of Time was lost to us, and our clock tower disappeared. We're nothing but the shattered remains of a once peaceful nation. But that's alright. We've got the magic of time protecting us, and not far from here, the River of Time runs through to Piximon's hidden land. We've got enough. We're not entirely lost."

"Is anything in the Digital World's history happy?" I wondered to myself out loud. She didn't know the answer, and shrugged. Hawkmon's clan was eradicated by a virus, Veemon was stolen and didn't know what happened to his tribe, or if they were alive. Armadillomon was trapped in the Dark Ocean with his race, acting as servants for demons. There's evil lurking around every turn, with mentions of Daemon, and Apocolymon, and that was only the ones I knew by name.

How did Gennai expect me to save a world that was in so much peril?

"Probably not," Tinkermon told me. "This whole world was made because digimon were discarded. They were on Earth, and the people didn't want them. A man built this world for us, using his computer—hence the _Digital_ World. We're getting by. But we brought someone from Neverland with us. He's messing up the time stream."

"What do you mean?" I asked, getting a rather foreboding feeling about it.

"He's not a very nice digimon," Tinkermon warned me. "He thinks he can be the Lord of Time. He can't, of course, but he's trying his best. He's got the worlds going at different speeds. This world is going much faster than your home world."

"So I'm not getting any closer to going home at all, am I?" I asked, feeling a little down about it. Neverland was fun, but I didn't want this waiting to take longer than it had to. I didn't want to be stuck here for an eternity before I was finally able to go home. The thought alone exhausted me.

"No," she said sadly. "If Millenniummon could be defeated, then time would return to normal. But until someone can beat him, things aren't going to get better for you. I'm sorry."

"Maybe _that_ is the mission I'm meant to take on," I said, feeling hope rising within me. "Gennai said I could save the world. Maybe it's _Neverland_ that I'm meant to save, not the Digital World."

"Neverland is beyond repair," Tinkermon reminded me. "But it _would_ be rather freeing if Millenniummon was gone. He's giving Neverlanders a bad reputation."

"That's what I'll do then," I promised her.

"He's using the Digimental of Desire to fuel his power," she informed me. "He's broken it into several pieces. There are nine in all. I don't know where he's hidden them. I'm afraid to leave Neverland. He's watching Petermon and I. He's expecting us to stand up against him. If we don't leave, he won't attack us."

"But I can leave. And I can find those pieces of desire," I said, really getting into the idea. She was worried about my safety, but I was so ready to get going on this. I said my goodbyes that night, and I slipped out of the town into the darkness.

I knew thanks to continued pestering, that Milleniummon was on File Island. The issue I had now, was that I couldn't get there. It was too far to swim. I needed Whamon. I didn't know where to find him, but I knew I'd have to look around the shore. I found him easily enough. He was talking to a green worm digimon that wanted to go to File Island as well. I called out to them, asking them to not leave without me, and we all made the trip together.

Being on Whamon's back for hours led to some talking, naturally, and I discovered that the green worm was called Wormmon, and that he was on a mission and that he had moved out of his library home, and that he upset the other Wormmon by doing so. Apparently they were all meant to be stationary and protect two Digimental's. I hoped a lady wouldn't come and take Wormmon away too. He was a nice guy.

"My partner's coming soon," he said excitedly. He was slightly nervous too. I wondered if I would feel that way, or if I would feel it at all. "I can feel it in my _code_. He's coming. Ken is coming."

"You know his name?" I asked, confused.

"I've been waiting forever for him," Wormmon said nodding his head. "I know all that I can. I sent him my digivice and everything. I just have to wait for him now."

"That's so cool," I said happily. "I've got my digivice too, but I can't find my partner anywhere."

"You'll find him or her, don't worry," Wormmon assured me.

"I'm a bit busy at the moment, returning time to normal, but I'll keep looking after that's done," I told him. He looked up sharply.

"You're finding the pieces of Desire in order to defeat Millenniummon?" he clarified.

"Yup," I said.

"Then we're on the same mission!" Wormmon said cheerfully.

I didn't know how Wormmon received his mission but it was clear to me that I wasn't the only guy on a quest to save the world, and so it made sense somehow. I was happy to have someone to work with though. We talked strategy until we got to File Island. When we got to land, we had a picnic of sorts with Whamon, to thank him for all of his efforts. He was happy to help, and happy to see me again. I was happy to see him too, and I assured him of that. We had to leave though, after that. We were following Wormmon's instincts. It took a lot longer than I expected find this Ken. A month into our search, we found a purple dinosaur digimon named Monodramon, and he wanted to join us in our quest.

I secretly hoped _he_ was my partner, because he was so sarcastic and deadpanned and hilarious. But he never said anything about it. I waited for him to, but it never happened. Eventually, the urge became too strong and I had to ask him. "Are you my partner?"

"No," he said firmly. "I'm no one's partner now."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"My partner is dead," he said flatly. "I will never get to meet the other half of me."

"That's so sad," Wormmon cried. "I don't know what I'd do if I never got to meet Ken."

"You'd be bitter, and miserable I expect," Monodramon said, rolling his eyes.

"You can stay with me forever if you want," I told him. "I'm not going anywhere."

"I might just do that," Monodramon said softly. I knew he was mourning for his lost partner. I didn't know how long ago that partner died, but I didn't think it would really matter. Eventually, he would change into a different person, and maybe he'd get a new partner, but for now, he was missing the other half of himself. It was really hard to try and empathize with. I didn't like the thought, so I tried not to think about it.

It was another two months before we found Ken. He was a lot smaller than we'd imagined, and he really had no idea what he was doing in the Digital World. He was unprepared for the journey ahead of him, but he stepped up to the challenge. Together—with his advice—we found all nine pieces of Desire, and reformed the Digimental. Wormmon digivolved for the first time, and we faced off against Milleniummon. Ken got hit with a black spore of some kind, and blacked out, and while he was unconscious, Milleniummon announced that _he_ was the partner I'd been looking for all that time. I was a little apprehensive, but Monodramon decided that _he_ wanted to be my partner too, and the two of them fused together, creating Cyberdramon.

By the time Ken regained consciousness it became apparent that he'd lost his memories. And then he disappeared back home—the lucky little duck—and Wormmon was left to wander the world without him, for however long it took for Ken to find his way back. I felt bad for the little guy and offered to bring him to Neverland with Cyberdramon and I, but he didn't want that. He wanted to wait somewhere that Ken might be able to find him.

I couldn't argue with that, even if Ken _had_ lost his memories.

Cyberdramon spent some time in Neverland, before we were visited by Gennai. He was warning us of an eclipse that would refresh the world, deleting anything that wasn't inherently digital, and reverting the land back to the way it was before the Dark Masters had messed with it—it was the first I'd heard of them, since Neverland wasn't really up to date on the current events, now that Millenniummon was gone. I had a choice. I could leave and live out the rest of my time on Earth, actually being forty-two when I got to see my parents again, or I could stay and be erased.

It wasn't that hard of a decision.

I didn't like it though.

I had to say goodbye to my partner. I left him in Neverland, knowing he'd be happy there, and let Gennai kick me out of the Digital World. He was a jerk about it, because instead of leaving me in Japan, he left me in Turkey, which was a difficult place to live as a penniless fourteen year old that didn't speak the language. I got by on things I managed to forage, and I found odd jobs that let me save up money. Whenever I got enough money, I used a computer at a local café to check up on the Digital World, praying that the gate would open once more.

And seven months after I'd been kicked out, the gate _did_ open.

I was checking the computer, and I saw two young boys, younger than I was rooting on their combined digimon partner, Omnimon. They were facing off against Diaboramon and they needed emails to help slow him down. I sent as many emails as I could in that short amount of time, knowing that I had to do whatever I could to help these guys.

At the same time though, I was trying to get my digivice to work, so that I could get back into the Digital World, hoping I could wait the rest of my time in Neverland with my partner. I was able to access the gate, but I wanted to wait until the battle between Omnimon and Diaboramon looked like it would play out in our favour. Once Diaboramon started moving at a snail's pace, I knew this was my chance. I wouldn't be able to get in if I waited any longer.

So I did it.

I was back in the Digital World. I didn't waste any time in trying to find Neverland again. Things looked a little different. They were livelier. It was nice, but it was making navigation a little difficult. It took me almost a week to get there, but Cyberdramon's surprise at seeing me was enough to make up for it. The little digimon were excited that I was back too. Petermon and Tinkermon threw a party, and I was embarrassed by the attention, but I loved it.

Things were going great, until Gennai came to stick his nose in it again. Only this time he wasn't an old man, he was younger, like he had been refreshed too. He didn't come alone this time. There was a woman that was also an angel, but was also a dog. It was very confusing, but I thought she looked really pretty anyway. He wasn't happy, and she wouldn't stop staring. It was all very unnerving.

"Ryou," Gennai said sternly. "I told you to go back to Earth."

"Yeah, while the world was refreshing," I pointed out. "It's done now."

"You are disrupting the delicate balance of the world," he growled. "The darkness has shifted once more into a dominant position."

"That's hardly my fault," I told him. "I'm pretty sure it was Diaboramon that did it. This is _not_ my problem."

"Ryou, you will go back to Earth and you will stay there," Gennai ordered. "That is final."

"No," I snapped loudly. My shouts frightened the small digimon, and Petermon ushered them into their huts, afraid that this would end in a fight. "I won't. You brought me back in time to save the world for you, and you think you can toss me aside just because Millenniummon's not trying to take over the world now? That's not how it works, Gennai. I'm not _from_ here. Anywhere I go, I could upset the space-time continuum. Your balancing act won't matter if I mess up the fabric that makes up the universe. I know these things. You think that I'm just going to bow down to your every whim because you brought me here, and you know what? I say _screw you_. You've messed up my life enough. I don't _want_ to be as old as my uncle. I'm his nephew. I want to _stay_ his nephew. I want to see my friends, and be my mom's baby. I don't want to be stuck in the past and have to figure out how to live all on my own. I'm just a kid, Gennai. I don't know what I'm doing."

"That's all well and good," Gennai said. His stubbornness seemed to be wavering, but he was sticking to his instincts. "But you've _got_ to go."

"No," the woman said firmly. Gennai whirled on her, betrayed that she would side against him. "He's a child, and it's your responsibility to either get him home, or keep him that way."

"D'Arcmon," Gennai scolded. "It was hardly _me_ that threw him through time. I don't know how to fix that."

"Then you'll leave him be," she said simply.

"But the balance—" he protested.

"Is already off kilter," she pointed out. "I will stay with him. He will not shift the scales further. He will do no harm while I guard him."

"But—"

"The Digidestined will fix the mess," D'Arcmon said boldly. "You chose them for this very purpose. They will fix this and restore the balance, just as they did before. You must simply wait for destiny to take control."

Gennai wasn't able to win the argument that day, and he left, but D'Arcmon was true to her word. She stayed to watch over me. I didn't understand why. She didn't know me at all, but she cared about me anyway. She held me, when I cried that first night. Everything had built up, and it was too much for me to handle anymore. I wanted to go home, but I had _so long_ to wait. She held me tightly, and sang to me until I fell asleep. I felt like a baby, but when I woke up, my shoulders seemed a little lighter.

She never pressed me for information, and never dug too deep. She simply watched me play with the small digimon with a smile on her face. She and Cyberdramon had quiet conversations a lot, and I didn't intrude, so I didn't know what they were talking about.

I asked only once, why she cared so much for me. Her response caught me entirely off guard.

"You remind me of someone very precious to me," she said. "My son. He and I can never reunite. We are separated by the worlds, and nothing will be able to fix that. He made a miscalculation when he sent me here. We were meant to come together, but without a digivice, he was unable to make the journey, and now I am unable to return. I am trapped within the confines of this manufactured world."

It was a heartbreaking story, and I felt really bad for her. I could imagine what being separated from my mom felt like, because my mom didn't know I even existed at that time. I wasn't even a thought that crossed her mind. I wouldn't exist for _years_. And even then, I didn't know if I'd actually be able to get back to her. Gennai had to send me out the first time around, and he _liked_ me then. He was mad now, because I was staying when he told me not to.

What if he kept me here forever?

I never let myself dwell on that thought, and took comfort in D'Arcmon's presence. She wasn't my mom, but she was warmer, and more willing to show affection. My mom was very neutral to everything. She was the exact middle ground between my negative father and my own sunny personality. She didn't like to cross that line. So while D'Arcmon was a pleasant change, she wasn't a very good substitute.

But two years, nine months and twenty-one days later, that didn't matter anymore. Our days of lounging around Neverland were over. MaloMyotismon was making his stand, and the Digidestined, and the chosen children of the world were banding together to stop him.

So Cyberdramon and I decided to head out and see if they needed our help. D'Arcmon followed behind us, keeping an eye on us just like she'd promised. I was worried she wouldn't let us help, but it didn't end up being an issue. There were so many chosen children and Digidestined fighting against MaloMyotismon that I wasn't needed.

"Look there," D'Arcmon told me, gesturing to the large rip in the sky that opened to another world. "You and Cyberdramon should go there."

"It's an unknown world," I pointed out, confused.

"I have a feeling that it is where you need to be," she told me. "I do not want to say goodbye to you. I will _never_ want that, but I can feel it in my heart. I know that is the world that you are meant to wait in. Don't waste this opportunity. You may never get this chance again, and I feel that you are needed _there_."

"I'll go," I decided. Cyberdramon agreed, and D'Arcmon cried as she pulled me into one final hug. I cried just a little bit too, but pretended I wasn't. D'Arcmon was nice enough not to point it out. "Tell the others bye for us, since we won't see them again."

"I will," she promised.

Cyberdramon and I ran through the portal while everyone else was too busy fighting MaloMyotismon to notice us. I didn't want to answer any questions. Cyberdramon and I hid, while we watched MaloMyotismon's defeat, and we saw the struggles of the man that just wanted to be in the Digital World. I was confused when he turned into butterflies, but it was still beautiful.

And then the gate closed, and we were trapped.

It's been twelve years and seven months since we stepped foot in this world, give or take a few days. I haven't grown, though I feared I would. It took us a couple of years to figure out that I _wasn't_ growing, and even longer to realize why. Our fight has changed from enemy digimon to the nightmares that plague this land.

I've been away from home for a _long_ time now, but I still have twelve years to go.

 **Next Time on Digimon Adventure 07:** Between Takeru and Willis and their feuding there is enough Bad Blood between the Digidestined for me to write a terrible blurb about the next chapter. :D


	38. Bad Blood

**U/N:** So, like my sister probably said last chapter, Ryou's chapter wasn't written until MUCH later in the writing process, which made Takeru's part here less than easy. I didn't REALLY know what I was reacting to, so I kind of glossed over it and there aren't any specifics. That's annoying I guess, but that's what we've got. Willis though, is completely different than Tk. The chapter is obviously called Bad Blood because of Kiyoko/Willis and Izzy/Tk which was a lot of fun to actually write because feuds are more fun than... peaceful friendships, honestly.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Land of Dreams and Witchenly**

 **Chapter 38: Bad Blood**

 _ **Willis Kennedy:**_

"I'll use this hut for my new collection!" Mummymon was saying with excitement building in his voice. There were far too many houses for the number of Fallen Angels that existed among the cult, but that didn't seem to bother anyone at all. They were all brimming with excitement over their new excess space. It had been this morning when the Wizards had finally finished gathering their belongings and saying goodbye to the land they had called home for so many years.

I definitely felt guilty. I couldn't find it in myself to share the happiness that the others were spreading. Possibly because I had no real connection to them, at least not a permanent one, but probably because of Kiyoko. He was consistently showing me how deeply invested he had become in the affairs of the inhabitants of this world, and pleading with me, passive aggressively of course, to do the same. He wanted me to see everything from his perspective, and was naive enough to think that it was actually a possibility.

Looking around though, I could see where he was coming from. These digimon, who I had grown to call my friends, were now giddy with euphoria, stomping their feet obnoxiously and sharing with their friends the feeling of victory. Their faces had grins plastered on them, and they could not have been more pleased with the outcome of the competition. Because they had won, and they had taken the home of someone else. That wasn't fair. But what also wasn't fair, was that the Wizards had refused to share their land. If they had just bothered to work together, none of this would ever have happened, and everyone would have a home.

And I wouldn't be in a permanent argument with Kiyoko.

A flash of memory from the previous night filled my mind, and I saw Kiyoko turn and storm away again and again. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the guilt I felt, and found it chased away when someone clapped me on the back.

"You've done it," Phelesmon said _again_. Every time walked by me, or even saw me, or even _thought_ of me, he would exclaim how proud he was of me for helping them win the contest, which just made everything worse. Because of _course_ it was my fault that Kiyoko was so upset. Of course I had taken the music box that he had partially repaired. Of course I had sent a large group of digimon to go wonder off and live in a rundown crappy church on the Cliffside. I knew it was my fault, and I didn't need him to keep reminding me that, "Proud of you," he grinned down at me before fluttering off, back to his large hut in the center ring.

There was a loud crash, distracting me and I turned to see NeoDevimon stomping in a large fire pit, cracking the rocks and logs that made up the ring. He looked over to me when he noticed I was watching, and began stomping again, never taking his eyes off of me. I shuddered and turned away quickly, too nervous to keep watching.

I set off immediately, unable to watch as the Fallen Angels destroyed so much of the life the Wizards once lived. I crawled into the hut, one of the largest, that Tactimon had granted me with. There were only four as large as mine, and Tactimon himself was in one of them. I felt guilty about that too. The Fallen Angels who had been here for hundreds of years—or maybe more—were cramming themselves into tiny little huts, whereas I had this giant building all to myself.

I scrunched up my nose as the feeling of guilt surfaced again, pushing aside the dirty cloth that hung in the entryway. I didn't need a hut at all, I realized as I looked around. There was a bed, and a nice round table that was made from the remains of a tree that had been cut down. I could live in Masks Square, providing of course that Kiyoko would still let me in...

I ran my hands along the wall that was made of hardened mud and stones. It was cool to the touch, and dry too, kind of dusty. Which made sense. I sighed as I flopped down onto the bed at the other end of the hut. It was made of a large pile of dried grass. I laid still for a moment, deciding whether or not the sharp and uncomfortable blades of grass were worth laying in when I felt something small move under my head and run along my neck.

I flung myself up and swatted away at whatever creature had decided to attach itself to my skin. I saw a large green beetle fly toward the ground and scuttle away and out the door. Again I shuddered. And then I was sighing.

I looked up and saw something carved into the wall by the door, so I moved toward it to read it. It was a name.

' _Zamielmon'_

I was living in the home of someone I didn't even know. I could picture him, I knew what kind of digimon he was, but I had never met him. I did not know this person, and now I had kicked him out of his home and forced him to either sleep on an uncomfortable church pew, or on the ground outside.

I groaned and pushed open the curtain again. I couldn't even force a good emotion to take shape inside me, and watching all of my new friends dance around with excitement was sickening. Arukenimon rushed past me—in her spider form, much to my surprise—and flung herself at Mummymon with a great big smile on her face. I turned from them. I couldn't watch this anymore.

I found myself walking to the lower circles, debating whether or not I should just go back to the cave, but knowing it wasn't really an option. I couldn't get into Masks Square, so what was the point? I figured I probably could have gone to see Terra if I thought she'd be there. Now that Rei could walk again—which she had helpfully pointed out to us because we'd been too caught up in our arguments to notice—I was sure that she and Terra, and probably Astamon too, had gone off somewhere to test her new legs some more.

Well, there was always Porcupamon...

I stopped on my way to the dump. It was past the church grounds. I knew Kiyoko was content with just throwing shade my way, but what if his friends shared his anger and were not as satisfied with letting me walk free?

I saw them now, all together in a group, nervously advancing upon the trees, axes in hand. They were going to cut them down to expand their land. I spotted Kiyoko who was standing with his back to the woods looking entirely apathetically to his friends. Not too far from him a Zamielmon stood with violet hair down his face and arrows wedged into his shoulders and back. That must have been the digimon that had once lived in the hut that was now meant to be my own.

I watched as Karatenmon took the first swing, wielding a cracked steel axe, flinging it toward the trees. Then the others were joining him in seconds, but it didn't last long. Out of nowhere Gravimon materialized and roared loudly, bending to their level so they could hear him better. Each of the Wizards set off in the opposite direction screaming and Kiyoko turned away, stifling his laughter.

He caught sight of me and we stared for a brief moment before we both began laughing at the running wizards. Kiyoko seemed to think better of this a moment later and turned his nose up at the sight of me. Gravimon lifted Kiyoko and set him on his shoulder before running after the wizards with Kiyoko cheering with glee.

Hopefully this relationship could help the wizards get into Gravimon's good books and maybe he would share land with them—then everyone would be happy.

And Kiyoko wouldn't hate me so much.

Another flash of the argument we'd had the previous night filled my mind and I winced, feeling bad again.

" _You don't understand what it means to lose something so integral to the way you live," Kiyoko said sharply, "they've lost their actual_ homes _, and you don't even care! What's wrong with you?"_

" _A lot of things are wrong with me," I had admitted, "Everyone has things wrong with them and you're certainly no exception to that." He looked offended and I had already felt bad, but I didn't stop, "I care, Kiyoko, I do. I care that the Fallen Angels have been seeking more land for decades, and the Wizards refused to share. I guess there's a lesson in this for everyone. The Fallen Angels learned to fight for what they want, and the Wizards learned that being selfish gets you nowhere."_

" _I'm not selfish," Kiyoko said defensively._

" _I never singled you out."_

" _But that's what you meant!" Kiyoko snapped. "You can't relate to the Wizards because you've never gone through something like this!"_

 _I could feel the anger bubbling up inside me, because arguments weren't something I usually wanted to be involved with. In fact I couldn't even remember the last one I had lived through—probably with my mother. I was a pretty relaxed guy most of the time, but when someone kept prodding at me,_ wanting _me to explode, not even I could stop it. "This might surprise you Kiyoko, but you don't know a thing about me." I growled, "I grew up in a closet, because my mother could not afford a bigger apartment, and my dad was nowhere to be seen. I felt trapped at home, and trapped and school because Marshall, you know, the guy your friend Mari hates so much, made my life a nightmare. I was alone every damn night, and I hated it. And then I decided I'd had enough of it, and I did what I could to help out. I didn't wallow in self-pity, or cry about my problems like you do, I solved them."_

 _Kiyoko's face turned red with either anger or sadness and I couldn't tell which, but it didn't matter. I already felt bad enough. He took a deep breath before replying, "This is your fault."_

" _It's as much your fault as it is mine," I said through gritted teeth, "You heard Rei, Terra was ecstatic about that damned white stick. If you had just swallowed your pride and handed it over, you would have won the competition and the Wizards wouldn't have lost their home. You don't like her because she reminds you of your mom—I'm sorry, that must suck. But your mom is dead, and Terra isn't her, she doesn't hate you."_

 _Kiyoko stared toward me in complete shock and then turned, his arms crossed tightly over his chest and then stormed off. I was sure he had gone to cry again, and that was the problem._

I groaned out loud again, understanding that I had gone _way_ too far. I wasn't a bad person inherently, but sometimes I just said stupid things. I usually found myself filtering my words carefully knowing I had potential to be a complete idiot, but I had thrown caution to the wind and let it all come out, and I wouldn't be surprised if Kiyoko _didn't_ let me go back to Masks Square.

But he might, if I told him that I agreed with him now. The Wizards definitely should have kept their home. I understood their perspective now even more than I could see the Fallen Angels. Sure, they needed a fix to their living situation, but thrusting someone else into the same situation, just to get the upper hand wasn't right. It was like a hungry person stealing their friend's sandwich and letting their friend go hungry. It wasn't fair.

"Human boy," I turned and saw Arukenimon and Mummymon approaching me together, back in their human forms. I didn't respond so they continued, "Tactimon has summoned you, and you did not obey."

"I didn't hear him," I said nervously. Tactimon wasn't the kindest of the digimon I'd met in this world. In fact, he was the strictest and those who disobeyed him were usually punished to some extent.

Mummymon and Arukenimon shared a look, "You'd best get on your way then," Mummymon said, "We're telling you now, so go." I nodded and took their advice, hurrying back through the crowds of Fallen Angels. I bumped into Murmukusmon who was digging some kind of pit in the middle of the third ring of huts. He sent a glare toward me from under his helmet and I swallowed thickly, hurrying away from him and straight to the heart of the town where I was sure to find an upset Tactimon.

I finally approached his hut and knocked awkwardly on the wall, waiting for an answer.

"Enter," his ominous voice wafted through the air. I nervously did as I was told, pushing the thick green leaves that hung in the doorway aside and stepping inside. This hut clearly had more time and effort put into it than the others, or at least my own. It was clear that this had been Zanbamon's hut, as he was the leader. Tactimon was sitting on a large iron chair next to a perfectly carved window, staring out to the night sky. His black armour reflected the light and somehow he looked less frightening in this position.

Until he turned on me and stood from his chair, towering over me. He slowly moved forward until he was merely a few feet away. He tiled his head down and was silent for a moment until finally his voice vibrated through my bones in the way it always did, "I have a request."

Well that was certainly not as terrifying as I had been expecting, but then again, I still hadn't heard what the request was. It could still be pretty bad. "Anything," I said, probably lying.

"I trust you now," Tactimon said, lessening my nerves, "You have granted us with his new home, and for that, I thank you." I nodded awkwardly, because that wasn't a request, so there had to be more to come. "I now wish for you to speak to Terra in my place."

Relief washed over me, "Oh, yeah? I can do that, no problem." Tactimon looked pleased and then turned to move back to his chair. "About what, though?"

Tactimon did not speak until he was seated again and he began staring out the window like some kind of lost puppy. "I wish to allow more growth to the land."

"You want _more_ land?" I asked, appalled.

Tactimon's head snapped toward me as if daring me to speak again and I froze, my nerves returning. "No," he said flatly, "I wish for grass and for trees. I wish for life." I almost let out an 'aww' because it was kind of cute but I was smart enough to hold that one in. He wanted the land to become more livable for his people, and for himself. "She can grant us that. Please speak to her for me."

I nodded, "Of course," I bowed a little, just in case that was a formality. I always did. "I'll be right back." Tactimon nodded in return, pleased with this news and then I was off, feeling free the moment I had stepped out of his hut. He just seemed so urgently negative all the time and the feeling weighed me down a lot. But now I was off, out of the rings of huts, which felt awesome because it gave me some other things to think about instead of just feeling perpetually guilty all the time. Tactimon had been so sure that Terra would be home, and that was enough for me. I was kind of excited to get to talk to her. The way her carefree behaviour floated about the air was enough to calm anyone down—well, aside from Kiyoko of course.

The feeling of guilt threatened to rise again and I bit my tongue, thinking. What if Terra was done with Kiyoko's stick? If she handed it over to me, perhaps I could use it as a peace offering, and Kiyoko and I could stop hating each other.

I didn't hate him though.

And I hoped he didn't hate me.

"It might _not_ be a good idea," I heard a hissing voice escape the trees. I stopped abruptly, afraid that whoever it was would see or hear me, and then listened closely. "It will only start more trouble."

The voice that replied was even quieter, but I could tell by the squawking nature that it belonged to Karatenmon, "I didn't make the rules, I'm just spreading word."

There was a long silence, and then, "It seems reckless."

"It is."

I decided that whatever they were planning was obviously important, but I wasn't about to turn back and disobey Tactimon, so I set off again, this time at a run. Terra's garden wasn't far away though so the run was short. I came to a gradual stop when the dirt path that ran along the forests edge came to an end and I stepped under the floral arch. "Terra?" I asked quickly without bothering to look around.

No answer came so I began to walk down the stone path that wove through the flowers. I craned my neck to look past the tallest of the flowers, trying to see the gazebo to make out if Terra was sitting up there, but when I finally got a closer look she was not there. Nor was she sitting at her table.

I was about to give up and hurry back to Tactimon when the elegant wooden door caught my eye. The door was not attached to anything and it always felt weird to me, but I moved toward it quickly. Behind this door was Terra's chambers, her bedroom I assumed, so she probably was just inside. If she was here, and if not, it was my last place to check before hurrying back to Tactimon.

I raised my hand to knock on the door and hesitated for only a moment before slamming my fist against it three times sharply.

There was a loud thump from inside and then nervous laughter. I furrowed my brow and waited a moment until the door was thrust open, slamming into my face.

I groaned as the pain spread from my nose all across my face.

"Oh my!" Terra gasped, falling to her knees next to me. "I am so sorry!" I shook her off because I was sure I could live through the pain. I had felt worse. Once Puppetmon had slammed me against the side of Koushiro's house and broken three of my ribs. This was nothing. My nose probably wasn't even broken. Terra helped me to my feet when she finally decided I wasn't going to accept her help. "You surprised me," she said with that same nervous laughter, "I was so caught up in this novel that Rei lent me."

"Sorry about that," I said almost bitterly.

"Don't be," she said flatly, sensing my pain. "Let me look." I relented and dropped my hands. The surprised look on her face wasn't very comforting and she gestured for me to follow her, and so I did. She led me to a small patch of fluffy white cotton like flowers. She then grabbed a couple of them and pulled them from the ground and began cleaning off the blood from my face. "So what brings you here?"

"Tactimon," I said nasally as she practically shoved a cotton-flower up my nose. "He wants you to plant trees and flowers and the likes." Terra stopped mopping up my face and looked to me, surprised. "I know, right?" She looked amused and then continued cleaning my face.

"You can tell Tactimon for me that I'll have to get to that at a later date," Terra said softly as a tiny sun passed by us, lighting up the garden and giving it life. She reached out for it and grabbed it roughly before looking back to me, "close your eyes," she warned, and I obeyed. There was a blinding light shining in front of me that stung even with my eyes shut tight. And then it disappeared, "You're alright now. I'm very sorry." I believed her. "I am a little busy today," Terra told me softly, "is there anything else I could help you with?"

I hesitated, "I—well, maybe..." she looked a little impatient, but waited silently for me to expand. "That white stick that Kiyoko found—"

"Rei told me that _she_ was the one to find the stick?" Terra said curiously. I shrugged, not wanting to confuse the story any further. I didn't like lies, they always tangled themselves and I was always the one to walk into the web. "Never mind," she said waving it off as inconsequential.

"Right," I said nodding, "Well I was wondering if you were finished with it."

"Why, do you need it?" Terra asked, looking as though she was prepared to rush into her room to go get it for me.

I shook my head, "No, not if you're not finished," I said pathetically, "Just, Kiyoko really liked it, and he's mad at me, and I thought if I brought it back to him he wouldn't be so angry."

"Well," Terra said, her eyes lighting up, and not just because another of the tiny suns was floating past, "if you let me hold onto it just a little while longer, it may make him even happier."

"And why is that?" I asked her, confused.

She smiled at me, her face brimming with excitement, "I compared it to the amethyst key that Rei showed me, and I am beginning to think they may be used for very similar purposes."

"You think it's a key?" I asked, shocked.

She nodded, "I do."

"Oh my god," I said, a grin forming on my face, "So we can get out of here?"

"I hope so," Terra nodded joining in my excitement.

"I'm going to go tell him," I said, turning before remembering to say goodbye, I spun around suddenly and waved to her, and she laughed, waving back. Then she headed into her chambers and I was running, nearly trampling some azaleas. I bumped into Astamon on my way out of the garden gates and he simply muttered something about how inconsiderate I was, but I didn't care. I didn't stop running until I came to the huts. I had been intending to inform Tactimon about Terra's response before talking to Kiyoko, but that didn't appear to be an option this time. Instead I found that both the Wizards and the Fallen Angels were all crowding the dividing line. Kiyoko and Rei were among them.

I cursed under my breath and rushed toward them all. Apparently, whatever the Wizards had been planning had something to do with invading their old homes. I could hear Karatenmon and Phelesmon shrieking above all of the arguments. The two of them were floating in the air too making them easily visible. "Go back to your barren church!" Phelesmon shouted smugly.

"Not a chance, you over grown fruit fly!" Karatenmon squawked in return.

I was nearing the crowd when a feminine shout soared above the crowd and Rei was thrust from the argument. I watched as she hit the ground and hurried to her side to help her up. Tactimon was standing nearby and simply looked to the two of us as if we were in his way. "Where have you been?" Rei asked sharply. "Everyone here is insane! They're threatening to kill each other, and Kiyoko won't get out of the center of it all."

Annoyance met worry inside me and I tried to get a better look to find Kiyoko again, but I couldn't see over the heads of the digimon. There was an angry shout as someone pushed Mummymon and Arukenimon was coming to his rescue, and then NeoDevimon was going to stomp on the Strabimon that was clawing at his feet.

"Go get Terra," I suggested to Rei.

She shook her head, "She doesn't want to be disturbed today. I was there, I was going to read her a book but she said she was busy."

"Go anyway," I insisted, "We need her to solve this."

Rei looked uneasy, like she didn't want to be the one to ruin Terra's day, but decided that there had to be at least a little bit of validation in my words because she finally agreed and set off. I however took a chance and began worming my way into the crowd. It was tight and everyone was hot and angry, shuffling in frustration. It was loud too, because every one of them, aside from NeoDevimon I supposed, had something _incredibly_ important to add to the conversation, all at once.

When finally I had found the front lines, where Witchmon was standing with Kiyoko and Reapmon, who looked like he was ready to _kill_ , Kiyoko caught sight of me and his mouth twitched with anger but I didn't let it stop me.

"Stop," I insisted to the nearest FlaWizardmon, "Please." He snarled at me and I backed up when he raised his match threateningly. This was ridiculous, everyone was just screaming for no reason. I turned on Kiyoko and reached for him, but Salem, Witchmon's ghost cat, hissed and bit at my hand. I retracted it quickly, but I had caught Kiyoko's attention. He shook his head slightly with a 'what-do-you-want?' kind of expression and I took my chance, "It's a key." He was confused and wasn't hiding it. "Your stick, it's a key. We can leave."

"As if I would leave these people without a home," Kiyoko said sharply in response, "You were right. It's partly my fault. I'm not going to come in and ruin their lives without at least helping them fix what I've broken."

He was right. It wasn't fair to feed the flames of their dispute without at least calming the fire before taking our leave. As a human being I felt a responsibility to leave someone—or something—in a better state than when I found them. I nodded and Kiyoko looked confused as I turned and rounded on the Fallen Angels. "HEY!" I shouted loudly. " _Shut up_! For a minute at least."

It was a while before everyone had gone quiet, but once the people in the front had quieted down it seemed to spread across the crowd like a wave of silence. Unsurprisingly, Phelesmon was the last to shut his mouth.

When he finally did the realization sunk in that it was time for me to speak. That's what I had wanted right? Everyone was silent because I had asked them to, and now it was time for me to say what I had in my mind. Too bad I hadn't planned anything. "Alright," I said, the awkward in my voice was impossible to miss, and I clapped my hands together. "Fighting isn't going to solve anything." There were a few stifled disagreements throughout the crowd, but no one seemed to completely disagree. "You've been arguing forever, and nothing has changed because neither of you are willing to have nothing. But sometimes a compromise is better than having everything." I thought of my house in New York and how it was the coolest place in the entire world, but it wasn't really worth anything because I always felt so alone, "Sometimes, if you just look at something from someone else's perspective you can see what they are thinking or going through. You can see now because you've both lived on either side of the dividing line. What if you build huts on the church ground and _share_ the land as a whole?"

"Not gonna happen!" Phelesmon shrieked angrily. There was a lot of commotion and agreement, particularly from the Fallen Angels.

"I realize that the Wizards didn't want to share before," I said sharply, "but that doesn't mean you have to be just as bitter. Arukenimon, you actually have seven huts to yourself. That's excessive, don't you think."

"No, not really." She said flatly.

I groaned audibly and everyone took that as an invitation to start up again, but this time more aggressively. I felt something slam into me and I turned to see the same FlaWizardmon with his match, ready to fight. I shook my head. I was getting out of here. I looked to Kiyoko who looked utterly shocked to be in the exact center of such a close ranged fight. I reached out to him again, ignoring the snarling of Salem and grabbed his arm.

He looked shocked, but I didn't stop, and began pulling him through the crowd, getting him out to safety. He didn't look all too impressed with the idea that I was taking him from the place where he wanted to help out, but it was for the best.

And then finally we were free and both of us fell to the dirt. Kiyoko clambered to his feet and was ready to get into the fray again, but I stopped him, grabbing his foot. He fell straight to the ground just as Tactimon and Zanbamon met in combat directly in front of him. I pulled sharply and Kiyoko shouted in shock, this time he was more willing to back off. When we had finally gotten out of the way of the two opposing leaders, a ball of fire shot toward the two of us, narrowly avoiding my head.

"Hey!" I shouted to the FlaWizardmon, "Seriously, go away! What the hell?" The FlaWizardmon smirked devilishly and then hopped back into the mess of bodies.

Kiyoko groaned and I turned to see what he was looking at. I saw Terra walking across the ground, striding smoothly and silently into the combat range. There was a look of immense frustration and anger on her face, one that I had never seen. Rei and Astamon were rushing after her, barely able to keep up with her brisk pace fueled with the need to put an end to the fight.

I turned back to Kiyoko to tell him that she was just here to help, but froze when I noticed that he was missing. I looked around for a moment before spotting Rei who had stopped short of Astamon and who was looking off toward Terra's garden. I followed her gaze and spotted Kiyoko running as fast as his legs could carry him.

 _ **Takeru Takaishi:**_

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to react," Hikari said with her fingers tightening around my own. We were walking with the ground, it was the largest our group had been in months, and it was a very good feeling, like we'd finally accomplished something. I could not remember a time when we had been working towards something but made such little progress, but now that progress had been made and the feeling of optimism was bubbling higher inside of my chest. "I'm proud of you, for being so strong."

I looked down to her, and smiled. "I wish you would have been able to be there," I told her in a quiet voice, "I want for you to believe in yourself and to be able to think that things might turn out alright in the end."

"They might," Hikari agreed, nodding her head, "but they might not."

"How can you think like that?" I asked, sadness washing over me silently, "You've seen that we have won every battle, right? We've never lost before. Everything will always turn out for the better."

Hikari looked to the ground, seemingly done conversing, but she muttered something under her breath and I fell silent as well. "We didn't win this time," she had said. But she was wrong because we hadn't had the chance to see the winner yet. The end had not come. We were still standing and I was sure the others were too, and then when we met up once more, we could find the way to show Hikari that things could never fall apart around her. I would never let it get to that point. But the idea that the Dark Ocean was in this world now, created by her negativity and sadness—the very same feelings that she had yet to talk about or even _show_ anyone—worried me. I couldn't allow her to feel that way. It was my job, given to me by Gennai, or whatever other omnipresent forces were at play in the universe. Hope was what it meant to not lose sight of the light, even in the darkest of times. And here I was, holding her hand, showing her the way to where I was _sure_ she wanted to be, but she couldn't see through the fog, but all I could do was act as a lighthouse. She would have to pull herself through. There was nothing more I could do. But I'd never turn off the light.

"So, you all seem great," Ryou said quietly, "but I don't know anything about you, and I'm not sure I understand what is going on." His digimon seemed to have been muttering angrily under his breath during our walk and Ryou finally took his feelings into consideration.

I was ready to tell him our entire story, which seemed fair because he had just spouted off all of his history to us, and it seemed odd that things were so unbalanced, but Koushiro spoke before I had the chance. "I hardly think now is the time for another drawn out story," he said simply, "I assure you there will be more time for pleasantries later."

I looked back to Koushiro and found that my eyes were squinted with frustration, so I forced them open more and smiled brightly, marching on ahead once more.

"What if we play a game of questions and answers?" Ryou seemed both bored with the silence and eager to know anything about the rest of us.

"I—" Koushiro started.

"Sounds good," I interrupted Koushiro knowing he was going to shut Ryou down again, but there was no reason for that. "Ask whatever you need the answers to, and I'll do my best to help you out."

Ryou didn't waste any time in asking his first question and it nearly shot from his mouth, "Is this really the same Ken I met before?"

I didn't know the answer to that of course, so I looked back to Ken and shrugged. It seemed everyone else wanted to know as well and all eyes were on him making him nervous. He nodded slowly, "I think so. I don't remember much, but what you said sounded familiar. I remember the dark spore, that's for sure."

"Yeah, they're nasty," Ryou said bitterly, "What happened with that?"

Ken hesitated, ashamed of his past, but Koushiro didn't notice, "Ken became what he liked to call the 'Digimon Kaiser' and took control of many digimon using technology he created, and ultimately used their data to create a larger enemy, who seemingly was based from his subconscious memories of Millennium. He then used this new enemy to attempt to destroy us Digidestined and ultimately it was the death of his partner Wormmon that brought him from his darkness."

"Wormmon?" Ryou asked, his voice saddened.

"He is alright," Koushiro explained, "Digimon cannot die while residing within their digital dimension."

Ryou relaxed and was quiet for a moment or so, giving everyone time to adjust to how dark the conversation was going. Hopefully he wouldn't have too many more ominous inquiries. "So, what are you all doing here?"

His questions were not nearly as surface level as I'd been hoping. I imagined he would ask us about how we became Digidestined, or something similar, and I could tell him the story of how I defeated Devimon, or how Myostismon just wouldn't stay defeated! But instead we spent our entire way home draining all of the optimism out of Ken as we explained what was happening with the virus to Ryou. Yume, who was still with us, was reacting very dramatically to the whole story as if it were the first time he'd heard it, and Summer looked very uncomfortable from start to finish.

"We are looking for a place to start our new lives now," Koushiro explained as the story came to an end. "I personally am not fond of this world. I respect you for keeping yourself together for so long under its spell."

"You just gotta keep smiling," Ryou grinned. I smiled back to him but Koushiro's eyes flicked to me, upset that there was another optimist. "Just one day at a time, man."

Koushiro's eyebrows raised in disproval of being called 'man' but he said nothing else. We could see our house finally, now that the stories were over, we were all thinking the same thing, it was time to get home. We were all walking in silence until finally Ken spoke up. "I thought we were looking for a way _home_ ," he whispered.

"We are," Hikari said kindly, "We're almost there."

Ken looked up, confused and then looked to the house we had been living in and shook his head, "That? No, that's not home. Koushiro said we were looking for a new place to start over. I thought we were going _home_."

"We will be," I assured him, ignored whatever it was Koushiro was saying at the same time. It didn't matter because he was just going to make things worse.

"I don't know if that is a possibility," Summer said gently, placing her hand on Ken's shoulder. "I have nearly broken through this final barrier, but that will merely take us to a world unknown to all. Once there, I cannot guarantee that we will find another way out."

Ken looked enraged now, as his fists balled up in frustration. I released Hikari's hand and fell in stride with him instead, throwing my arm around his shoulder, "Don't worry Ken, we'll get you back to Miyako. I know we will." His fists relaxed but he still looked rather annoyed and he shrugged my arm off of his shoulders. "No it's true," I assured him, "I believe that we'll get home. Why wouldn't we? We know the way."

"Do we?" Ken asked quietly.

"Of course we do," I nodded, patting him on the back, "And Summer sure does. She'll come with us to the new world. It might be closer to Earth, and if it's not she can always bring us back here."

"I'm not sure—" Summer started.

"If you can take us there, you can take us back," I snapped, "It's possible. It just is, okay?" Hikari noticed my frustration that was leaking through my words. I wasn't proud of it, but I was glad I had her to calm me down. She took my hand again and squeezed it tight for support. "If we all focus on the negatives all the time, nothing good is ever going to happen. I've said it before and I'll say it again! We have to think positively!"

"Takeru," Summer said, "I cannot promise that I will be able to get you all back to this realm. Should this new world be dangerous, you may be required to live there for an eternity."

"Then I'm not going!" Ken barked, his voice much bolder than I had heard since the virus. "You can all wander off if you want, but I'm going to stay here because at least Miyako knows this world exists! If there's a way to find me, she'll look _here_."

"No, we have to stay together!" I insisted.

"Do as you please, Takeru," Ken shot. "I'm staying. At least we have _food_ in this world."

"There's got to be food in this new world too!" I groaned, "How else would anyone survive?" Ken didn't answer and I sighed, "Look, I'm putting my foot down. You're not staying, Ken. I won't allow it."

Koushiro rounded on me, eyebrows raised, "And when did you become the all powerful leader of our group?"

My mouth was hanging slightly open in frustration so I took a deep breath before speaking, hoping to subside the anger at least a little. "I just figured, no one else here really has leadership qualities, except Hikari, but she wouldn't want it."

"So you voted yourself into the leadership role?" Koushiro asked sharply, "That sounds about right. You realize Taichi worked his way to that place, and we all came to the same conclusion. You are not our leader. We are all equals here, and I do not wish to report to anyone, least of all you."

I couldn't figure out the right words to respond so I reached into the air where a pair of goggles were forming and grabbed them before putting them on my head. "I'm the leader now."

"The goggles mean nothing," Koushiro said flatly.

"The goggles mean _everything_!" I shot back. "Ken thinks I'm the leader, right Ken?"

I turned to Ken who still looked very angry, and when he looked up to me he looked very bitter, "Not a chance," he shook his head annoyed.

"Well, Hikari sure does, right?" I looked to her with a big smile and she stared to the ground, not bothering to look up from the pavement at her feet. My heart lurched and buried itself ten feet underground. Not even Hikari looked at me in a place of leadership. I supposed I could find a romantic sentiment in that, knowing that Hikari and I had a stable relationship where we looked at each other as equals, but I couldn't make my mind do that. I couldn't look to the positives because I was angry. It wasn't often that I actually got angry either, but I felt hurt and betrayed and anger was the only emotion that came to mind to defend those parts of me. "Whatever." Was all I said.

And then we were home. I released Hikari's hand and marched straight to the front door and threw it open. It was childish, but I just wanted to get away from the others. I couldn't understand how the three of them could be in a constant negative state. The only thing I was asking from them was to be positive for a _second._ Maybe being negative was the way they were dealing with their issues, but I couldn't do that. I couldn't sit around and cry all the time because that would be accepting that my brother was dead. Crying would mean that Patamon stood no chance against the virus. Smiling meant there was still a chance. A small ray of hope was all I needed and they were all very selfish to be thinking of themselves all the time. Why didn't anyone ever wonder if I was okay?

Of course I wasn't _okay_! A deadly virus tried to kill every one of my friends and my mom and my dad and my brother! Just because I was smiling every day didn't mean that nothing could get to me. That constant fear and pain that was eroding their self esteem—that was happening to me too! I just fought it off! I wasn't going to let something like this destroy me, but that didn't mean I wasn't just as sad or scared as they were.

There was a knock on the door and I realized I'd gone straight up to my bedroom. I was pacing the floor in front of my bed, running my fingers through my hair. The goggles I'd wished up were laying on the bed, broken. The knocking did not stop when I ignored it, so finally I marched to the door and pulled it open. Hikari stood on the other side.

"Takeru, I'm sorry," she stepped forward and hugged me. It felt nice, but I kind of wanted to just be alone for a minute. "Y-you can be the leader if you want."

"I don't want to be a pity leader," I rolled my eyes, "I just assumed I _was_ the leader because I was the only one actively doing anything to get us out of here, Now that all seems pointless because Ken's not even leaving and I don't even care because Koushiro is right. There's no proof that we will survive in the new world and there's no proof that we'll ever get home. We're going to have to start a new life and hope that the people of this new world are nice because I need different friends than Koushiro and Ken. They're so bitter! No, I didn't mean that, I'm just angry, and you should know—"

"Takeru!" Hikari interrupted, putting her hands on my shoulders, "Don't think like that. You're the only reason any of us are holding it together. You may not be the leader of our group, but you're definitely the core. Without you, we'd all be dead right now, drowning in misery. Literally. We would create a pool of darkness out of our misery and we would drown, even though we don't need to breath. There would be nothing stopping us from allowing that to happen. You're the hope, Takeru. You'll always be the shining ray of light that leads us to the light."

"So I lead you, but I can't be a leader?" I was annoyed with myself for being so bitter, but at least it was honest.

Hikari released me and moved to sit on my bed. I felt ashamed that I hadn't made it when I woke up this morning. She was sitting on a messy pile of blankets now and she reached toward the broken goggles. "Taichi is the leader," she said, tears in her eyes. "I just... didn't want to replace him. I don't want him to be gone."

I genuinely considered leaving and finding a better person for this job. I was clearly not cut out to be a good person. I had just been venting to myself about how selfish everyone else was being for not seeing my pain but I had entirely overlooked Hikari's. She was the least selfish person I'd ever met, always worrying about everyone else. This one time she thought about her own feelings and I'd reacted horribly. I had to somehow amend this, and so I sat next to her quickly, taking her hand. "Hikari, I'm so sorry." I took the goggles and hid them from her view, "You're right. I should never have tried to take his place. I miss him too." Hikari leaned her head on my shoulder and I held her there for a moment in silence. "We'll see him again..."

"He's right, you know," We both looked up to see Ryou walking into my bedroom with a confident grin on his face. "You have to be positive or nothing good will ever come of it. Your friends will be okay, I'm sure of it!"

Hikari and I stared towards Ryou who had entirely interrupted our moment, but he didn't seem to notice at all. He was still grinning from ear to ear. Hikari slowly lifted her head and adjusted the blankets under herself so she could find more comfort. Ryou snapped his fingers and created a wooden chair for himself to sit on, apparently he had no intention of leaving. "Could I ask you a question, Ryou?" Hikari asked, trying to ease the silence. Ryou nodded excitedly. "Why didn't you want to be found? We were looking for a long time, and we should have found you. Why could we not find you?"

Ryou looked up for a moment, thinking and then smiled again, "You know, I think it was just because I was ignoring outside forces. I had this mindset, right? I wanted to focus on each day as its own universe, and you were not in that universe. I wanted to ensure that every day passed smoothly, and to do that I would have to block outside sources from coming inside." He smiled, pleased with his answer. "I have a long time to wait, you see."

"What year were you from?" I asked.

"Born in 2013, but I've lived up to 2027," Ryou explained. "What year is it now?"

It took me a moment to remember something as trivial as that, "2015," I told him simply.

"Aww," Ryou cooed, "I'm probably so cute right now." Hikari snorted and Ryou seemed pleased that he had cheered her up even a little. Personally I was just confused. Ryou was two years old. But he was also thirteen, because I could see him right now. That's just how old he was. It was fact. However, he was neither two, nor thirteen. He was like fifty, or more! He had been wandering around the Digital World for a _very_ long time, living each day on Earth was nearly four years in the Digital World before the defeat of Millenniummon... so Ryou was literally ancient. But not really. He was really only thirteen—but not technically. Technically he was only two years old.

It was just so confusing.

"Oh hey!" Hikari said, clapping her hands together, "You found a perfect picnic spot! I nearly forgot."

I could feel myself brightening up and I nodded, "You'll love it." I knew she would love it more so now that it was more than just a picnic. It was now a celebration because we had _finally_ found the boy we had been searching for. The others would be so pleased when we finally returned to them. Finding the last piece of our puzzle, and handing the crest of trust over to him would mean, by all prophecies, that the everlasting peace we had been craving for so long, would finally come into fruition.

"Just let me get ready, okay?" Hikari said, jumping to her feet. She was out the door in a second, eager to get on the picnic, and whether that was simply to cheer me up, or because she was genuinely excited to go didn't matter. The fact that I had the best girlfriend in the world was what mattered then.

Well, that and the fact that Ryou was looking at the shelf above my bed, examining all of the photographs I had set there. "A Patamon?" Ryou asked.

"My partner," I told him, spotting the picture of Veemon and Patamon eating a giant piece of cake.

"Adorable," Ryou said softly, as his eyes trailed along each wall of the bedroom. The window was open and I noticed that it had already gotten dark outside. "So you're a team," Ryou said thoughtfully, "There's more of you?"

"Nineteen," I confirmed, "human, that is. We've got twenty digimon on our side too. Each human has a crest—Willis has two—and there are twenty one of those in total."

"Crest?" Ryou asked, "What's that?"

"Personality traits that were extracted from the worlds and formed into tangible objects that represent what we have inside of ourselves," I tried to explain it as simply as I could, but Ryou looked horribly confused. "Mine is hope," I said, "because I'm... optimistic, I guess."

"So am I," Ryou said brightly, "So mine's hope too?"

I grinned and finally felt relaxed. It was refreshing to have someone so positive around. "No, mine is hope, you can't have it too. I'd be happy to share, but that isn't how it works."

"So what's mine?" Ryou asked. "Mystery? Introverted? Because I'm not actually an introvert, so you can imagine how exhausting it is living every day with only one person around. It's really cool to have other people to look at, even if you are all leaving—anyway, I'm extroverted, is that my crest?"

Perhaps we could create a crest called 'talkative' to give to him because as far as I could tell it would certainly fit him pretty well. Though I could only imagine how lonely it would be to live years of your life without anyone let alone your loved ones. Given some time he would surely relax and stop talking so much. Whenever I spent a prolonged amount of time away from my friends I would talk nonstop until I got it out of my system whenever I met up with them again. "No, your crest is Trust."

"Trust?" Ryou repeated as he began thinking his own personality through, attempting to solve the riddles he was creating for himself. Finding that he was destined to understand and represent a specific trait would be fairly daunting. I was lucky that this occurred to me when I was so young. I grew up with the idea that I was meant to be hopeful and nothing was stopping me because it had always been engrained in me. Ryou on the other hand had gone many, _many_ , years without knowing this. "Like I have to be trusting? I guess I could do that." He paused and thought again, "Trust seems like a tall order."

"Of course it is," I said with a smile as Ryou wandered over to the window, to look down into the backyard. "It's the final crest, and it ties them all together."

Ryou was silent for another moment and then smiled, turning to face me, "At least it's not something like 'love' because that would be so hard." My mind wandered to Sora and I sighed, remembering just how hard she had been finding it to understand and represent the true meaning of love in all of its different forms. "Your girlfriend is outside by the way."

I moved forward and looked down to where Ryou had been staring and saw that Hikari was standing alone in the backyard wearing a yellow dress that was blowing gently in the breeze the night had delivered. I patted Ryou on the shoulder and promised to talk more about the schematics of the crests when I returned, and set off. I passed Cyberdramon, Koushiro and Ken sitting in total silence in the living room, and made my way outside. Yume was watching Summer with adoration as she sat under her favourite tree, her dress puffing up all around her as she meditated. I was hopeful that she'd be able to get us out of here. Today was always the day of the year when the barriers were at their weakest. If there were ever a time when she should be able to help us out of this world, it would be today.

I pulled open the gate into the backyard and motioned for Hikari to come along with me. She smiled and moved quickly. "A picnic with no food?" she questioned simply. I paused and then reached out into the air where a basket materialized. She smiled and I led her off. Luckily, the picnic location that I had created was not far from our house. It was a tall, beautiful tree that stood at the top of a hill overlooking a beautiful crystal clear pond. The light from the moon above was reflecting from the water's surface in a beautiful sort of way.

I set up the blanket that was inside the basket and began unpacking the food as Hikari took in the view silently. She crossed her arms as if she was cold and I took her hand, pulling her into a hug to keep her warm. "I'm glad you decided to come with me," I told her.

"I'm glad you invited me," she was very polite about it all. I released her and she sat down gracefully at one end of the blanket. I took my seat at the other end and watched as Hikari began eating the food I had lain out. "This is delicious," she said sweetly.

"You haven't eaten anything yet," I pointed out.

Hikari looked to the grape in her hand and tossed it into her mouth, "This is delicious," she said again. I laughed and she looked out to the pond with no emotions expressed on her face. I didn't even think twice about what might have been going on in her mind. It had to be the Dark Ocean waters that had been plaguing her. I reached for her hand and pulled it closer to me to comfort her.

"You're okay," I promised. "But I want you to know that you don't have to keep anything inside anymore. You don't have to smile through your pain. It's okay to be sad. I'll always be there for you, and I know I'm not the only one."

Hikari said nothing at all.

It felt off. She simply stared toward the waters that I had dreamed up and watched as the ripples reflected the moonlight in every direction. It was beautiful, but I couldn't focus. There was something wrong. "Hikari, are you okay?" I pulled her hand closer to me and she turned to face me very quickly. She stared at me for a long time, the moonlight was lighting up half of her face, and the longer I looked back at her the less visible the other half of her face was. And then she smiled, and at first I was relieved, but the smile kept growing and growing until it was impossibly large and she opened her mouth wickedly for just a moment.

"I cannot feel sad," her voice was twisted and wrong. I pulled my hand back sharply and clambered away from her, my heart beating quickly. This wasn't Hikari. "Emotions are for those who are weakened by heart."

"Stop!" I shouted quickly, pulling myself to my feet, "Show me Hikari. Where is she?"

The twisted version of Hikari stood too, and as she did her skin became tighter, and less human, with lines and veins etched upon her face. Her hair shot out and became rigid and her legs and arms grew longer. "I am Hikari. Without flaws."

"Hikari is already flawless," I growled before entering a staring contest with the creature. It seemed like we would never stop staring at one another, like her dark eyes were boring their way straight through me. Then she lunged toward me, moving quickly. I jumped aside, hoping to escape, but instead slammed into the tree, and the mangled Hikari reached her arm behind her and grabbed my throat with her long twisted fingers. I could feel the negativity forcing its way through her fingers and into my skin. It was strong and dangerous and it felt like it was sliding and slithering its way through my body, attempting to taint me with the negative feelings. She tightened her grip and pushed me against the tree, hard. Slowly she raised me off the ground and I began gasping for breath, trying to keep the concept of this world in my mind. I could breathe now, and there was nothing that could stop me. My imagination was my weapon for once, and I wasn't going to let something like this get the better of me.

I began kicking instinctively when I finally convinced myself that it didn't hurt—even though it did. I could feel pain rushing down my entire back and my face was reddening with lack of oxygen. And then I managed to kick her, but her stance didn't move for a second. She simply grinned wider and furrowed her thin brows before leaning forward. "You are not strong, not with your weaknesses."

"E-emotions aren't w-weak!" I choked out, swinging my feet and hitting her again and again. She looked annoyed, but unharmed. I clenched my fists and, as per my command, a sleek blue car shot through the air, slamming into her. She shrieked in pain and I fell to the ground as she rolled her way down the hill with the car as though they were dancing. I wasted no time jumping to my feet and then set off, running the other way down the hill, but I hadn't even gotten halfway down when the ground opened up and the horrible version of my girlfriend crawled from the hole she had created.

I thought quickly and threw my hands into the air, controlling the grass at my feet to grow until there was enough to wrap around her and hold her still. And then, all at once, the rest of the grass had grown, concealing me from her view. I was in a forest of soft grass and I ran. I knew what direction I was meant to be heading, but I had no way to know if I had actually gone the right way. Instead I could see grass rushing by me on all sides, but at least I was safe.

I heard another shriek and looked up to see that my opponent had sprouted wings and shot straight into the sky to search from above. I stared at her, willing her to turn into her true form, which simply had to be Akumu—and if it wasn't, wishing that she would disappear surely had to work. But neither did. Was it possible that she was truly herself already? That perhaps she was another creature that resided within this dimension? Yume would have told us about her.

Instead of trying to figure her out, I decided the best way to deal with her was to knock her from the sky. A giant red flyswatter appeared behind her and swatted quickly, slamming into her. She shot to the ground like an ugly meteorite and there was a loud crash. I didn't wait for her to get back up, which I was sure she could do, and kept running. I skidded to a halt when I flew from the grassy forest and found myself on a cobblestone path that I had created weeks ago. I pushed myself to run as fast as I could, hoping to get to the others for some help, but my escape did not go quite as smoothly as I had hoped. A serpent shot past me on the ground, glowing in the dark. The magenta coloured creature seemed to never end and suddenly it turned sharply and began slithering back the way it had come. I prepared myself and leapt through the air when it came close, just like jump rope. Only, this rope rose with me, hooking around my feet and pulling sharply.

I slammed into the ground, and rolled to a stop painfully, but tried to stand and keep moving. I couldn't let this thing get the best of me—whatever it was.

And then I fell again, my legs in too much pain. I groaned and tried again, but when I stood I found the upside down head of the creature floating in the air directly in front of me. I screamed, swatting her out of the way and I started running backwards before turning and finding the rest of her body. She now had a shawl around her shoulders seemingly made up of those glowing magenta snakes that had no faces. The creature's head shot past me, laughing wickedly as it did so and landed in the arms of its own body. She placed her head back on as I slowed to a stop, thinking up my next move.

Nothing was coming to me though. I panicked.

A giant silver bear trap appeared around the creature and snapped shut, slicing her directly in half. I winced, looking away but from the corner of my eyes I could see that her body was reforming again, just outside the confines of the trap.

I willed the world to gift me a long yellow staff, exactly like Angemon's and I prepared for a fight. If she wasn't going to simply die, I would have to show her why she shouldn't stand in my way.

She flew toward me at top speeds and I prepared my staff, swinging it like a baseball bat when she got too close. She shot through the air to my left and slammed into the ground. I was lucky that this world granted me whatever I needed it too. That extra burst of strength sure came in handy.

I knew now that I was close to home, but I was scared that she would catch up again before I made it back. It was not a question whether or not she _would_ catch up, just _when_ she would do so.

It happened much sooner than I had been hoping for, but I was ready still, with my staff in hand. She had her shall strands wrap around my waist and ankles, keeping me still and slowly she stepped around to face me. "For a human, who in this world is given limitless potential, you are a pathetic opponent." She was saying as she paced around to the front of me. She turned sharply and stared at me, just out of reach of my staff which I had begun swinging aimlessly to keep her away. I pulled with my feet, trying to break free from their hold but I could not move. She was too strong.

With my attention on my feet she had reached forward and grabbed the staff. I pulled sharply, not allowing her to take it from me, but her grip did not loosen, instead she stumbled forward with the staff which I then pushed back, pressing it hard into her stomach and pushing her away from me. She gasped grossly and looked up with her hungry eyes and wrapped her fingers around the staff. I watched as her fingers grew longer and longer, wrapping themselves around the staff until they were nearly touching my own fingers, and I let go, afraid to touch her again.

"Goodbye, Lost Boy," the mangled Hikari held the staff high, ready to strike me with, and I couldn't even escape because she had my feet tangled and tied together. And then the staff was coming down. Fast.

I winced.

But the staff hit something else. I heard the sound of metal scraping and looked up to see Cyberdramon standing between the two of us, his right arm held high. There was a blade protruding from his forearm where the staff had struck. I felt the confines on my ankles loosening and then I was jumping backwards, out of her hold.

"Mr Hope!" I spotted Ryou running toward us, behind the strange creature and he was waving his arms dramatically, "Are you alright?"

I nodded, "I'm fine," I assured him. He finally caught up and he turned to the fight.

"Don't let her escape this time, Cyberdramon!"

I looked to Ryou confused, "You know her?"

"She's been causing us trouble for a couple months now," Ryou explained, "She keeps messing with us, and trying to kill us. She never has, obviously. We call her The Reaper."

"Fitting," I noted as The Reaper twisted her long arms around Cyberdramon. Ryou jumped into the fight a moment later, spinning through the air in a log roll before kicking The Reaper across the face hard. She gasped and Ryou landed smoothly as Cyberdramon escaped her hold. "I knew something was wrong when I saw you walk away with Hikari, because I heard her upstairs."

"Where is she now?" I asked sharply.

Ryou looked over his shoulder then slowly looked back to me, shrugging his shoulders, "Dunno, she was right behind me."

I set off without another word, rushing down the path. I knew Ryou and Cyberdramon were a good enough team to fight off The Reaper. I had seen them fight before and Ryou had just validated that he'd survived two months of fighting with her, so I could leave him confidently. I needed to find Hikari though. If she had wandered off, anything could have happened. This world, just as The Reaper had said, was completely limitless.

And as such, I could force the world to bring me to Hikari. I clenched my eyes shut and willed the world to shift to show me wherever Hikari was. My running never stopped, which was apparently dangerous I found when I opened my eyes and found myself running toward the edge of an ominous cliff. I stopped abruptly and fell backwards, jumping to ensure I did not come too close to the edge.

There were storm clouds brewing in the sky above, crackling and raging in a violent storm, but the storm had not yet come. It was on its way toward us, and it looked highly dangerous. I moved forward and peeked over the edge of the cliff and found that the Dark Ocean was crashing against large pointed rocks down below.

Nervously, I looked behind me and spotted what I was both hoping for, and dreading.

Hikari was crying in her attempt to crawl away from the figure that loomed over her. This time it did not change its shape to frighten her, but instead was standing in its full form. "Akumu!" I shouted, rushing forward toward the pale, hollow faced creature. He looked up to me with storms held deep in his glassy eyes and snarled. "Get away from her." It frightened me to know that the incoming storm and the dark reddish sky could very well have been created by Hikari. It was worse to know that the Dark Ocean _had_ been her, and the rocks from below were designed to take her life. Had she created those too? Out of fear or out of desperation for the sadness and the torture to end? I swallowed the thick lump in my throat, and moved toward her.

I stood between Akumu and Hikari, not allowing him to come any closer. He looked angry and turned to leave, knowing what could happen if he stayed.

I turned and threw my arms around Hikari who was still crying and gasping for breath. She was unable to speak hardly breathe. "I-It's okay," I promised her. I didn't know what he had shown her, and I wasn't sure I wanted to. But I would be here for her if she needed to tell someone. I could at least do that. I was sweating nervously now too with my heart beating a thousand times a second. I was scared for her. I didn't know how to help anymore.

And then there was an icy hand wrapped around my neck, pulling me away from Hikari. I screamed out to her, but I had toppled over the edge of the cliff, desperately clawing at the ground, trying to pull myself up. I saw that Akumu hadn't left as I figured he would have and he was standing over Hikari once more, only this time I was a pathetic hero, and wasn't able to do a thing.

I looked down anxiously; my feet were scraping at the sides of the cliff as I wished up something to hold onto, or to step on. Nothing appeared.

Was it possible that Hikari was not simply creating a replica of the Dark Ocean, but instead creating an actual version of it? Was that why I couldn't use my imagination to save myself? It was possible to break through the reality of two worlds. I had seen it happen before. This very Dream World had been broken and we all moved into the Digital World. Hikari had once jumped into the Dark Ocean with no warning and I'd gone in after her.

But this couldn't be like that. It just couldn't. That would mean Hikari was even more depressed than I thought she was and I wasn't going to accept that reality. Besides, if I did, I would not be believing hard enough for anything to happen the way I wanted it to. I could do this. This was simply an image created out of Hikari's negativity. My positivity had to be stronger than that. I had to be able to break through. If I couldn't even do this, create a simple foot hold, how was I ever supposed to break through to Hikari on a personal or emotional level?

I closed my eyes and kicked at the wall of rocks, my mind hyper aware of my hands slipping from their place. I was falling, and I would continue to fall until a magical cloud or something appeared under my feet and helped me back up onto the ground.

A sudden push from underneath me sent a jolt of fear through my chest and I looked down to see a pure white cloud right under my feet. I gasped as it continued to push me and I toppled over, falling back to safety. I jumped to my feet, not wasting another second, but I was too late.

The cold hand that had previously been wrapped around my neck was now plunging itself directly into Hikari's chest. My heart practically stopped as I screamed in horror. Hikari's screams of pain did not stop as Akumu pulled something from within.

It was a misshapen orb of glowing magenta goo. Just like the shawl The Reaper had been wearing. The Reaper had been created from the negativity inside of Hikari's heart.

Akumu pushed Hikari aside and I moved forward catching her in my open arms and she immediately stopped crying. My heart was pounding again, fearing that she might just be dead, but that wasn't possible. There was just something about this world that didn't seem like death was even an option.

But as I stared toward her lifeless body it seemed that the reality of that was becoming more and more likely. Until she heaved a deep breath and sat upright, gasping for air. I held her, but with enough space for her to breathe and she looked to me, confused. "T-Takeru?" Had she not noticed me before? It was possible I knew that Akumu had trapped her in some kind of spell again.

I turned to him angrily, but it fell away quickly. Akumu was fascinated by what he had pulled from Hikari's chest. He was dropping it from hand to hand and it looked like it was burning him, searing his skin. But he showed no sign of pain. And then he removed the hand that was meant to catch it and held the glowing orb above the waters of the Dark Ocean. Then with one swift movement he had tossed it aside, throwing it out to sea.

Hikari and I both moved toward the edge to watch it fall. The orb landed smoothly in the waters with a loud 'plop' sound and at first it seemed to have been an entirely pointless endeavour, but then, all as one, the waters began to glow.

"We have to go," Hikari said boldly, taking my hand. I turned to her and then looked quickly around for Akumu who seemed to have vanished and I nodded, jumping to my feet and pulling her after me. We had to get back to the others.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Kiyoko and Koushiro are caught up in the Wildest Dreams they could have ever imagined in the final installment of this weird three arc at the same time frame ordeal. Woaaahh. Crazy.


	39. Wildest Dreams

**Y/N:** I hated this chapter. Izzy is the worst person to fight in the Land of Dreams. Kiyoko was less horrible because I like Kiyoko, but I like Izzy too, but I didn't like the Land of Dreams. At least they're out of it now. This is the final chapter in the arc, which I wrote alone, and it was nice to finally get to move on to the final arc.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 2: Land of Dreams and Witchenly**

 **Chapter 39: Wildest Dreams**

 _ **Koushiro Izumi:**_

Silence surrounded me.

It was actually quite pleasant, considering my current company. Ken was sitting moodily on the arm of the couch. He had one leg propped up on the coffee table, and his arms were crossed over his chest. He glared at the plate of cookies Summer had brought out from our kitchen. I didn't understand her actions. It wasn't as if they were _her_ groceries she'd been riffling through. She was always waltzing in as though she owned the place. She had her own home. Why couldn't she spend more time there—preferably dedicating herself towards breaking through the barrier around the mysterious world she wanted to take us to?

She _was_ working on the barrier, but she was doing it on our couch. I was seated on one of the beanbag chairs. I couldn't focus on the computer in front of me. I knew I couldn't. I didn't even open it, just leaving it folded on my lap. She too was silent, but she was such a distraction anyway. She was seated, cross-legged on the couch, leaving her sizeable gown to bunch up around her. She looked to be drowning in a sea of green fabric. Her hands were held in front of her chest, cradling an orb of glowing magic. I assumed she was using it to focus her battle against the barrier. Her eyes were closed, and the warm, clean light of her magic danced across her pale green skin, making it sparkle. Her wings had faded out of existence to make the couch more comfortable, and her straight brown hair danced in nonexistent wind.

I was about forty percent sure she was putting on an act to make her work seem far more mystical and dramatic than it needed to be. Yume was here too, seated on the hateful green chair meant to represent Mimi. Summer needed to impress him for some asinine reason. It was a pointless effort. Yume wasn't even looking her direction. He was far too interested in the unpredictable weather.

Rain pelted against the window, each drop splattered spectacularly as it slammed against the glass. I wasn't overly concerned. It often rained in our part of the world. He might've managed to live with endless sunshine and rainbows, but we got rain whenever Hikari or Ken was in a bad mood. And Ken was in a horrid mood at the moment.

"Akumu," Yume murmured. The last image I'd seen of the boogeyman came to mind, and I winced. I couldn't understand how Yume assumed all negative things were caused by his nemesis, but I knew that he would not take any explanation I could give him into account. I'd be wasting my breath, telling him that Ken or Hikari caused this rain.

The rain had never _hurt_ anyone before, and I didn't expect that it would start doing so any time soon. It was just water that physically represented their inner turmoil. It would stop soon enough. It always did. Sadness was not evil incarnate, as he was suggesting.

I sighed, and looked away from the splattering droplets, choosing to glare at the pink wall of our living room. Takeru had designed it. Takeru, who thought he was our leader. I snorted. He wasn't Taichi. Not by a long shot. He was too optimistic, he refused to see reality. Taichi understood people's limitations. He understood that he couldn't change their opinions or their mindsets. He _accepted_ that—and he worked with what was offered to him. Takeru couldn't wrap his head around the idea that I couldn't possibly think or act the way that he could.

At the same time, though, I didn't want to be the leader either. I never wanted that. I'd been given the goggles once, and it had been overwhelming. I was much better suited to being Taichi's right hand man. I could figure out _how_ to put his ideas into action, and I looked forward to figuring out the _why_ behind all of the challenges we faced. I couldn't see myself _ever_ working with Takeru in the same seamless way that I could with Taichi. Takeru didn't _need_ my help in any way. He used his optimism to substitute for everything that I'd always done.

But Ken and Hikari weren't particularly great choices to act as leader either.

Ken was lost. He couldn't focus on the big picture; his mind was too occupied with his wife and child. I knew it was hard on him, but I also knew that there was no chance whatsoever of finding out what happened to either of them, if Ken couldn't bring himself to leave with us once Summer managed to break through the barrier. He was riding a roller coaster of emotions, never staying in the same mindset for more than an hour, before he moved on. He was trapped in an endless cycle and he couldn't get off of that ride. I couldn't imagine that Miyako had managed to survive, but on the slight—very slim, almost non-existent—chance that she _did_ , he wouldn't be able to see her if he stayed here in this nightmare of a world.

I laughed bitterly to myself, not caring about the inquisitive—Yume—and annoyed—Ken—looks it drew my way.

We called this the Land of Dreams, but it was anything but. We were tormented by the demons our minds could conjure up. The possibilities were endless, and the very thought was terrifying. Hikari had unintentionally created an entire swamp ecosystem when she was angry with me. She'd slipped into a dark place and accidentally created an identical copy of the Dark Ocean. It rained unexpectedly when anyone let their sad thoughts get away from them.

And the world was vast and empty.

It was a solitary existence that drove the mind to the limit. Even I couldn't handle the lack of social interaction. I was tired of having only three friends as company. We'd already exhausted all conversation topics. We couldn't watch movies to pass the time unless someone could remember the movie scene for scene, because they needed to be brought into existence through our thoughts. And the only movie any of us could recreate was that horrible film Yamato, Ken and I had watched on repeat during our time infected by Belphemon. Reading books was similarly pointless.

Ken, Hikari and Takeru might make do with imaginary pictures of our friends and family, but I couldn't. I could see them for the illusions they were. Miayko's hair was always too bright in the photographs that Ken imagined, her eyes sparkled a little too much. To look at the pictures was to look at his love for her. We were seeing her through his rose coloured glasses. She was always the brightest point in group pictures; she was always the most beautiful.

It was the same way that Yamato looked bigger, stronger, and happier when Takeru remembered him into photographic form. Taichi was always more put together than I'd ever seen him when Hikari thought of him. He was taller and his eyes were gentler. They both thought the world of Sora and it came across, because she looked like a super woman. They let their personal thoughts and feelings influence the images that they created, and I couldn't accept the results. Because Sora's hair _wasn't_ that red, and Taichi's eyes were always far more mischievous—particularly during council meetings when he really ought to be more serious—and Yamato wasn't as muscular as Takeru seemed to think. I could see clear images of our friends as they were, without any sort of embellishment.

I had countless photos of them on my laptop— _real, true_ photos—but I couldn't look at them anymore than I could their imaginary counterparts.

It _hurt_ to see them.

The pain wasn't aiding me in finding a way out of here. The pain was a nuisance that took too much of my focus. When I gave an inch, it took a mile, so I ignored it as best I could. I remembered very little about our friends, choosing not to dwell in the past. It didn't _matter_ that our friends were more than likely dead. There was an enemy out there that took them from us, and we needed to do something about that. I needed to get to Earth, so I could find Sora. Together Sora and I were unstoppable. She was reckless enough to rush headfirst into danger, and encouraged me enough to get me to follow her anywhere. With Sora's help, we could save the world.

And maybe then, after everything was over, I could look at those pictures, and remember our friends. I could afford _then_ to lose myself in the grief that would surely come. It _had_ to come. I was already fraying at the edges, and I no matter how hard I tried to keep a firm grip on myself, Takeru was right there, tugging at the loose ends, trying to unravel what I'd worked hard to build up. I knew that keeping the fates of my friends at arm's length didn't make it any less of a reality, but it made it easier to act as I always had. This was a hundred times more difficult to wrap my head around than Gennai's death. There were dozens of people that we'd left at the mercy of the virus. My parents, my partner, my girlfriend, my friends, my _family_ were all counted among those numbers—and that wasn't even taking into account the millions of digimon that called the Digital World home. I _had_ to stay emotionally detached, because it was too much for even _me_ to comprehend.

I was only human.

I had limitations, just like everyone else. My limitations just weren't the _same_ as other peoples were. Takeru might be able to grieve and stay happy _and_ keep hold of eternal hope, then that was just fine. I couldn't do that. I wouldn't pretend that I could, like Hikari was doing. I wouldn't _try_ knowing I would fail, as Ken had done.

If Ken wanted to put roots in this world, and stay here instead of moving on in order to find the answers he both craved and dreaded, then it wasn't up to Takeru to stop him. Ken could make his own decisions—no matter how ridiculous they were. The rest of us didn't need to follow suit. We had no leader. No one could make the decisions for any of the others.

I gritted my teeth. I was defending Ken in my own mind now. Ken was a large source of ire for _me_ as well. I had been irritated with him for _weeks_. Takeru was just _barely_ beating him in the race to find out who was more irritating.

"The rain has stopped," Yume felt inclined to inform us. I didn't respond. I'd known from the start that it wouldn't last long. It never did. Looking over towards Ken, I was brought up short. He didn't look any less moody than before. It confused me, but I didn't want to draw attention to it. If it hadn't been _Ken_ that was causing the rain, then it was Hikari, and she didn't need Yume's scrutiny.

"It worries me," Yume murmured, after a long stretch of silence. "I really ought to patrol. I need to find Akumu and stop whatever nefarious deed he is planning."

Once again, I answered only with silence. Ken didn't show any sign that he had heard Yume speak at all. Yume's shoulders slouched, and he slunk towards the door. He thrived on attention and happiness. He wasn't getting either in our obnoxiously coloured living room. Summer was the only source he might've had, but she was still meditating dramatically, leaving him out of luck.

He didn't make it out of the room before the front door slammed open. The sound of running feet grew louder, until Ryo whirled around the doorframe, nearly running headfirst into Yume. Yume perked up immediately, noticing the excited look on Ryo's face.

"You should've _seen_ it," Ryo exclaimed. "It was amazing. Cyberdramon was amazing. Hikari was gonna kill Takeru, only it wasn't really Hikari, see? It was the Reaper, but Takeru didn't know that. He's never met her apparently. It doesn't matter. Point is, Takeru can't recognize an imposter girlfriend until she's been contorted into a monster."

"The Boogeyman is mimicking Hikari again?" I asked, confused. I was worried about Hikari. I hadn't seen her in awhile. And if Takeru was nearly _killed_ just now, what fate was awaiting her?

"Nope," Ryo said, shaking his head solemnly. His partner, Cyberdramon, crept into the room behind him, silent as ever. He loomed over Ryo's shoulder, looking quite menacing. Ryo was completely at ease though. "It was the Reaper." I looked to Yume and he shrugged his shoulders. He'd never heard of this Reaper either. "You've never met her? She's crazy evil. She keeps trying to kill me and Cyberdramon. It's kind of a pain."

"This Reaper, is she a threat?" Yume asked carefully.

"Totally," Ryo agreed. "Just not right now, because Cyberdramon beat her real good. She won't be showing her face for awhile. Maybe. Sometimes she's pretty persistent, but on the regular she's pretty inconsistent. She's not _hard_ to beat, but she's wicked evil. It doesn't matter though, because Cyberdramon won, and totally saved Takeru's butt."

"It _does_ matter," Yume countered, sounding devastated. "I've never heard of her. How long has she been here?"

"I don't know," Ryo shrugged. "Not all that long, I guess. She tried to kill me for the first time like a month and a half ago, or something? I'm just spit-balling here. It could've been later than that, or earlier. She _is_ getting stronger though."

"I don't like this," Yume said. "Is she a creation of Akumu's? He _would_ call her the Reaper. It sounds so menacing, and he _is_ the Boogeyman. But he's never been able to create _tangible_ soldiers before. His nightmares are imprints of the nightly terrors he inflicts. Those are easily defeated by returning them to the dreams from which they came. This Reaper, is she a nightmare?"

"Not like any I've ever seen," Ryo said, shaking his head. "She's as real as you and the Boogeyman"

"This is not good," Yume fretted. "It's not good at all. I can fight against Akumu, we're mostly evenly matched—I have a bit of an advantage, but that's to be expected. I'm the hero. I cannot fight against two evenly matched foes. If they realized their potential as a team, I'd be ruined. The dreams of all the worlds lie in the balance, but I cannot hold off _two_ forces of evil.

The window shattered as heavy wind and hail slammed into it. I jumped to my feet, clutching my laptop for dear life. What the hell was going on out there? The weather was _just_ calm. Based on Ryo's story, the rain before had been the result of their fight with the Reaper, but this was something else entirely. These were textbook tornado conditions. The sky was even a deep green, and when I squinted, and looked out through the hail, I could've _sworn_ I saw funnel clouds forming.

"There is evil afoot," Yume said.

"Where are Hikari and Takeru?" I demanded, not caring how rude it was. I needed to know, and Ryo was the only one that could possibly answer me.

"I don't know," Ryo said, looking transfixed at the storm. "There was something about a picnic maybe? But I don't see how it could be much fun in weather like this."

I snorted.

Of course they were at that picnic. Takeru had planned it before he'd decided he was our leader—and then threw a fit when no one agreed with him. He'd even slammed the door, like a child throwing a tantrum. Hikari had immediately become worried that she'd hurt his feelings, and spent a good deal of time fretting before she'd built up the courage to explain herself to Takeru.

She didn't _need_ to explain herself, but she did it anyway, just to make Takeru happy. She was always so concerned about _our_ happiness that she never took the time to worry about her own. Looking out into the storm, _listening_ to it as it gushed into the room through the shattered window that no one had fixed—and I couldn't be bothered to fix it myself—I couldn't help but worry about her happiness. She'd never caused a storm this bad before. What were they talking about? What was going on?

"Could someone be a dear and patch the window?" Summer asked, her brows pinched in concentration. "I'm finding it terribly hard to focus with the wind."

"I'll do it!" Yume volunteered quickly, casting a glance Summer's way before dramatically waving his arm over the window, causing all the shattered pieces to fly back into their original place, effectively blocking the elements from the room. Pictures that had been floating through the air—having been ripped from the pages of Ken's book on the coffee table—fluttered down. I tried not to look at them, and cursed myself for having noticed them in the first place.

But I couldn't help but glance at one of Mimi that landed directly beside my foot. She was standing beside Jou, while Jou cradled his newborn daughter. Mimi was cooing in Emiko's face. It was wrong. Mimi's hair wasn't right. Her eyes weren't bright enough, and the playful smile was dimmer than usual. I closed my eyes and bent down to flip it over. I couldn't look at it.

Now that the window was effectively keeping the storm outdoors, I felt safe enough to sit down again, and lowered myself once again into my beanbag chair. I felt like I was ignoring Hikari's turmoil and struggle, but there was nothing I could do to fix it. I didn't even know where she was. Takeru had taken her on some romantic picnic meant to celebrate that today was August first.

"Is that better?" Yume asked, looking to Summer for accolades when she didn't acknowledge his offering to her. I'd only ever seen two people so desperately interested in one another while remaining so obtuse once before. Sora assured me time and time again that Mimi and I were just like that, and I couldn't help but retaliate that she was the pot calling the kettle black. But Summer and Yume took Yamato and Sora's dance of will-they-won't-they to a new level of obnoxious. At least Yamato and Sora had shared their feelings with one another at some point in time.

I was tired of feeling like I was part of an after school special. I wasn't interested in that type of television. I preferred Space Interlude, and the occasional episode of Unicorns in Space—a whimsical animated series that Mimi adored and introduced me to (I was hooked within two episodes). I liked science fiction, not romance. I _understood_ science fiction.

"Much," Summer told Yume with a smile, and he preened under her praise.

"What're you doing?" Ryo asked Summer, _just_ as she was about to close her eyes and get back to discovering the doorway between the worlds. She was as annoyed as I was by this.

"Summer is trying to find a weak point in the barrier between this world and another," Yume said, deliberately being vague. Ryo nodded though, not asking for clarification, which caught Yume off guard—I believed he spoke with the sole purpose of hearing his own voice most of the time. "Of course today is the perfect day to do it," he continued, even though Ryo hadn't asked for more. "It's August first, and this is the day that the gateways are the closest between the lands of the living. Obviously, October thirty-first is the day the worlds of the dead are closest, but that's irrelevant—however it _is_ interesting to know."

"I can see glimpses of the mystery world," Summer admitted, sounding both excited and worried by this development. I could feel the excitement bubbling within me, at the thought of leaving this hellish dreamland. "There simply isn't much to look at though." She seemed dazed as her eyes grew unfocussed. The orb of magic in her hands glowed brighter for a second, and then she was back in the here and now. "I don't understand this world. I don't know what it is, or if it's even safe..." She trailed off, and Yume rubbed her shoulders—not that she noticed, since she had returned to her meditative trance.

"That's excellent news," I said, feeling brighter than I had in weeks. The storm outside even seemed to mimic my newfound happiness. Freedom was coming for us. I wouldn't have to spend another day in this nightmare. I could be free from the pain and fear and terror that the world threw our way at every turn.

"Is it though?" Ken drawled. "I don't think it is. I think she's wasting her time. I think you're all wasting your time. Miyako can find us _here_. She won't be able to find us there. None of our friends or family will be able to find us in a world that even Summer didn't know about before. Reason stands that her sisters probably don't know about it either, and you'll all waste away and die in a world that no one can reach."

"We won't die," I protested, though it sounded feeble even to myself. I had no evidence to back up my claims, and I hated to make empty statements.

"Won't you?" Ken asked. "Summer didn't see _anything_. Maybe the reason they've never heard of this world is because this world died out long before recorded times. Maybe she's sending you to an apocalyptic wasteland with radiation and poisonous gases. Maybe this world is more dangerous than the virus."

"So," Ryo cut in loudly, before Ken could rain on my parade any longer. I was back to square one. I suppose it was true that misery loved company, because Ken sure wouldn't let me have my day in the sun. He _could_ be right though. I had no proof otherwise. All I had as a source of comfort was a promise that Takeru made while pretending to be our leader: Summer would save us if it was too dangerous. She hadn't seemed particularly pleased with the revelation that she was even going to this new world. I was positive she'd planned to send us on our way and spend the rest of her life trying to get Yume's attention and failing to realize she already had it.

"You guys are digidestined, right?" Ryo asked. Ken nodded his head once, sharply, still angry. "So you guys have crests too right?" I nodded this time, unsure of what he was getting at. "Takeru told me mine was trust, so I guess I was just wondering what yours were."

"Kindness," Ken said, his voice still acidic.

"Oh, cool," Ryo said. "That's good to know. I was worried, you know, about having to represent trust throughout the worlds—it's kind of a big job, you know? I thought that since Takeru's always so happy, optimistic and hopeful, that _I_ would have to be trusting and trustworthy and whatever all the time too, but I guess if you can be mean and bitter to all of your friends, I don't have to freak out, you know?"

Ken clenched his teeth, but seemed to realize what Ryo was getting at. No matter how nicely he put it, he was calling Ken out on his behaviour. I found it both amusing and oddly satisfying to see Ken get lectured by a fourteen year old. He was just a kid—though I suppose he'd lived more years than I had, technically.

"What about you?" Ryo asked me.

"Knowledge," I said.

I lost what respect I'd built for Ryo when his response was to laugh. He literally sat there and flung his head back and laughed a full, deep belly laugh at the name of my crest. I felt the hair on the back of my neck rising. I felt rather defensive. Knowledge wasn't funny, knowledge was power. Knowledge was important and his laughter made it seem like he felt otherwise.

"I thought they were supposed to be personality traits," Ryo laughed.

"It is," I said, as calmly as I could manage. I tried to stay reasonable. He didn't really know me. He didn't understand that my brain _was_ my personality. I valued my brain more than almost anything. I craved knowledge. I collected information, soaking it up like a sponge. When I needed to describe myself, knowledge—my crest—was the first word that came to mind.

"So you're a robot or something?" Ryo asked. I knew he was joking—it was evident with the tone of his voice, but it still hurt. His question flung all of Takeru's harsh words back to the forefront of my mind, and I found myself unwilling to continue the conversation.

I was _not_ a robot.

I was a human being. I had limits. I had emotions. I had _control_ of those emotions. That was the only difference. I could prioritize my mind. I could pick and choose what to think about at what time, and for the most part, all other thoughts fell to the wayside. It was how I was.

But I wasn't a robot.

Thankfully, Takeru and Hikari chose that moment to burst through the front door. It took awhile for them to make it to the living room, and the sound was off. They weren't both walking. When Takeru appeared in the doorway, half dragging a white and shaking Hikari beside him, I knew why. Yume was on his feet in an instant, and Ken was right behind. I was too busy examining Hikari to move. She was shaking and pale, and her face was covering in a spattering of sweat. She was breathing too fast, and her eyes were far too alert. She was looking around her, trying to find someone and afraid of _actually_ finding them.

"What has happened?" Yume demanded.

"Akumu took something from Hikari's heart and created a sea of chaos," Takeru said, breathing heavily. "He disappeared, but I think he'll be back."

"Seriously?" Ryo asked, sounding excited at the thought of a new challenge. Takeru glared at him, but Ryo just continued to smile. The smile dimmed slightly, became more sympathetic when Hikari whimpered. She took a few seconds before trying to pull herself together. She stepped away from Takeru, and for a moment I thought she could do it, but her knees shook and she fell to the floor in a heap.

"I have to go," Yume decided. "I can no longer wait for Akumu to make his move. I must confront him before he can find the Reaper."

"It's too late for that," Ken said in a shaky voice. We all turned as one to Ken, who pointed out the window. Akumu was there, tall, pale and creepy as always. By his side was a greyish purple woman that looked vaguely reminiscent of Hikari. She had a squirming shawl made of what appeared to be snakes. Her arms and legs were too long, and the smile on her face chilled me to the bone.

"They're together," Ryo whispered. I couldn't tell if he was scared or excited, and I didn't know what worried me more.

The sky was such a deep green now it was nearly black. The clouds were thick and dark, spreading rain and hail through the sky. The wind was moving so quickly the precipitation looked to be moving sideways, and several funnel clouds were moving in the distance, only visible when the lightning flashed, lighting up the sky.

"What should we do?" Takeru asked.

"There's no point in running," Ken mused.

"No," Yume agreed. "We'll have to fight."

I couldn't help but feel disheartened by the tone of his voice. He didn't seem particularly hopeful about our chances. I wasn't either. I couldn't fathom how we could possibly win against _two_ foes that could break the laws of logic and reality. This world was their playground. There were no limitations to what they could achieve—except the limits they had in their own mind. If they could think of it, it could happen. This world had officially become my least favourite. The Dark Ocean was the only challenge the Land of Dreams had for the title.

At least the Dark Ocean had laws of reality.

When we'd fought in any of the other worlds, we'd been able to win, because we tested limitations, and surpassed our expectations. But we couldn't fly, or create glass boxes, or bicycles. We could only work with what we had. I could do that. I could plan things out, utilize everything to the best of my ability. I enjoyed that. I could understand that. I wasn't good with whimsical.

Summer didn't appear to have even noticed their arrival. She was still sitting on the couch, practically buried in her skirt. Her eyes were still closed. She was unaware of the imminent threat. Luckily, she wasn't alone. Takeru was still holding Hikari, but he squeezed his eyes closed, holding one hand out towards the window. It took me a few seconds to realize just what he was making happen, but soon enough I spotted a wild tornado. It wasn't following any of the typical patterns. It was coming faster and more directly towards Akumu and the Reaper. I might've commended him for his quick thinking if the tornado hadn't passed them by without taking them with it. They'd managed to stand there in the eye of the tornado without batting an eye.

The only change, was that Akumu tilted his head slightly before a legion of nightmares grew from the ground around him. I couldn't count them. They moved to quickly and melded with each other creating a larger nightmare before separating again—sometimes into more nightmares then they started as. I couldn't wrap my mind around what was happening before my eyes.

I was able to grasp it when Akumu and the Reaper started walking towards our home, looking far too dramatic and cinematic for my liking. If I didn't have enough control to beat it down, I might've wasted time on a stray thought—did they _make_ their walk cinematic on purpose? It was something that was probably possible in this world. But I didn't allow myself to contemplate it. We had two evil forced coming towards us with an indeterminable number of nightmares as their minions.

We had to stop them.

Summer was busy working towards the goal we'd been waiting months to achieve. I couldn't allow these nightmares and monsters to destroy our chances when we'd _finally_ gotten so close. I needed to get out of this world. I didn't care _where_ we were sent anymore. I desperately needed to have logic surrounding me again. I couldn't have that unless Summer was able to keep her work up. Someone would need to keep her safe. I wasn't the best choice by a long shot, but perhaps with Ken and I working together, we might be able to achieve something.

Yume started towards the door, not waiting any longer for our two foes to continue their dramatic entrance. He hadn't made it to the doorway yet when the windows shattered all at once. The winds whipped through empty frames and ripped the picture frames from the walls, making them shower down upon me. It was their revenge, I supposed, for my absolute hatred of the photos Takeru had stuck in them. Ken was on the move, as though he could see what was going to happen. I couldn't. I couldn't predict a damn thing in this world. But he took the coffee table, knocking Summer's snacks onto the floor, and propping it up as a barricade between Summer and the enemies. It was so very _normal_ that I couldn't help but smile at the sight of it. But Ken ruined my momentary pleasure by transforming the wood the table was made out of into concrete. The concrete grew and formed a nice curved wall to protect Summer. It was brilliant, even if it was an illusion created by this horrible world.

Yet again, Summer paid no mind to her surroundings.

I was rather jealous when two seconds later she remained sitting perfectly calm and relaxed when the walls of our house literally exploded. I closed my eyes tightly, but the roof never came down on us. I peeked up and saw that Takeru had his hands in the air, and the debris that remained of our house was fluttering down in the form of confetti. He was still curled over Hikari. She was clinging to him, shaking like a leaf. Cyberdramon had wrapped himself around Ryo during the explosion, but let go of him in favour of flying towards the enemy. The house was no more, so he had no obstacles keeping him from his target. We weren't protected in the slightest—except Summer in her concrete shield. Ken's quick thinking had protected her.

And me?

I clung to my laptop, hugging it close to my chest. I'd saved my laptop during the explosion. I'd been knocked off my feet with the force of the blast, and I'd contorted myself so that my laptop would be protected from the debris I'd expected. I didn't know if I was impressed or upset by my reactions.

Yume got to his feet long before I managed, and summoned his magical staff. He followed after Cyberdramon at a much more subdued pace—he too appeared to desire dramatics in his assault, for he walked with a slow deliberateness, never allowing his eyes to stray from those of Akumu.

"Desolation Claw!"

Cyberdramon had been mobbed by nightmares on his way towards the Reaper. She wasn't going to go down so easily. Cyberdramon ripped the nightmares apart with his mighty claws, but they wouldn't accept defeat. They weaved themselves back together again no matter how many times he shredded them. The nightmares attached themselves together, completely swallowing Cyberdramon. Ryo let out a shocked cry and started to run towards his partner. Yume stopped him with his staff, not wanting to risk letting Ryo hurt himself.

Akumu and the Reaper walked casually by Cyberdramon in his prison without even casting a glance his way. Yume raised his staff and shot a large beam of light at them. He was using his magic to shine an oversized, elaborate flashlight at them. I was rather underwhelmed by his choice, but the nightmares didn't appreciate it. They fell back, trying to hide behind one another, not wanting the light to harm them. Cyberdramon was now free to attack the Reaper, and did so with fervor. He caught her by surprise, when he jumped on her back, sending her slamming into the ground.

Yume was still shining his light at the nightmares, leaving Akumu free to continue towards us. I tried to come up with a plan but I couldn't. My mind couldn't comprehend the options available. I had too many options, and so I came up with exactly nothing. I needed Tentomon or Sora. When I had them, I could fight properly. Without them though, and with the distinct lack of logic, I was scooped.

I looked to Ken, hoping that he'd come up with _something_ , and found that he was holding a police issued gun in his hands. I wasn't the only uncreative digidestined at the very least. He seemed at ease, holding his gun. He eyed the nightmares, and took aim. He squeezed the trigger and the gun let out a loud BANG as the bullet shot towards the nightmares. The bullets sunk into the nightmares' bodies, and stayed there. Ken looked confused, but I'd already guessed what happened. The nightmares weren't made of substance. They were made of negative thoughts and dreams.

"They don't like light," I reminded him. He nodded and closed his eyes, and the bullets burst with light, dispersing the nightmares from within. He grinned and called his thanks out to me. I was just cursing myself. I _could_ have thought of _that_ , surely, couldn't I?

But I hadn't created anything other than the night sky and constellations during my stay here. I'd taken advantage of the mind over matter thought process and ensured that I didn't have to sleep, and my clothes were always clean without having to take the time to wash them—but that was it. It took me an obnoxious amount of time to make the sky change. I didn't have the practice that Takeru and Ken did.

A loud, long horn sounded behind me, and I looked over my shoulder and let out a strangled shout. A train was shining lights brightly through the remains of our living room, coming at me incredibly fast. I jumped out of the way, getting closer to Summer as the train raced through the room and crashed into Akumu. Takeru laughed and I glared at him. It was one thing to do something useful, but did he _have_ to endanger my life anymore than it already was?

The train melted into water that flooded the ground and continued to grow in size. The water was deep and dark, and the very sight of it was enough to bring Hikari to her knees screaming. She cradled her head in her hands and cried. Takeru tried to get her to her feet and out of the water, but nothing he did could get her up. She just moved away from him, screaming as the water level rose around us.

My feet were soaked through. The water was cold, but was approaching an even icier temperature. To top it all off, Hikari's worsened state had a similar effect on the weather. The already tumultuous winds grew stronger, hail the size of tennis balls started to rain down on us.

I was frantically looking for some form of shelter when Takeur created an oversized—to a truly ridiculous degree—umbrella that defied all laws of science and managed to remain in place despite standing in truly terrifying winds.

"Come on Hikari," Takeru begged. "Get to your happy place. It's not all bad, right? We found Trust at least, that's good."

It wasn't working though, and Summer needed to be protected. She was still meditating, ignoring everything around her. I hastily picked up all the beanbag chairs and arranged them around the couch, hoping that they'd act as a sort of barricade for the water. It wouldn't work for long, but hopefully it wouldn't need to.

Ryo shot me a funny look and then looked at the couch curiously before smiling. The couch was no longer a couch. It was a fancy pedal boat in the shape of a swan. Summer made no indication that she noticed the change at all.

Ken let out a shout and started shooting wildly. The nightmares were upon us. I picked up one of the now useless beanbag chairs with one hand—I was still holding my laptop with the other—and threw it in their general direction. I didn't accomplish anything except to splash water at them. I'd just made them angry and they started gliding in my direction.

My mind was coming up empty. I couldn't do it. I couldn't summon anything.

Yume shot light in my direction, disintegrating the nightmares before they could harm me. I was thankful, but I was also still irritated. I was supposed to be the brains of the operation. How could I manage to live up to my reputation when I couldn't think of anything? At this point in time, the fourteen year old kid was faring better than I was. Maybe _he_ would be the brain to Takeru's leader.

"There's too many!" Ken shouted. "We can't win."

"Don't be such a downer," Ryo told him. He was firing what looked—and smelt—like stink-bombs at the nightmares using a slingshot he'd created. The nightmares were furious, but he just laughed at them. "We can still do this. This is nothing."

"It is too something," Ken grumbled childishly. "We can't protect Summer this way."

It was as though Yume deliberately misheard and came rushing over, checking on Summer to make sure she was alright. He'd left Akumu who he was battling with a game of wits, leaving the Boogeyman free to advance on us. His advancement made the water level rise even higher. Takeru and Hikari were shivering, and I knew I wasn't far behind. They'd been soaked right through, having sunk to the ground. We needed to get this done with before they developed hypothermia—although they could probably just _wish_ they didn't have it if they contracted it.

"Bull's-eye," Ryo cheered, and I saw that he'd foolishly sent a stink-bomb flying at the Reaper. It landed directly on the top of her head and emitted a potent gas. Furious, she retaliated by sending one of her pink, squiggling snake-like creatures after Ryo. Ken wouldn't have that though, and he shot the thing before it even got close. She let out a furious scream, and Cyberdramon tackled her to the ground again to shut her up. Her screaming was making Hikari scream more, and the hail was already nearly the size of softballs.

Thankfully the umbrella was protecting us from the ever growing hail storm.

Akumu seemed to realize it too, and he wished it away with little drama at all. He just glared at it and it disappeared. Yume was determined to save his lady love from the painful precipitation, and erected a large barrier of golden light. Akumu tried to get inside, but couldn't pass the barrier. I couldn't let myself relax though, because Hikari was getting worse and the water was getting higher. Takeru had to hold her up as it slowly climbed to my waist.

The water was affecting her as though it were _truly_ water from the Dark Ocean. I couldn't let myself wonder what that was like, or else _I_ too might end up suffering the way she was, and she was inflicting enough disaster already. She didn't need my help.

"Go Cyberdramon!" Ryo cheered, and I realized his partner was the only one _not_ within Yume's protection. It was more than a little unfair. Cyberdramon was now dealing with Akumu _and_ the Reaper _and_ the nightmares on his own. I wasn't any help whatsoever, or else I might've offered to go out there with him, but as it was, he was probably better off _without_ me being out there. I'd just be a distraction, someone he'd need to protect.

I was so far out of my element in this fight that it was more than a little ridiculous.

There was a fluttering of light, and I whirled around to look at Summer. Her magic was fluxuating, growing brighter and brighter until she opened her eyes and smiled excitedly. She looked up and glanced around, looking confused and worried for a second as she took in her position on a boat and our new surroundings. The excitement came back soon after though. I could feel my own excitement flare up as well. I knew exactly what this meant, and I'd been waiting for it for a really long time.

"The barrier is down!" Summer shouted.

"Send them through," Yume called back over the roar of the wind and the cackling of the Reaper. "Hikari cannot be here any longer. She's causing too much chaos. I want you to go with them."

"I can't leave you here alone!" Summer argued. "You'll need my help."

"He's got mine," Ryo said firmly, stepping forward and standing at Yume's side. "Cyberdramon's fighting, and I'm not leaving him behind. Besides, Cyberdramon can wipe the floor with the Reaper. It's the only way to get us to even footing."

"I suppose Takeru was right after all," Yume acquiesced. "I _am_ in need of a sidekick."

"Not fair," Takeru grumbled, but he was too worried about taking care of Hikari to dwell on the matter. Hikari was shaking in his arms. She was so cold. The water of the Dark Ocean continued to rise up around them. It was getting far too dangerous to remain here. Akumu's nightmares continued to creep ever closer to the bearers of hope and light, but Takeru was on guard. He summoned an enormous ribbon that wove around the nightmares and tied them up in a bow—bright yellow with ghastly orange and pink polka dots. Afterwards, a large fishing hook came down from the stormy skies, and caught the ribbon in its grasp. The fishing rod flicked them off into the distance.

"We can't leave you, Ryo," I said, knowing that's what Hikari would say if she could. Personally, I felt it was his decision, though it was hard to willingly leave a child to fight in our place. I wouldn't be opposed to the idea of him coming with us, in any case.

"You can, and you will," Ryo said with a grin. "You've got that key, right? You can come and get me later when things have calmed down a bit."

"Do us a favour though?" Yume asked. "Don't bring Hikari with you next time. She's made a bit of a mess. We've got to clean this one us before she makes another."

"I'm hoping she won't be in this frame of mind by the next time we come here," Takeru said, looking down at his girlfriend. Her lips were turning blue as the Dark Ocean swallowed more of her into its icy grasp.

"I'm hoping there won't be a next time at all," I muttered bitterly.

"Take them _now_ , Summer," Yume demanded. "I cannot hold Akumu off forever."

"That's what I'm worried about," Summer cried.

"He's drawing his power from the child of light," Yume insisted. "You take her away, and you save me and this world. I can beat him when he's fighting a fair fight. You _know_ I can."

"I know," Summer said, tears streaming down her face. "You're right. I'll do it."

"NOW!" he called as Akumu forced his way through Yume's protective barrier. Yume was still tied up in the Reaper's snakes, and I couldn't possibly guess how he was going to be able to win this fight once we'd left, but I didn't have much choice in the matter.

Summer closed her eyes and was engulfed in a pure, bright light. She had her hands folded over her chest, and hair was whipping around in the wind. The light spread from her until it captured me, spreading warmth through every inch of my body. The light spread out towards Hikari and Takeru, and soon they were glowing as well. I could feel their presence, their emotions, and I was nearly brought to my knees with Hikari's sadness. Takeru faltered too, looking to Hikari with wide eyes. The light continued to spread, towards Ken, who ran from it. He wasn't paying attention to where he was going, he was simply trying to escape the light. He fell into reach of some of Akumu's nightmares. They surged forward, and he stumbled back. The light caught him.

"NO!" he growled. "Miyako needs to find me. She _has_ to find me!"

But it was no use, because the light grew brighter—and the brighter it got, the more sound was drowned out. The storm faded into a dull whisper. Yume, Ryo and Cyberdramon's voices disappeared, and soon we were surrounded by nothing but white.

 _ **Kiyoko Izumi:**_

Everything was a mess. I'd left all of my new friends—and my old friends—to clean it up. I should've stayed to help them. It was my fault they were fighting in the first place. I'd planted the seeds. I wanted to see them fight for what they wanted, for what was theirs. And I'd be lying if I didn't want to see it come to physical blows. I was right in the thick of things too. If Willis hadn't dragged me out, I didn't know what I would've done. I had no fighting skills to speak of, and they were all digimon with specific attacks tailored to their species. I wouldn't have lasted more than a second if Tactimon got a hold of me.

Well, maybe, but only because everyone was afraid of Gravimon, and wouldn't risk incurring his wrath by hurting me—which I wasn't even sure _would_ incur his wrath. We'd never specifically talked about it. But I liked to think he liked me enough to want to get revenge on anyone who caused permanent injury to me.

But none of that mattered anymore.

Rei had proven how much of a traitor she was by running to tell on us. She brought Terra with her. Of _course_ she did. She and Willis were both besotted with her. Terra was the source of the discord in our friendship. Rei and Willis might both say it was _me_ that was causing it, but that wasn't true. I might not be trying to put out the flames, but it was Terra that was fanning them. They were so desperate to protect her from my harsh words, and they kept hurting me in the process.

" _You don't like her because she reminds you of your mom—I'm sorry, that must suck. But your mom is dead, and Terra isn't her, she doesn't hate you."_

It wasn't like I needed a reminder that my mother was dead, or that she hated me. I lived with it every day thank you very much. I wasn't even the only digidestined whose parents hated them. Hideto and Mari both knew full well what it was like. Miyako's mother and Daisuke's father weren't anyone to write home about either. I actually resented Daisuke's father the most, because his actions were the closest to those of my parents. Mr Motomiya had kicked Daisuke out of his home, and had refused to speak to him since—the only differences were the reason behind it and who it was that took us in. Daisuke's mother had been in on that too, but after time to think about it, she redeemed herself.

I spent a _lot_ of time wondering if my parent's could have redeemed themselves if they'd had the time. I wondered if they could _ever_ love me again like they used to. I knew, logically, that they weren't good people. I knew that Sigma had given me a freedom that I'd never felt in my own home—and how unhealthy my home life really _was_ , in order to make that possible. I knew all of that. But the part of me that remained that scared, nine year old boy that couldn't understand how his parents couldn't love him anymore was always holding out hope that they'd come and find him someday.

They couldn't do that.

My parents died a year after they decided to hate me unconditionally. They never got the chance to redeem themselves. They never got a chance to make my life a living hell by showing up now and proving their horrible natures by joining the DWD either. But I felt cheated. I didn't get the _chance_. And it felt like Willis was just rubbing it in.

I _missed_ my parents. I missed that opportunity that I'd never get. Sigma took that from me. I didn't love them, it was too hard to love them most days. But on the few days that I felt nostalgic, I would remember that I was Mother's sweet baby boy, the light of her life, until they'd found out I was gay. I was her precious gift, and I missed the way it felt to have her dote on me, to shower me in affections—that _yes_ , were only motivations for me to follow my father's intense rules and strict aspirations for me, but felt nice all the same.

It was days like these that I needed a hug. And no one was around to give them to me.

Sometimes, before all of this Witchenly stuff happened, I would close my eyes when I was crammed in between Mari and Neo on a couch—very rarely, on account of Neo not liking bonding days—and just imagine what it felt like to have parents that were willing to be close to me. I would imagine that Mari's fingers were my mother's as they ran through my hair, and Neo's steady presence was my father. But eventually, I would need to open my eyes and those dreams would shatter.

Sigma was the worst.

Everyone else's family got a chance to prove themselves and their love for their respective digidestined, but mine didn't. Not all of those people _took_ the chance offered to them, but the choice was theirs to make.

I was tempted, to give Terra a chance for that very reason. If she _did_ remind me of my mother—which I was still kind of unsure about, something just seemed _off_ about the comparison—then she could prove to me whether the chance was real. Would my mother have been able to love me if she were still alive?

I didn't trust her though. I couldn't bring myself to get over that distrust long enough to reveal my biggest fears and regrets to a woman that gave away homes that digimon built and lived in for _ages_ , like it was something that happened every other Tuesday. She was too flippant about it for my liking. A scavenger hunt for nothing in particular decided these digimon's fates.

It was too suspicious for my liking.

Terra chose the scavenger hunt when my doodad—supposedly a key—was out there, waiting for someone to find. Rei confiscated the key, and then Terra gifted her with the ability to walk. Rei was so gracious and thankful that she handed over both of the keys she possessed. If that wasn't suspicious, nothing was.

Why now?

Why let Rei walk _now_. If Terra possessed the ability to grant Rei the use of her legs—not just temporary use, like the Digital World provided, but to legitimately heal her spinal and nerve damage permanently—then why would she wait so long? She only offered it when Rei was in possession of the keys. I couldn't explain how Terra could _know_ that, but it was too much of a coincidence for it to be otherwise. I just couldn't understand how Rei and Willis fell for it.

Everything about her was warm and inviting. Rei and Willis would never point out her faults explicitly, but they assured me time and time again that they were there. They wanted _me_ to find them out for myself, by hanging around the suspicious woman that made my skin crawl. I couldn't handle being near her without wanting to flee for my life.

I'd never wanted to flee from my mother though—not even when my father literally picked me up and threw me from the house. I hadn't _wanted_ to go. I wasn't fleeing her.

So why did I always feel like I was risking my life even being in Terra's presence?

I couldn't understand it, but I was going to. Terra and her right hand man—Astamon—were taking care of the rift between the Fallen Angels and the Wizards. Rei and Willis were there with her, and that left her home empty—perfect for an Alias III reconnaissance mission. It was just too bad that _I_ was the only member of Alias III here. I wasn't the stealthiest by far.

But I was going to take this chance, no matter _how_ Terra felt about my invasion of her privacy. She had my key, and I was going to get it back. It wasn't hers to take. I'd found it. I didn't trust her. I didn't want her to have it. Rei, being so naïve and so thankful had betrayed my trust, and would definitely have a hard time earning it back. I didn't trust nearly as easy as I did before. I wasn't nine years old and afraid anymore. I was twenty-one, and while I was still afraid, I was more cautious. I'd been hurt before. Rei was supposed to be safe though. Mari, Hideto and Neo all trusted Rei. Taichi trusted Rei—even though she was feeding Neo information during his quest to conquer the Digital World. I doubted she knew it at the time though. She'd ruined all of that for me now.

And I couldn't look at Willis without remembering him throwing my dead mother's lack of love in my face. If they weren't on my side in this argument, I would either have to prove Terra's shifty nature to them, or save them from her myself. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but I knew Terra was dangerous, and should _not_ be trusted.

So I raced through the dead woods, knowing that Gravimon wouldn't stop me. I didn't _need_ to find the path that would lead safely to Terra's garden. I was always safe here. It was a feeling I hadn't expected to encounter while in a land of perpetual night. The moon was lighting my way, but I knew nothing would jump out of the shadows. Gravimon was out there, and he would keep me safe.

The trees flew by me, and eventually, I saw the artificial glow of Terra's garden. She had several small orbs that acted like tiny suns. The trees and the grass and flowers all looked quite fetching. They were the only signs of plant life I'd ever seen in this world—though Rei assured me there was more now, with some Veemon somewhere—but they didn't make me feel safe. They just felt out of place. I wasn't tempted to eat the fruits from the trees, or drink the water from the bubbling basin in the flowerbed. I was too suspicious of Terra to ever trust any of it. It could be poisoned for all I knew. It could weaken the mind and soften it towards her. Maybe that's why everyone loved her so much, _trusted_ her so much.

She had so much power over this world, and she acted like she didn't want it, like it was given to her by accident. She didn't make orders—except when she decided that all new things had to be shown to her first—she didn't get involved in arguments—except when there's a magical key in the dump that she can't be bothered to find for herself. All of the Fallen Angels and the Wizards trusted Terra with their lives. If she made a decision, it was for the best. She knew what was needed to reach peace.

But she never once suggested that they share land, or end their feud. She actually pitted them against each other, sending them into a flurry to try and find that key. The more and more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that Terra actually knew the key was out there. The only problem with my theory, was that I couldn't understand _why_ she wanted this key, but didn't want anyone to know. If she'd just told the Wizards and Fallen Angels that she thought there was a way out of Witchenly, they would've done whatever she told them without argument. They didn't _want_ to stay here. They wanted to go back to different worlds.

Terra would be able to convince them to do literally _anything_ by telling them that a key was out there just waiting to be found. They would be putty in her hands. So _why_ didn't she share this knowledge? If she was as great as everyone thought, why was she keeping this to herself?

I trampled over her flowers in my quest to find out. I didn't care if the flowers got wrecked. She stole my key and I wanted answers. I needed to get into her personal chambers to find them. I grabbed the door handle of the seriously out of place door and turned it, yanking on it to open the door. Nothing happened. The doorknob wouldn't even turn.

"It's locked," I realized in surprise. I'd asked Gravimon about it before, this door. He'd told me that it held her rooms. I'd been _counting_ on it being open when I got here. This complicated things.

I pulled out the long, narrow piece of metal I'd been carrying on the off chance this proved to be the case. I wasn't good at picking locks, and this wasn't exactly the best tool for it, but I had to try. I didn't know how long I had before Terra or Astamon came back. If Terra could sense a key in this world, maybe she would just _know_ that I was breaking into her private territory. I wouldn't be able to talk myself out of anything were she to arrive while I was in there. I didn't like her, and I'd made no secret of it. She wouldn't have to pretend to be nice to me. I wouldn't be safe. She'd probably poison me, or try to remove my head from my shoulders.

Or both.

I got the feeling it would be both. The idea just put me more on edge though, and I wasn't getting anywhere with my lock-picking. My hands started shaking, as the idea of potentially _dying_ for doing this continued to bounce around my mind. I couldn't do that. I needed to stay alive, to protect Rei and Willis from themselves. I still cared about them, even if they hurt me and betrayed my trust. I wouldn't be telling them any secrets anytime soon, but I wasn't going to leave them at the hands of Terra.

I really hoped I found some damnable evidence inside her rooms. I was starting to feel crazy. I didn't have any solid proof that there was anything wrong with Terra. I'd seen her only a handful of times in the entire two months that we'd been trapped here. All I had were speculations that I'd had far too much time to dwell on.

Maybe Gravimon would want to avenge my death at Terra's hands, and would free the whole _world_ from Terra's suspicious nature.

If I had to die, that would be the preferable results brought about by it. But I had no proof that anyone would _know_ that it was Terra that ended my life. They could lie about it, and everyone would believe her! My breath was coming faster now, and I was starting to panic. I tried to slow my breathing, to count to ten and to focus, but my hands were shaking too badly to pick the lock and it was just making me frustrated on top of everything else.

And then I heard the crunch of footsteps coming up the stone path behind me.

I gulped audibly, but didn't stop trying to get inside. If Terra wanted to kill me, then whatever, but I was going to die trying to stop her wicked schemes—or at least finding proof that they existed.

"Kiyoko, you're being irrational," Willis's voice came behind me. I snorted humourlessly. So he'd come with his precious Terra to finish me off. Fine. I didn't care. It wasn't like he was becoming my best friend or anything. I didn't _need_ him to be on my side. I couldn't lie to myself convincingly enough for me to believe any of that.

"You can't keep doing this," Rei added. My heart sunk even further. She was here too. Two of my closest friends were _so_ mad at me that they joined my worst nightmare—well, my worst _living_ nightmare in any case. "Let's just go home and respect her privacy."

"Who's it going to hurt if we go in?" Willis asked. I was confused, and finally looked behind me. They were alone. Terra wasn't anywhere in sight. And Willis was offering to break in with me. I almost smiled before I remembered I was mad at them both. "He'll just see that Terra has nothing to hide."

"If there was nothing worth hiding, she wouldn't keep the door locked," I pointed out.

"It's probably just to keep Phelesmon out," Willis said, rolling his eyes.

"He offers to clean for her sometimes," Rei said with a giggle. "And she lets him."

"I'm going in," I snapped. "I don't care if you want me to, or if you let me. I'll fight you if I have to."

"You're serious," Rei said in shock. She had apparently been living in some alternate world where I _hadn't_ been against Terra since our very first night here. She clearly was blind if she hadn't realized that I was willing to do anything to get my key back from the hands she'd so willingly placed it in.

Willis came forward and brushed my hands to the side. I glared at him, thinking he'd just been lulling me into a false sense of security, tempting me into thinking he was on my side. But he just pulled the make-shift lock-pick out of my hand and fiddled with the lock for a grand total of twenty-two seconds, before the lock audibly let go. He turned the handle and looked at me.

I nodded my thanks, not trusting myself to keep from snarling at him if I opened my mouth. His words were echoing through my mind, reminding me why I couldn't trust him yet.

" _Your mom is dead, and Terra isn't her, she doesn't hate you."_

I would prove him wrong, and he would find out that Terra _did_ hate me. It was the only explanation for the fear I felt around her. I ran my fingers over my throat, wondering if this would be the last time it would be able to accomplish the job of connecting my head to my shoulders. How long would it take for Terra to come back?

After sweeping the woods once for any signs of Terra, I got to my feet and walked through the door, ignoring Rei's desperate pleas for me to just "Leave it alone". She didn't understand anything. I _needed_ this more than I needed anything else. I couldn't trust her with my key. I couldn't bear to let her have it for even a second longer. What if she used _my_ key to leave this world, trapping us here forever? We had no proof that she would actually take us with her. Did she care at all about the digimon of this world? I didn't know. She'd been here a long time, so maybe she'd developed _some_ feelings for them. I just had no proof whether those feelings were good or bad ones.

The room we came into was large and round. There were several other open doorways inside that led down narrow, winding hallways. Everything had the feeling of being underground. There were roots sticking out of the brown, earthy walls, and there was a large board hung up on two of them. I gravitated towards that board while Rei hovered in the doorway. Willis was braver than her, and he wandered towards the other wall. This wasn't just a bedroom, like he'd always thought. Terra had an entire secret sanctuary.

And it was clear that Phelesmon hadn't actually been here to clean up.

There was dirt everywhere—which was to be expected, living underground like this—but there were also clothes and papers and books and wooden dishes. It was as though Terra _created_ these things but couldn't be bothered using them a second time. She also had nowhere to dispose of them. It seemed odd to me, for her to have such an excess of stuff when the people of the world had so little. Willis opened a cupboard, and was shocked to find a collection of candles and silverware.

"Why does she have so much junk?" Willis wondered. "She doesn't go to the dump. She's afraid of the spirit that lives there."

"How long has that spirit been there?" I asked.

"I kind of just assumed it had always been there. It's the spirit of the dump," Willis told me, sounding confused by my question. "Reason stands that it's been there as long as the dump has."

"Or maybe, it's a digimon that finally caught on to Terra's wretchedness and wanted to put a stop to her nefarious plans," I countered. "Maybe she's afraid to go back, but she'd always gone _before_."

"Stop being ridiculous," Rei told me with a shaky voice. She was poking what looked like a bear trap with her foot. It wasn't set thankfully. "You hate her because you _want_ to hate her."

"No," I snapped. "I hate her because there's a reason to, I just can't put my finger on it."

I turned very pointedly to the board, and they were wise enough to stop talking. I looked at various drawings of Yggdrasil's droids. I was going to point out how suspicious that was, but realized that three years ago, Yggdrasil had unleashed droids in all of the worlds, not just Earth and the Digital World. For the first time, I wondered if the dead trees and horrible world were a result of _that_ invasion. Maybe they hadn't always been so horrible? I doubted it though. Terra's nature talents wouldn't be so coveted and precious if they'd only gone three years without grass. Maybe it was _Terra's_ doing? Or maybe this world really did just suck. I didn't want to be grasping at straws. There had to be _something_ wrong with her, if I feared her this much.

"But why so many pictures?" I murmured, looking from one sketch to the next. Some were done with more detail than others, and one was a detailed drawing of the schematics of a droid once it had been destroyed. I looked over it, but deemed it pointless. She didn't actually label any of the pieces. I'd looked one over too, and she was missing a few key elements—unless the droids for each world had slight variations from one another, which was entirely possible, since the droids on Earth were contaminating the air, but they hadn't been in the Digital World.

"I've seen one of these before," Willis mentioned. I turned away from the mostly useless sketches and saw him looking into an ornate, floor length mirror. He was running his fingers along the frame, his brows furrowed as he tried to remember where he'd seen it. "It's bigger, but it's the same design. It was in the Coliseum…."

"We should just leave," Rei suggested as she looked to a beautiful golden box. She popped it open to find a small red diamond. She was lost in its beauty for a moment before placing it back in its box. "We're not finding anything. And we're trespassing."

"I'm not going," I told her. Instead, I fell to my knees beside an old, worn out suitcase that was full of junk, and started sifting through it. She had tons of loose-leaf paper in there, most with only a few scribbles on the page. She had half a dozen pencils of various lengths. There was another sketch among them. It was of a tree, and I recognized it right off. It was alive, in the middle of a dead forest. It was also far bigger than the other trees surrounding it. It was definitely this world's tree of Yggdrasil. A soft thud sounded in one of the rooms ahead of us, and Rei was as spooked by it as I was. She moved to go check it out though, because she didn't want Terra to think _we'd_ knocked something over. I rolled my eyes and picked up a heavy, ornate picture frame that reminded me of the mirror Willis was still inspecting. I turned the frame over and looked into the picture.

I screamed at the sight of it and threw it across the room.

 _My head hurt as flashes rushed through my mind. Images filtered through of a life that was never mine. Being in awe of a beautiful woman, marrying that woman, looking down disappointed each time that woman was only able to bear me daughters, instead of a son, spending so many, long years with that woman, knowing that my people loved her more than they cared for me but not caring because she was ruling them at my side. She told me of a prophecy of our daughters, wanted me to conquer the entire world, I refused her time and time again, and she grew more distant with each refusal._

 _I was having dinner with her, for the last time, something was wrong with me. I'd drunk my wine as always, and my throat was constricting. I was falling forward, trying to catch my breath. I saw my wife, in the mirror—the same mirror—saw her holding a blade above her head. She was going to kill me. Our daughters came in, stopped her, and got me to safety._

I was back in Terra's underground hovel, staring at the picture frame, not able to see the picture anymore. I couldn't separate the memories from my own. It was as though I'd lived them, even though I knew I hadn't. I knew exactly whose memories they were.

 _I cast her out; found her lover was one of my most trusted. I never trusted him again. I threw all her possessions, never wanting to see them again. I'd been betrayed. She'd tried to kill me. I was ruthless, even more than I was before. No one was free from my tyranny. My daughters grew more distant, still their mother haunted me. I couldn't be rid of her. I didn't love her, I'd never done more than admire her political appeal, but that admiration was gone, and I was overflowing with loathing for her. I hated her for what she'd attempted to do. I couldn't stand our daughters. They were half her. They would betray me someday too._

 _They did_.

"What is it?" Rei asked, rushing to my side, trying to stop my thrashing about. Willis picked up the picture and looked down at it. He was confused, and looked to me, expecting answers.

"It's just a wedding picture," he pointed out. "Terra _said_ she was banished for loving the wrong man."

"That's not him," I stammered, my heart still pounding in my chest. I remembered the feeling of the poison; I remembered the genuine fear of that blade, and of losing my life. I remembered the hatred I'd felt towards her for having inspired that fear. "That's her husband, not the man she loved."

"How could you possibly know that?" Willis snorted.

"I know everything about him," I told him quietly. "He was my everything, once upon a time."

"You don't mean…." Rei said, trailing off, looking at the picture with a sense of horror. Willis had caught on too, and I nodded. "He doesn't look as scary as I thought he would," Rei commented. He was still mean looking, it was true, but he wasn't as terrifying in that picture as he'd been as a shadow.

"It was before all of his rage," I offered, but didn't want to talk about it anymore. My mind was still reeling. Terra wasn't her name. Terra had been lying to us. Terra had tried to kill Sigma in order to take over his throne and his people and expand their borders until they ruled over all of the worlds. She was ruthless in a way that caught even Sigma by surprise. She was the only one that Sigma had ever feared—even if only for those few moments when he thought he'd been dying. We were in her house without her permission.

And she had a key to escape this world whenever she wanted.

"We've endangered everything and everyone in all of the worlds," I realized. We needed that key. I needed to find that key. I got to my feet shakily, and started looking around frantically.

"What's going on?"

I whirled to the door with wide, terrified eyes. Terra was standing there, as if she wasn't the backstabbing wife of one of the Great Evils. She hadn't realized that we knew who she really was. Willis and Rei were both wary of her now, thankfully, but with her soft and easy smile, she was causing them to question their fears. Surely, if she tried to kill Sigma, she couldn't be so bad. But they didn't know. I didn't have time to tell them of all her treachery.

"What are you doing in here?" she demanded. "This is my private space. You weren't invited."

"But wait," I said, with far more confidence that I would've thought possible considering the situation, and all of my knowledge of her history. "I thought everything I found was to be brought to your attention?"

"Hmmm," she hummed in agreement. I walked over to Willis and pulled the picture from his hands. Her eyes narrowed in on it. But she wasn't afraid. She didn't know that I knew. I smirked at the thought of having the upper hand, no matter how temporarily. I handed the photo to her. She looked at it, and was confused, looking back to me.

"Gaia," I said as though I was taunting her.

"Astamon," she called, and her digimon henchmen appeared in the door behind her. I was backing up already, unable to keep my bravery up. "Get them. I must get my key."

Astamon nodded, but I didn't stay to watch him saunter forward to kill me. I raced back and grabbed Rei's arm. She was scared stiff. Gaia had shattered her image of Terra. Terra had been her hero, but Gaia wasn't anything like her at all. Already, Gaia looked different. She'd lost her mostly serene expression, and looked ready to kill us if we dared to cross her path.

And she was heading to the key.

She was going to unleash her wrath on whatever world that key led to. We couldn't let that happen. We had to get to the key first. Unfortunately, this was her home, which meant she had a clear understanding of how it worked. When Rei and I ran down one of the hallways, we were already lost. I'd been lost since I'd walked through her front door. Luckily for us, it didn't seem like Astamon was coming after us. Unfortunately, that meant he'd chosen to go after Willis. Willis was in danger, because I'd decided to meddle.

I felt a bit guilty at that, but at the same time, I felt like a hero, because I'd uncovered the villain's secret plot—sort of—and gotten rid of the veil that she was holding over Rei and Willis' eyes. That felt good at least, even if it did end in running for my life.

We ran through the hall and came to another round, earthy room. This one didn't have any of Terra's— _Gaia's_ —floating lights in it. The only light was coming from the ones in the hallways that branched off of the room. In the middle looked to be a covered table. I contemplated for a second, and then decided to recreate my success in Arnold's office by hiding under the tablecloth. It had worked before, it could work again. So I dragged Rei over, and pulled up the table cloth, ready to duck under.

But I couldn't.

It wasn't a table after all, it was a cage. And in that cage was a squirming, squealing girl. She looked really young, and absolutely terrified. I wondered if Gaia had been torturing her, based on the level of fear in her eyes at having the tablecloth lifted.

"Hush," I hissed. "Astamon is coming after us. We've got to be quiet."

"Is that Norn?" Rei asked in shock. I shrugged my shoulders. I'd only seen Norn like once. How was I supposed to know? But the girl was nodding her head eagerly, so I guessed it was true. "What are you doing in Witchenly?"

Norn just babbled around the gag in her mouth, and Rei flushed in embarrassment. She'd forgotten that she couldn't speak. Rei fiddled with the cage, and couldn't find an opening. I was growing frustrated. We needed to save Norn, yes, but the key was the more pressing matter. Gaia was going to go out there and destroy the worlds—maybe. I still wasn't quite clear on her goal. She hadn't stuck around to give us a monologue like the bad guys did in the movies. I could only speculate based on Sigma's knowledge of her, and when she was married to Sigma, she wanted to be Queen of all the worlds. She wasn't happy with just one land. She had visions of grandeur.

She would most likely be attempting to achieve that lifelong goal, once she was free.

I gritted my teeth, knowing that I needed to get going. I grabbed the bars of the cage and lifted upwards, knowing that there had to be an exit somewhere. The cage lifted off the ground, and Rei dragged Norn out from under it. She hastily started untying her.

"I'm going ahead," I told her. She looked shocked—I was shocked too, I'd never done anything this stupidly brave before, I was usually the one cowering in the corner.

"You're leaving us?" she asked.

"Just follow the hall that we came through," I told her. "You get Norn out. I'll find Willis and the key. Just…hurry up and don't be stupid."

"I could tell you the same thing," she pointed out.

I didn't wait around. I knew that if I did, I'd want some long, drawn out goodbye, because I was pretty sure I was going to die if I encountered Gaia. But that long goodbye could be the reason that all the worlds ended up destroyed, and I couldn't handle being responsible for that. I had already carried around a Great Evil for nine years. I'd done enough bad stuff. I had to make up for it. I couldn't let her win. I had to stop her.

So I put on a face that was braver that I was usually capable of, and ran through a random hallway, hoping against hope that I would find the key without having to deal with Gaia or Astamon at all. My luck wasn't very good. I ran into Astamon in the very next circular room. He was holding his gun up, taunting Willis, who was backed against the wall. I didn't like that. I ran up and grabbed the gun out of his hands—catching him entirely by surprise. I slammed the gun down on his head, and he fell to the ground. I threw the gun away. It was too heavy to carry while running. I also knew that I wasn't nearly strong enough to actually knock Astamon out. He was getting to his feet again before Willis and I had managed to make it to the door. My only hope lay in the chance that he hadn't looked up to see which hallway we had chosen.

This home of Gaia's was a maze. I didn't like it. I was having too much trouble mapping it in my head. I had no idea where we were, or how to get back. We could be trapped here forever. Gaia could have already used the key, and we might never find out. It was a terrifying thought.

The hallway came to an end, and we were in another room, this one was rectangular though, and it looked like we'd taken the only path to get here. There was just the one wall, and the room was filled with the large roots of a tree. The roots curved together, looking like a doorframe. All it needed was a door.

"It's there!" Willis gasped, running forward and picking up the thin, white stick that Rei had thoughtlessly given away. It was on an alter next to the Witchenly key. I was so happy at the sight of it. It meant we'd gotten here before Gaia had. We'd left before she had, and she probably thought we'd never find it, so she hadn't needed to run. But we showed her! "Catch," he called, tossing the mystery key in my direction. I reached out to catch it, but it froze midair. The amethyst key floated out of Willis' hand too, and they flew behind me.

I gulped, afraid to look, but did it anyway.

"I believe these are mine." Gaia was standing there, hand outstretched for the keys to land it. They did as she bid and she stormed into the room, all elegance that she had once possessed appeared to be lost now that her true nature had been revealed. "You thought you could outsmart me? I've been playing the fools in this world for thousands of years. Not once has anyone ever suspected my plans. I've been working towards this moment since my damned husband threw Witchenly off of our home world with me on it. I'm not letting meddlesome children take what is rightfully mine."

"What is it that you want?" I asked, with a very shaky voice. All of my bravery fled the moment she held the key in her hand.

"It's not likely to matter to you for long," she assured me with a voice that was very near purring. She smiled a feral smile when Rei bumped into me. I stumbled, wondering what the hell she was doing here, but saw that Astamon was holding both Rei and Norn firmly by the arm. "You have been _so_ helpful, Astamon. I do hope you will remain that way in my absence."

"Wait," Astamon gasped. "You're leaving?"

He sounded betrayed, like he was meant to go with her. I was sympathetic to him, because I'd felt her betrayal before, even if it was second hand, and it wasn't pretty. But at the same time, I was quite pleased that she wasn't going to be bringing a powerful digimon with her.

"I'll be back," she promised, holding up the key to Witchenly, proving that it would always be an option. "Just promise these peasants aren't around for my return."

She turned then and opened a gate of blinding white light with my key. I stumbled forward, desperate to stop her, but there was nothing I could do. She stepped through the gate and the door closed behind her, leaving us in the dark, in an underground room, with a digimon instructed to kill us.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** The final arc of this story starts in the next chapter with Ken and Tk narrating. It's a bit weird to have the two that were in THIS arc narrating next, but originally the next chapter was the end of this arc but this was a more natural ending obviously.


	40. Blank Space

**Y/N:** This is yet another new world, and this one was more interesting to explore, because we knew so little of it, we had to make pretty much everything up as we got to it, unlike with all of the other worlds that we've been exploring in the last few arcs. It was fun, I guess. I liked it better than the Land of Dreams for sure, but the others were pretty hard to beat. But it was fun because we had more characters to work with this time around.

 **U/N:** So this chapter was originally part of the last arc for some reason. If you're on this chapter then you already see why that was a terrible idea? So this arc is limited to the Original 12 (which I just capitalized, so that's like a big deal apparently) Tk, Kari and Ken get two parts to make up for their lack of involvement in the previous arc, and Sora and Izzy each get an extra because it's Sora and Izzy. Why not? I hope you like this arc, it's a little different, but it is the end of this story.

Also, the first Tri movie came out so you should watch that then tell us what you thought of that and our story at the same time and that'd be super cool, kay thanks :D

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 40: Blank Space**

 _ **Takeru Takaishi:**_

Silence.

I had never experienced such a complete and total silence like this one.

Everything we had experienced in the previous world, in the Land of Dreams, was nothing, because it had never happened, at least not visually. We were dry now, since the waters that we had been nearly drowning in were gone, and had seemingly never existed at all. I was wearing the same clothes I had been when we had first found refuge in that land. The only proof I had at all that it had ever happened were the tears in Summer's eyes, and the cold radiating from Hikari's skin. I held her close to me still as I sat on the floor of this new world. I could still feel the cold of the Dark Ocean's waters, but kind of like a distant memory, because I was warm now, warm and dry. Not Hikari though, she was shivering.

Ken was sitting further away from the rest of us with his legs curled up to his chest as he held them tightly, looking distraught. I knew he had wanted to stay behind, everyone knew. It hadn't been safe, and now he was here, safe and sound, like the rest of us. Ryo, Cyberdramon and Yume could take care of themselves, I was sure of it. What I wasn't sure of was whether or not I would ever be going back to that world to see them again. I was sure I would shake off the trauma of what had just happened quickly and be back in there before I knew it, because it really was a very beautiful world... but it was also dangerous and it had taken all of Hikari's nightmares and pulled them from her heart to turn them against her.

It had used her own mind to break itself.

I shook my head and caught sight of Summer again, sitting in an uncomfortable looking way as her massive green dress puffed up around her. Her hair was messy, and she was using her gloved hands to wipe the tears in her eyes, trying to pretend they did not exist. Even Koushiro was silent now, sitting with his legs outstretched in front of him and his laptop gently placed on the floor.

The floor. The white floor. I had never seen anything so pure and pearly white before. It was like everything here was glistening and in one of those cleaning agent advertisements. The walls were the same, stretching up to the ceiling above, arched and pure, just like the rest of what we were seeing. The ceiling was about four times the height of a normal house though, and staring up seemed like I was looking into the heavens. I could barely see where the perfectly white walls connected with the floor or the ceiling either because there were seemingly no shadows. It was as though light simply existed here.

We were in a tight tunnel though, about ten feet wide, like a hallway. It felt tight compared to the vast and open arena we had just been fighting in, but there was plenty of room for the five of us. To my right I could see a nearby end to the hallway where it opened up into a large open space, and whenever we were ready to move, I was planning to go directly there. It seemed to make the most sense to me.

Summer's translucent green wings fluttered gently as she began combing through her hair with her hands, preparing to keep moving. I was glad she was getting ready. I was already there, I felt like I needed to keep going. I would wait with Hikari though, until she was ready to go.

I looked down to her pale skin and saw beads of sweat forming all across her forehead. I repositioned her and pulled the sleeve of my blue sweater down to cover my hand and began wiping her face, removing the sweat. She jumped and looked up to me with her big brown eyes and stared for a moment before nodding gently and pressing her head closer to my chest. I tightened my grip on her and leaned my head on hers. As I did so I locked eyes with Koushiro. His eyebrows were raised, but after a moment he relented and then nodded. He was ready too.

Koushiro took initiative and leaned forward to look around Summer's dress to Ken who looked as pale as Hikari. "Ken," Koushiro's voice sounded like a gunshot as it fired through the silence. Ken jumped in surprise and looked up to him, his eyes wide. "We can go back at any time," Koushiro said with a tone much more gentle than any I had heard him use before. "We have the key."

Ken seemed to relax, if only slightly, at this and released his legs, leaning forward, "Give it to me," he shot loudly. "I need to go back."

"Not right now, you don't," Koushiro assured him. "Not until it's safer there." Ken looked ready to argue, but there was no flaw in Koushiro's advice, and Ken seemed to realize that so he slumped back, upset. Koushiro then looked to Summer to gauge where she was in her recuperation and seemed to deem her alright because he pulled himself to his feet and then grabbed his laptop and held on tight. "Is Hikari okay?" Koushiro asked, his face turning slightly red. Why would he be embarrassed to show that he cared?

I looked to her unsure of how to answer but was startled to find that she'd opened her eyes. She nodded, "I think so."

"You need to rest," I decided, my own voice sounding even louder in the silent hall as it echoed around us. Hikari did not object to this at all. I figured that after having—whatever it was—pulled from her chest and her pores, she would be in pain or something. I didn't want her to overexert herself, and I knew she would never ask for a break herself.

Suddenly Summer was standing with Koushiro and even Ken was slowly pulling himself to his feet. One more look at Hikari told me that she was in no state to get up, at least not yet. I stumbled my way into a standing position, holding Hikari in my arms. She looked down slowly but seemed alright with me carrying her. I motioned for Koushiro to lead the way and he took a glance in the direction I had implied and his eyes lit up. He apparently hadn't seen the room. He was off in a second, moving swiftly down the hallway with the rest of us following closely behind.

No matter how quiet I tried to keep my footsteps I could hear them reverberating softly around us. Summer's heels were clicking loudly behind me, and Koushiro was practically stomping so all attempts at subtlety was out the window—well, if there were any windows anyway. I didn't want to admit it, but carrying Hikari wasn't the easiest of things. I wasn't weak really, but I felt it after the exhaustion of fighting Akumu and the Reaper, and I just kind of wanted to collapse, but I wouldn't because we needed to find a place that was sure to be safe to keep Hikari before I could do that. Safety was something I was worried about too. I couldn't see anything aside from white walls and according to Summer, this world was one that no one had ever seen—or at least she had never seen. What if there was something dangerous lurking around the corner.

According to Koushiro's unfaltering steps as he entered the large open spaced room we were okay for now at least. My walking had slowed and so Summer and Ken had both passed me, entering after him. Ken let out a small gasp and I was excited to see what they had found. The moment I entered the room I found myself in awe.

There, in the center of the room was a clear, floating orb the size of a house that seemed to be made of glass. There were faint lines running along it tracing many confusing shapes, as if it were a globe, but one that couldn't possibly be real. I had seen a map of three different worlds now and not one of them looked anything like what I was seeing.

"Hey," Hikari's weak voice said, catching my attention, "I think I can stand."

"You sure?" I asked and she nodded. I gently dropped her feet and held on to her until she was stable. She took my hand though which I was thankful for. I didn't want her to find that she wasn't okay to be on her own after all. I was going to be here for her no matter what. She looked to me and a faint smile formed on her lips. It was a glorious sight, really. I hadn't expected to see a genuine smile so soon. I tightened my hold on her hand affectionately as we walked together toward the massive globe.

"Don't get too close," Summer warned. She held her hand out, pressing it to my chest to keep me from disobeying. She was staring down, and when I looked harder I could see why. I had barely seen the massive crater that opened up underneath the globe. When Summer dropped her hand I stepped forward and looked down, over the edge. Just like everywhere else here, the light seemed to simply exist and I could see down for a long way. It didn't seem to ever stop.

Hikari seemed nervous of the height and so I stepped away, which was probably safer anyway. As I looked around I could see that the room was even larger than I had imagined it to be. The walls were at least the size of a soccer field apart. Koushiro was already examining something I noticed, and when I moved closer I could see why. Engraved in the wall, like someone had gracefully and carefully carved them there, were words in the Digital language. It seemed odd that the digimon dialect would be used here in a new world, but I hadn't seen any one at all, so perhaps the natives here really were digimon too. Perhaps we had nothing to worry about. Slowly though, I realized just how dangerous digimon could be. Just because they were here did not mean we were safe.

I caught sight of Ken who had discarded the police vest he had been wearing when we'd been running from the virus, since he'd been at work just before. He was walking along the opposite wall, examining what looked to be images, carved in the same way.

Hikari moved toward the wall, slipping her hand from mine and traced her finger along one of the carvings, "What is it?" She asked Koushiro who surely had already begun translating the runes.

He hesitated though and cocked his head slightly, "A story, I think."

I looked back to Summer who seemed intrigued and then began moving to the wall to get a closer look. I figured I may as well be searching as well, but when I spun around to check the wall that joined Koushiro's with the one Ken had been examining I found myself staring at a larger than life image of a tree scraped into the wall. My heart started beating faster as the realization began to wash over me, but I said nothing until I was close enough to read what was written underneath the tree.

"Guys," I said, my voice coming out choked and nervous. I could tell they had all stopped to look to me without bothering to check. I pointed up to the tree and said, "Yggdrasil."

"Are we in the In-Between?" Ken's voice came in quickly and sharply. I turned to see them and Koushiro was looking to the floor in thought as Hikari looked comfortingly to Summer who had begun staring to the wall in a sort of trance. Ken was moving quickly toward us all and when no one answered him he added, "That's what it feels like, right? That's what I've been thinking anyway."

"I don't think so," Hikari said gently, "The In-Between is completely empty, complete nothingness. And besides, don't you think Norn would have come for us by now if she had been here?"

"But Yggdrasil," Ken pointed to the wall I had been examining, "he lived in the In-Between, and now Norn does, and she's basically his daughter because she's part of him, right? She should be here."

"It isn't the In-Between, Ken," Koushiro was much harsher than Hikari had been, and Ken kind of deflated. I tried to send him an encouraging look but he just looked frustrated and then moved toward the wall where he sat down, sliding his back all the way down. "Summer would have known what the In-Between felt like and not told us she was leading us into an unknown world, she isn't a liar, nor is she cruel enough to joke about something as serious as this." All eyes seemed to turn to Summer who showed no inclination that she had heard a word Koushiro had said, "It's something else."

"Something connected to Yggrasil," I added.

Koushiro nodded and looked to me awkwardly, "Right," he agreed. Hikari smiled, clearly hoping that whatever had been going on between the two of us was finally at an end. I was kind of hoping it was too, even if I had been an equal part of it. I didn't like arguing, nor did I like someone not liking me, so I was ready to let it go if he was too. Hikari then set off toward Ken who looked frustrated again. I could tell she wanted to sit down too, and the relief on her face when she finally did was discomforting. If we had to move quickly, I wasn't sure she would be ready to do so.

Koushiro was examining the wall again and so I joined him, curious to what he had found. Judging by the layout, it seemed that this would be the start of the story, and so I wanted to know all I could about it all. I tried to follow along with Koushiro, but he could read the language, and I could not. He was having trouble seeing the words though, and I could see him straining his eyes. "Why don't you use your computer?" I suggested, "adjust the contrast so you can see it better. Koushiro looked up to me, paused and then decided it was worth a try. He popped open his computer and opened the camera setting before doing as I had suggested. He stared for a moment and then decided it hadn't worked after all because there were no shadows to assist in the contrast. He sighed and closed his computer again. "Worth a try," I shrugged. And he nodded.

I was surprised to say the least, but I didn't want to push anything in case he was simply being polite.

Koushiro was reading, moving closer and further from the wall whenever necessary, his eyes were focused and he seemed to be fading out of reality until finally he stepped back. The world was silent again as no one was speaking, so when he cleared his throat I jumped in surprise. "It's about the worlds," he explained in a somewhat quiet voice. I noticed that he was not speaking loud enough to have the intent for the others to hear him. He was speaking to _me_. I fought back the urge to smile as he continued, "And about the evils they possess. Nine in all, of course..." so it was giving us information that we already knew of. Too bad we hadn't found this world ten years ago. It definitely would have helped out then. "It all starts with Yggdrasil though, I guess. It's in his perspective." A first person narrative of Yggdrasil creating all of the worlds? That ought to be a best seller right there. "' _First there were three,'_ " Koushiro read softly, "' _One of light, one of dark and one of everything in-between. Only one was accessible to the living, and it was filled with magic, and hope and life. It was filled with wonders And—._ '"

"No offense," Ken interjected, "but whatever it is that you two are talking about, could we do it back in the Land of Dreams?"

"No," Koushiro and I said together. It needed no explanation. It was still not safe there. We promised Yume that we would keep away until he could get the situation under control with the help of Ryo of course. Besides, he had specifically requested that Hikari never return, and as much as I would have loved to defend her, I had to agree. Not only was the world put in danger, but she was too, and I wasn't okay with any of that.

Koushiro turned back to the wall and found his place before reading again. "'T _he world thrived not by those who lived in her grasp, but by herself and her own free will. She learned and she grew and she helped those in need. She was beautiful, and she was everything.'"_

"Sounds like someone had a crush," I muttered, and Koushiro looked to me quickly, I was afraid he was going to be angry but he had formed somewhat of a smile. I smiled back, and then it was awkward. "Look," I said, trying to fill the silence, "I'm sorry I was being so annoying before."

Koushiro looked to me and shook his head, "No need," He said, "You weren't being annoying, you were just being yourself. I won't apologize for being me, so I don't see why you should do it either." Now that certainly didn't feel like the closure I had been expecting, but he then added, "I am sorry though, for being rude. That is not who I am, and I am not proud of that."

"Th-thanks..." I said. I was confused now. Was he apologizing, or wasn't he?

"You did well in the fight as well," he added quietly, "much better than I did. As it turns out, strict facts are not the only form of knowledge. Your creativity is a different, but just as important branch. And it..." he hesitated and then sighed, "It showed me that I may have been acting harshly in regards to your personal philosophy. To me my crest, at least yesterday, had much to do with logic, whereas yours differed greatly. Your crest of hope had clearly defined meanings. Your own interpretations and your own feelings meant more to you than the facts, and I should have realized that sooner. I have known you for sixteen years, after all, and the facts were right there in front of me, and—"

"You are forgiven," I said, cutting into his anxious rambling. "Just know that I'm sorry too, for being a child and being hard to deal with." Koushiro looked relieved that the blame was not solely on his shoulders any longer and nodded, before turning back to the wall to hide his reddening face.

"' _She wandered through the world, searching for what could make it better,'"_ Koushiro read as if we had not spoken at all, _"'She found love, and together she and her lover formed a child, sweet at first, but soon he would prove to be everything but. They called him Sigma.'"_ Koushiro and I looked to each other suspiciously, but didn't hesitate to continue. I did notice that Hikari and Ken had gotten to their feet now and were wandering toward the two of us. _"'Sigma was born as King, and all those who lived among the lands were awaiting a time in which he would become all that he was destined to be. And soon, he was. He was ruthless and he was vile, just as predicted, but not as was hoped.'"_

Hikari tapped me on the shoulder and Koushiro stopped reading as the two of us spun to see her and Ken. "Hi," she said, "I'm going to take a walk with Ken, okay?"

"No, no, don't go," I hoped it had come across as concerned rather than controlling, but I wasn't so sure. I just didn't see what good could come of the two of them wandering along out there.

Hikari looked to Ken who was staring blankly up to the wall, bored and upset, and then back to me, "I think he needs someone to talk to. I won't go far, I promise."

It wasn't my place to be controlling her, and I had learned that the hard way. I couldn't help but feel as though I understood what predicament Taichi and Yamato always found themselves in during situations like these. I turned to Summer and she was already nodding. "You'll go?" I asked and again she nodded. Hikari smiled and leaned in, kissing me on the cheek, "Don't go far," I reminded.

"I won't, I won't," Hikari said, waving me off like an overprotective parent. She winked over her shoulder at me though, and a larger sense of relief filled me, seeing her spirits rise so quickly being out of that dangerous world. I couldn't help but notice that everyone seemed to be in a better mood now that all of their nightmares were staying inside their heads rather than taking shape around them. Soon we may find a way to return to a different world and find a way _home_. I couldn't see how a bad mood could survive news like this anyhow.

Koushiro and I both watched as our three comrades slipped out of the room the way we had come, and out of sight. I heard their distant echoing voices, but soon they were too difficult to understand.

"' _He took shape as a horrible man, one who was seeking only darkness,'"_ Koushiro continued the story, surprising me. I spun around to follow along. _"'soon though, the world he ruled, the land created by his mothers own form began learning from those in its midst and the basic foundations for good and evil were cemented in her mind.'"_

"Crests?" I blurted, and Koushiro seemed to be on the same mind track. It seemed almost immensely frustrating that there was so much background to these simple concepts, these simple traits. But like the story said, they were the basics, and they had to route back to the beginning of time.

'" _When soon the worlds made their shift, by result of a wicked woman and a man just as bad, those foundations that She had learned began to assist in the ways of keeping the worlds separate. Each world took form by means of these traits, and soon the world that once was, had been doomed for separation for an eternity. Nine worlds and one to keep the balance, each with two traits to keep them whole, while one shone above the rest like a beacon to keep those among the world's alive and well.'"_

"Nine worlds, and one to keep balance?" I questioned, my voice choked off again. What did that mean?

"' _An endless sea of love that formed from each living being, good and bad, seemed to string all that once was back together enough to keep a passage between each of the worlds. Love, the singular trait felt by all, was what Sigma wanted to rid himself of. His heart broken, he tore it from his chest and concealed it within a box, hoping one day to find a way to destroy what was left of the feelings trapped inside, but content with the way his new form took shape. Living without any love, without any connections, was the only way for him to get what he wanted. Pure control.'"_

Koushiro seemed to come to an end, and it seemed to be true because there was a line drawn down the wall after where he had been reading, as if the next group of words would begin a new story entirely. "So," I said slowly, "Sigma is Yggdrasil's son... and Sigma's mother was the initial creator of the crests?" Koushiro shrugged, "So where do the original Digidestined fit in."

"I believe the crests formed themselves," Koushiro said, deep in thought.

"Okay," I said, thinking, "But remember when Hikari took us back in time randomly, and we saw Gennai and his agents plugging the crests into our partner's digi-eggs?" Koushiro nodded, "So who made the tangible objects that we found during our first trip? Who managed to capture the essence of love, or friendship, or even knowledge? How is that even possible?"

Koushiro didn't miss a beat, like he'd been preparing his answer, "Gennai and his agents did that too." He explained, "I asked him once."

"Okay, so that makes sense..." I said, trying to piece the story together. "What about our digimon?" I asked suddenly, remembering that our partners had been in that flashback as well. Koushiro was not following so I clarified, "Wormmon is ancient and fled his colony seeking to learn more about the world first hand. Hawkmon's whole family was killed by a minor virus and Hawkmon was the only survivor and he was then shoved into a digimental to keep him safe from extinction. Armadillomon used to work in the dark ocean. We know these things. Veemon doesn't remember his past though, and worse, neither do any of our partners."

"They were in eggs during the time in which Gennai was keeping them," Koushiro said.

"Yeah, I know," I nodded, "but Patamon remembers both of his past lives, before Arkadimon killed him, and before Devimon killed him. He doesn't remember anything before waiting for me though. Why not?"

Koushiro stared at me, his face completely blank. He had no answer. He thought for a moment and then shook his head, "It was their first life, surely. That is the only explanation of why they don't remember."

"The _only_ explanation?" I asked, my eyebrows rising. He sighed, realizing I had a point, "And still, where do Izumi and the others fit into this crest situation?"

Koushiro seemed to have an answer for this now as well, "I believe this is part of their story," He said gesturing to the wall. "They were the vessels Gennai used to create the crests. He used their hearts to form the tangible objects, and perhaps, from there, it was all a steady path. Steady because we came along and know the tales, not by any typical definition of the word." That seemed to make sense, so I was going to believe it. I couldn't think of a time off hand when Koushiro came up with something out of thin air and it hadn't been right. "But," he said, "What I truly find intriguing—I do apologize, that is not at all the word I would like to have used. Perhaps, rather than intriguing, it is worrisome."

"What is?" I asked nervously.

Koushiro pointed up to the wall, back to the place at the beginning before he had started reading aloud, "It says here that the Great Evils were prophesized to exist, but that it was impossible to know where they might arrive, when they might fall into their roles, or who they might be."

"That's not possible," I said, shaking my head, "Winter told Miyako about them all. She knew."

Koushiro's eyebrows lifted ever so slightly, and he turned back to the wall, "Or did she?"

 _ **Ken Ichijouji:**_

I wondered just how long I was meant to wait around in this empty world. How long could it _really_ take for Ryo, Yume and Cyberdramon to defeat Akumu, the Reaper and their nightmares? I needed to get back. This endless sea of white nothingness held no hope for me. Takeru and Koushiro might be interested in reading the barely there digital words on the walls, but I wasn't. Maybe, if I wasn't dying a little on the inside with each passing minute, and maybe, if Miyako was beside me, holding my hand and listening to their story time with me, then I might be able to find it in me to enjoy myself.

But Miyako wasn't with me.

I still had no idea where she was. I had no idea what I was going to do with myself for the rest of my life if I couldn't find her. I was losing hope more and more each day. I couldn't help it. Takeru was able to summon a seemingly endless supply of hope, but I couldn't. I tried. I tried so hard to follow in his footsteps, tried to find hope even in the direst days, but it was darn near impossible now.

And now, here I was, finally having escaped the Land of Dreams, only to find myself in a world that wouldn't be able to provide me with even a distraction. At least in the Land of Dreams I had been able to go for a walk in the grass, or see the blue sky above me. I could ride a bicycle for hours, or create a firing range in order to keep my shooting skills up. I didn't intend on shooting anyone, but sometimes, like in the case with the nightmares, it was a good skill to have. And if we ever got out of this world, and back to Earth, I really wanted to be able to continue my career as a police officer. It would be hard to do that if I couldn't hit a target. I also needed to keep my exercise up. I needed to stay in shape.

Miyako wouldn't _want_ me to give up on everything just because she wasn't around for a little while. But if it turned out to be longer than that, I wouldn't ever know. I'd give in to my fears, and I wouldn't continue working out.

I sighed.

I remembered a time when working out was a form of fun for me. Now it was anything but. It was my coping method, something to keep my mind occupied on the days I could manage to get out of bed without succumbing to the nightmares that plagued me. It was a challenge that wore out my body and allowed me to slip into unconsciousness faster.

Here though, in this new world, I wouldn't be able to accomplish anything. It was terrifying, just how white everything was. I couldn't see where the hallway ended in front of us. What if it _didn't_ have an end? It could very well continue on in front of us forever. I couldn't know any different. We'd never been here. From the way Summer was talking, no one else had been here.

But if that were the case, who had written the story that Koushiro was reading on the wall?

We couldn't be the only people in the history of this world to have stepped foot here. It was ridiculous and presumptuous. Someone had to have been here when it was created, someone had to have been here at some point in time, or else this land would serve literally no purpose whatsoever. All of the other worlds had a population. All we needed to do now was to find the population of this world.

And hope like hell they wouldn't kill us upon first glance.

"Summer, have you really never heard of this world?" Hikari asked quietly. Her voice carried throughout the endless hallway, ricocheting off of the walls, sending an echo back our way. She winced at the sound of it, ducking her head down, embarrassed—for no reason.

"I haven't," Summer confirmed. "I didn't know it ever existed. But evidently, my father's story is carved into these walls. I worry that perhaps _he_ created this world?"

"Sigma?" I asked, horrified at the thought.

"There are other options, of course," Summer was quick to assure me. "He isn't the only powerful being that ever existed. My grandfather was far more powerful, as was my grandmother. But father used his power to his advantage more than either of them."

"I don't think I've ever heard you talk about anyone except your father or sisters before," Hikari commented. I wondered how often they talked alone during our time in the Land of Dreams, before remembering that Hikari had lived with Iori while on Earth, and Iori made a point to visit his self-designated aunt as often as possible. It was entirely plausible that Hikari went along sometimes.

"I don't like to talk about them often," Summer admitted. "Father is hard enough to talk about. My heart still breaks for my grandmother, though I was not as close with her as Autumn was. I missed so many chances, spending all my time with my dear mentor."

"Did you lose your mother too?" I asked, wincing as the question came out of my mouth. It was such a stupid question. I knew how much _I_ hated questions like that about my brother. It had been so long, but people still asked questions, curious, but insensitive—or they had, when there had been other people around. I really missed Earth—but not nearly as much as I missed Miyako.

"No," Summer said quickly. She seemed to steady herself, and decide that it wasn't the answer she wanted to give. "I lost her, just not in the traditional sense. I don't know if we ever really _had_ her. She was not a doting mother. She didn't even seem to care that she had children. I doubt she ever felt for father what I knew he felt for her. He was miserable for weeks after her ultimate betrayal. But he got better—or we thought he did."

"I can't imagine not having a caring mother," I murmured sympathetically. It wasn't entirely true, but it was true enough. For awhile there, Mom didn't seem to care about me. She was always so wrapped up in Osamu and how smart he was. He was the perfect child, and I was a disappointment next to him. And then he was gone, and they didn't want me around, as a reminder of him. When the Dark Spore enhanced my intelligence, they started doting on me like they had Osamu, but they'd settled down since then. They loved me for who I was now, and not for how much I could be like my brother. Now that I'd felt their undying love, I couldn't imagine losing it.

"Me either," Hikari said. There was something off in her voice, and I wondered if maybe Yuuko hadn't always been so devoted to her daughter. I'd never known her to be flippant, but perhaps she'd overcome that milestone before I'd met her? I didn't know, and I doubted Hikari wanted to share right then. Summer reached over and squeezed Hikari's hand, having come to the same realization that I did. "Mom's great," Hikari told us energetically, as though trying to ensure us that whatever the problem _had_ been was now fixed. "She loves me and Taichi more than anything. She even loves Daisuke like he's her own son. She's so full of love."

It was like she was trying too hard. She didn't want us to think badly of her mother. I couldn't judge her. I didn't dare say anything to Hikari about my own mother, for just the same reason. No one needed to know how long I'd spent being unsure whether my parents loved me for who I was, or who I looked like.

I didn't doubt there would always be a part of them that clung to the idea that I was living not just my own life, but my brother's too. It was the only way they could keep Osamu alive in their hearts. They allowed Osamu to live on vicariously through me. Neither of them called me by the wrong name anymore, though, which I was thankful for. They would never get to move on passed Osamu, it wasn't something either could do. It wasn't in their nature. I wouldn't ever want to make them either. I still missed him. Some days I spent hours wondering what kind of big brother he would be if he were still alive. Would he be happy for Miyako and I and the baby we had on the way? Would we have mended the rift in our relationship in time for my wedding? Would he even have wanted to attend, or would Mom and Dad have had to have dragged him along with them?

Despite Osamu's overbearing and bullying nature, I didn't doubt that deep down he'd always cared for me though. I knew Mom and Dad had never hated or resented me. They just didn't know how to handle Osamu and I _and_ Osamu's intelligence.

"My mother was full of love too," Summer told Hikari, allowing Hikari to keep her privacy, asking no further questions of her. "Her love was simply not for me, or my sisters, or my father. She had a man elsewhere that received all her devotion."

"That's not nice," Hikari murmured. "Why would she marry your father if she didn't love him?"

"Would _you_ have wanted to risk Sigma's wrath if he loved you?" I asked, nearly shuddering at the thought. It was too hard to fit the thought of Sigma and love together. I couldn't imagine that he'd ever loved anybody.

"It was not so simple as that," Summer assured us. "She had dreams of grandeur. Father was a stepping stone on her quest to greatness. It didn't hurt that he was the king of the lands. He was exactly what she needed, and she was all he wanted."

"But to marry a man she didn't love," Hikari said sadly. "Surely she could have reached for her dreams while being with the man she loved. It wasn't fair for anyone. She must've been so lonely."

"Hardly," Summer snorted, sounding uncharacteristically mean. "Her favoured suitor happened to be my father's favourite guard. She was never lonely. He was tasked with watching over her night and day, just in case someone came to harm the queen. Father was blind to it all. He would not have stood for it, so I know he did not ignore it. He might not have hurt my mother, but his guard would have been disposed of for his audacity to consort with the king's wife."

"That's horrible," I decided.

"That was relatively tame for the both of them," Summer corrected with a sad sigh. "I decided that their example was not something I wished to follow suit in, and I have searched for a love that is pure and dedicated for my own future."

"Yume?" Hikari guessed.

"I think he might be it," Summer admitted with a very pretty blush, bringing some colour to her pale, green cheeks. "I'm still unsure of his feelings, but mine are strong and true. It is so difficult to be away from him when I know he's in such danger."

"Join the club," I muttered bitterly. She turned her soft gaze on me, and in that second I knew that she understood the feelings in my heart, the longing, the fear, the desire, the sadness. It didn't seem like enough though. She'd only been separated from him for half an hour or so. I'd been away from my pregnant wife for two whole months.

"I'm sorry that your heart isn't here," Summer murmured gently.

"I'm not," I told her, shuddering at the thought of Miyako being trapped within these endless white walls. I would never find her if she were here. She would be alone, afraid, and without food or water. This world didn't seem built to keep anything alive. It wasn't habitable. There was nothing but the white floor, the white ceiling and the high white walls. Outside of the room we'd left Takeru and Koushiro in, there weren't even words printed into the wall to add texture. It was like a blank canvas. I longed desperately for some colour, something to end this world of white. I'd nearly walked into three separate columns just in the short time we'd been walking. I hadn't seen them coming. There were no shadows to help guide our way either. We had to focus to see the outlines of the decorative architecture.

"I suppose you're right," Summer sighed. "This isn't a very nice world. It would be a poor place to start your family." She placed a hand on her own stomach. I got the feeling she wanted one of her own. Maybe Michael would be getting cousins at some point in the near future. "I wish I could share the confidence that you and your wife had when you decided to solidify your relationship."

"You mean when they got married?" Hikari clarified.

"Yes," Summer nodded, blushing again. "I've only known Yume a couple hundred years. I don't know if that's long enough to know for sure. We'll be together a _long_ time—if everything goes favourably of course."

"A couple _hundred_?" I asked, my mind boggled by the number.

"I know," Summer fretted. "It's such a dreadfully short amount of time. I shouldn't be rushing."

"When you know you know," Hikari told her. "How long did Autumn wait?"

"Not long," Summer murmured. "She met Michael only two years before their wedding."

"And she _knew_?" I prodded.

"She said so," Summer confirmed. I looked to her, trying to urge her to catch on. "I realize that to you a couple hundred years seems excessive, but it doesn't make up that large of a percentage of my life. For Autumn to have been married after only two years is ridiculous. It was like a blink of an eye. I'm just afraid that I won't be happy."

"But you won't be happy without him either," I pointed out. She felt the same sadness that I felt without Miyako. There was no way she wasn't going to be with him forever—because apparently that was a very real possibility with her. I didn't know _how_ old she and her sisters were. It was hard to get my mind around it. "Don't waste time. You never know when you could run out."

"You won't run out," Summer told me, reaching over to grab my hands, holding them tightly in her own. "I will do everything I can to help you find her. I'm not the strongest, but with enough time and thought, I could probably find her."

"I don't know how much time I have," I whispered, ashamed to admit that I was giving up hope.

"Miyako and the baby are fine," Hikari insisted. "They have to be. They _have_ to."

"I feel the same way," I said. But it didn't make a bit of difference. If she was dead she was dead, if she was trapped she was trapped. Wanting and hoping and wishing wouldn't change her fate. Only going out there and actively searching would do that—maybe.

"How much longer before the baby gets here?" our fairy guide wanted to know. I'd only been counting the days since before the virus came, so I knew how long it would be.

"Just under three months," I told her. She whimpered, and it felt nice to have someone feel upset and worried over the state of my baby. I knew that the others cared. I _knew_ that. It just didn't always feel that way. After the first couple of weeks, I knew they were tired of my attitude. The only one that was willing to put up with me at all for any length of time was Hikari—but she had more than her own fair share of worries to mull over. She'd managed to cause quite the mess because of those fears and doubts. She should have shared them, especially when she was letting me rant and rave and cry and whine about how unfair everything was. She let me carry on like a child when she was going through so much pain on her own. She needed to talk it out.

But if I was honest with myself, would I have listened?

Probably not.

I was selfish the entire two months, dedicating all of my time to thinking up ways to get back to Miyako. If I'd have thought about meeting up with Trust—with Ryo—earlier instead, we might've been here ages ago. We could have figured out that this world was crappy and empty and we could have left. Summer and Yume could have got their act together, and between the two of them, they could have figured out how to get us to a different world.

Maybe they could have gotten us to the In-Between—the _real_ one, not this imitation world. If we could have gotten to the In-Between, we could have gotten back into the Digital World, or gotten to Earth, or any of the other multiple worlds available to us. We could have found Taichi for Hikari, or Yamato for Takeru. Mimi was out there somewhere for Koushiro, and Miyako, my _sweet_ Miyako was out there going through a pregnancy alone.

We'd waited so long for this pregnancy. We'd been trying for three years to have this baby, and I was missing the entire thing. That wasn't the part that bothered me the most though. It was the fact that Miyako had to do it alone. She had told me repeatedly that she wanted me there to experience it all alongside her. She didn't want to have to do this by herself. Both of her sisters had made it through their pregnancies by themselves, for the most part—Chiziru _still_ hadn't confirmed Masa's father (though I suspected she had an idea at the very least) and Momoe had gone off on a world tour, leaving Jou behind in Japan throughout the duration of the pregnancy. Miyako had made me promise that she wouldn't need to do the same.

She _could_ do it. She was strong enough. I believed that full heartedly, even if she didn't. But she didn't _want_ to, and I'd thought it was the least I could do.

But I couldn't even do that much.

I sighed.

"It will be okay, Ken," Hikari whispered, more to herself, I thought, than me. She was worried, her hands were shaking in fear as the very real possibilities played out across her imagination. I felt bad, for reminding her that Takeru wasn't necessarily right. I didn't want to make her upset again. She'd made the Land of Dreams a nightmare when she was upset the last time. And we didn't understand the parameters of this world yet. What if this world was similar to the Land of Dreams in that it took our fantastical thoughts and morphed them into fruition? What if we were still in the Land of Dreams and this was just a mirage—what if we could never escape, trapped inside the confines of our own minds?

Now _I_ was panicking.

I'd had enough of the Land of Dreams for awhile. This couldn't be it and I didn't even _want_ to go back, but I had to. Miyako would _never_ come to this world. No one knew this world existed. If I want to find her, I needed to be somewhere that it was possible for her to follow.

"Oh," Hikari moaned, her hands fluttering to her temples as she swayed were she was. She was dizzy. I reached over to help hold her up, and she leaned into my touch. She ended up leaning against my chest, because her legs gave out not long after. I helped bring her to the ground, and watched helplessly as she struggled to keep a firm hold on her breathing, but her breaths were coming in ragged and quickly.

"Is it the world?" I asked, knowing that the white that was surrounding us was enough to give me a headache, but Hikari just moaned, assuring me that _no_ the world was not the issue. I tried to catch Summer's eye so that she could tell me what to do. But she didn't know. I didn't know why she would. She was a fairy, and we were humans. She didn't know much—if anything—about the human body and how it functioned. This was the woman that had been flirting with a guy she liked for a couple hundred _years_ without ever making a move. She was smart, but it was book smart.

"There's something here," Hikari whispered through her pain. "It's dark, it's _really_ dark."

"I feel it too," Summer confessed. "I can go find out what it is. Would that help you?"

"NO!" Hikari shouted. "Don't leave us. We need to get to Takeru and Koushiro. We have to warn them. They can't be alone with this darkness."

"Okay," I said, hoisting her to her feet, and slinging her arm over my shoulder. Sumer turned to lead the way, and we started backwards, planning to find out way back. Only we had a really big problem—the size of a _wall_. The side walls of the hallway decided they didn't like our plan, and had started to grow together. I knew _I_ could make it before they closed, but Summer's dress was far too elaborate, and I'd never be able to drag Hikari along with me before making it through the gap. "Now what?"

"What was that?" Summer wanted to know. If she didn't know, then I doubted we ever would. The best I could figure, was that this world was alive, and it was toying with us, cutting us off with our friends. Not for the first time I wondered what evils lurked around these pure corners.

We couldn't go back the way we came, so we had to keep walking the same way as before. Eventually, we would be able to find Takeru and Koushiro. I still dragged Hikari, and she held on tight until there was a large explosion of light in the distance, far from us. The light was weird enough, considering we'd been hoping that the world was uninhabitable, but it wasn't the thing that chilled me right to the bone.

No.

What scared me, was the long, high, crazed howl that split through the air. All I could think, was that we were in for a world of trouble—and most likely a ton of pain.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Change is afoot and Iori and Jou are here to lead the way!


	41. Change

**Y/N:** I like Cody. He's one of my favourites, if not my actual favourite, and he gets to have a bit of a period of relaxation—however temporary this time around, which is nice for him, even if he might've liked to have action right away or something, especially with his new Dark Ocean frame of mind.

 **U/N:** Jou and Cody seem to partner up a lot in our story so it's not surprising that we paired them off here in their final chapters of the story. They were also the two that added an extra chapter during the writing stages instead of planning because seriously they're so convenient. Anyway, You should enjoy this because why not? And let us know what you think?

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 41: Change**

 _ **Jou Kido:**_

I wanted to take the time to see where we were—to see what was going on around us, but there wasn't that time.

We popped out of the air, all arriving at different times, but there was not enough space between us to really register who was where at what time. And then the monsters came into focus and I realized that we were far from safety. Spring had succeeded in sending us to a new world, and that was brilliant. The problem was that it was not only unnecessary now that we had a man who may not have been willing, but _would_ have, brought us to Earth once we were done with him. Either way, Spring had thought it was a safe concept, bringing us into the world which possessed nothing.

That was all I could see. Nothing, everywhere.

There were tall, never ending white walls, and a white floor, and white everything, but there were no colours, no vegetation—no _life_.

Aside from us of course.

And the monsters who had entered the world with us.

I did not have the time to look around, but I wish I had. There was something intriguing about this world, something that made me want to learn more, but as it stood, we had to run.

And so that's what we did, without wasting any more time.

Everyone seemed to be weakened after the fight, and there was nothing left to help us with our war, aside from the idea that we may be able to outrun the creatures that had been crafted on Earth. Taichi seemed to be on the same train of thought because he shouted out, "Run!" and we all obeyed. Neo was scooped up into Taichi's arms with very little hesitation or struggle and then he was off with Dracomon and Agumon at his feet.

I caught sight of Mari punching the fox-snake in the side of the head as it snapped at her, and then she too was running. I felt bad for her in her heels, noting that she was going to have some horrendous blisters at the end of all of this. The digimon all fired sporadic attacks behind them before setting off, and Kurayami was nearly hit. Arnold still had her, but Daisuke wasn't going to let him get away with that, and he had hit him across the face, leaping over the Behemoth creature to do so. Kurayami slipped from Arnold's grasp and into Daisuke's but they were still behind the line of enemies.

"Spiral Twister!" Biyomon shouted above the roars as she shot a blast toward one of the smaller enemies. Daisuke and Kurayami slipped through the gap in the defenses and hurried after the rest of us. I couldn't keep track of everyone. There were too many of us—and too many of them. I could only hope that everyone was taking care of their own lives, and worrying about their own safety.

Not like me. I was running, sure, but constantly checking over my shoulder, scanning for any sight of Gomamon. I had only just been reunited with him; I wasn't ready to leave him behind again. What if he had proven to be too slow, and been trampled—what if I hadn't heard his screams above the squelching noises escaping the monsters mouths.

Panic was washing over me when I spotted Wormmon being carried by Hawkmon, held in a way a child would hold a pet cat. Wormmon certainly did not look comfortable, but he was being protected and that was what was important.

"Get _off_!" I heard Gatomon shriek. I risked a look back and saw her scratch at the face of one of the creatures, forcing him to release Armadillomon who looked very thankful toward Gatomon who proceeded to push him when he rolled into a ball, helping him move faster.

Everything was moving so quickly I could barely keep track of where my feet were landing, luckily the world we had found was pretty straight forward—or so it seemed anyway. I noticed Taichi struggling, but not willing to slow down, under the weight of Neo. His face was strained and he was running fast, pushing himself through the pain. I would have loved to help him, to take half of Neo to help him run faster but not only were we running different speeds—which was highly depressing as he was holding Neo _and_ running much quicker than I was—but I also didn't think we'd have time for him to pass me Neo's legs in order to keep running.

Yamato was shouting something behind me that I couldn't quite make out, and then Palmon had shouted, "Poison Ivy!" and there was a crash, causing many of us to look back in alarm. Palmon had tripped a series of the monsters and, looking triumphant, had started chasing after us again. It wasn't until I heard the loud banshee scream from the fuzzy monster that I realized something had gone wrong. There were tentacles wrapped around Palmon now and her face had adjusted to display her fear.

"Pepper Breath!"

With a burst of flame the tentacle released her. "Thanks!" she shouted in surprise.

"I got you!" Agumon responded.

And then there was another crash, this time it didn't sound so promising though. With one look back I saw that Melga, Gabumon and Yamato had been tripped by the same tentacle monster. Yamato pulled himself to his feet and grabbed Gabumon as Veemon and Terriermon helped Melga to his feet before anyone could get at him. This time looking back I saw Arnold too. He wasn't running, but was simply walking behind us all. He was too far back to be any real threat, but seeing him advancing in the light of this world was enough to send chills down my spine.

I exclaimed in shock as the hallway opened up very briefly as we ran over an elegant bridge. Below us there was a steady stream of crystal clear water running straight in both directions. The bridge was only a couple yards long and was over quickly.

Then a blast of some kind of shimmering green liquid shot past us all and I heard Patamon scream in shock. He thanked someone for catching him, so I knew he was okay—at least for now. I didn't know how much more pointless running we could do, but our digimon were weakened. What could we do? We couldn't just sit and fight again, we certainly hadn't won the first time we had tried.

Then again, we hadn't gone all out. If we brought as many megas to the fray as we could, then perhaps we could stand a chance. But with one look over to Taichi I could see he wasn't up for it. But he was also not going to be able to keep running for much longer.

A shriek next to my head proceeded a slamming to my side and I found myself smashed against the wall next to me, and I slammed my head against a series of thin white pipes that ran up the surface of the wall.

Tapirmon shot up quickly and slammed into the weird bat like creature that had struck me, nodding to me before setting off ahead to where I could see an intersection of the long hallway we had been running down.

I was running out of breath and I could feel sweat dampening my face and torso, and it seemed like I was stretching and pushing my limbs harder than they were willing to go. The energy was simply _pouring_ out of me now, and I ran with much effort, hoping that we might find some kind of barrier to keep the monsters out. It just wasn't in the cards to keep running for much longer.

I took a series of sharp breaths, trying to put out the fire that was growing in my chest that was slowly threatening to spread to the rest of my body that was already aching from the thought. I clamped my eyes shut tight and pushed harder, running faster, but it just seemed pointless.

The monsters behind us were running effortlessly, they were not tiring, and we could not keep this up as long as they could. Taichi and I at least were about to collapse. Damn. I was getting way too old for this stuff.

The next series of events happened very quickly as we reached the intersection. I looked back over my shoulder to see Sora and Yamato nodding to one another before turning to me in turn. I knew what they were about to do and was too exhausted to convince them not to or to decide if it were wise, and then it was too late because they had gone.

Sora had grabbed Daisuke's arm and turned sharply to left, and both Veemon and Biyomon were quick to join them, Veemon was still dragging Melga behind him and so he and Terriermon had joined the group by default.

Yamato took Spring which caught Kuayami's attention and she too followed him. Yamato had Patamon rested in the arm that was not clutching Spring, and Gabumon was at his heels running for dear life, and then that left the rest of us. They were safe now, which was good to know. But we weren't, and we had all of the monsters to deal with.

Only, as it seemed, the monsters found Sora and Yamato's plan intriguing and they all split up too, a large portion of the monsters faded before my eyes as they raced after our friends. When I looked ahead again as we continued to run straight, I tried to count how many I had seen. There could not have been more than five. But as I scanned the image my brain had saved I noted that we were missing digimon as well.

I looked back sharply, scanning the group and realized that I could not see Gomamon. Refusing to accept this I continued to count the digimon. I could see Labramon—and Dracomon—and Gatomon—but where was Gomamon?

Suddenly the world had flipped and I found myself flying toward the ground, tripping over my own two feet in my desperation to locate my missing partner. I heard something crack and I shouted in pain and fear at the sound of the approaching monsters.

"Jou!" Taichi shouted back, skidding to a halt. He looked back and hesitated for a moment at the sight of our dwindling numbers, but he seemed to take this as a good sign, or as motivation at the very least because he looked to Agumon who nodded.

" **Agumon digivolve to... Greymon!** "

When I had finally found enough strength to pull myself back together I turned and saw the massive Greymon standing guard, kicking sharply toward the monsters, sending each of them back in shock.

I took a look at our competition and smiled. We could win this time. The furry bat with the cat's face was floating, ready to bite Greymon's leg, the banshee screaming pompom was bouncing, ready to strike, there was a large panther-like creature, and a spiked rodent the size of a rhinoceros. The only monster that looked like it might give us too much trouble was the large winged triceratops with fur. The black and purple colouring of each of the creatures stood out sharply in contrast against the white walls. Even Greymon looked like he didn't belong, like he had been edited into some photo by someone who knew very little of what they were doing.

"Draco-comon!" Neo stammered, pulling out his digivice, "You too?"

"I'd love to," Dracomon said with a fervent excitement building up in his voice, " **Dracomon digivolve to... Coredramon!** " the large blue dinosaur digimon took his stance next to Greymon and I grinned. Coredramon's wings had to fold behind him because the room was not wide enough, and together he and Greymon, as they looked down to the monsters, looked ready.

"Nova Blast!"

"Blue Flare Breath!"

Both blasts of fire, blue and orange, shot down toward the creatures and I winced. I didn't want them to die. There was something about the death of these creatures that felt different than fighting a digimon. These creatures could not return from the dead after they died, and I was not going to allow them to perish just because some horrible man had control over them.

"What are these things anyway?" Taichi asked. I looked to see him standing guard of Neo who was on the floor again, clutching his side in pain.

"They're created by Arnold," Mari explained nervously, "They took Willis' information and crafted these monsters out of his data."

Taichi and I looked to each other sharply and nodded, "Diaboromon," we confirmed. That meant that these _were_ in fact digimon, at least in some aspect. But it was clear they did not possess the same attributes as normal digimon, they couldn't even talk, so how could we know if they would come back from the dead or not?

I jumped in surprise when Greymon came crashing down to the ground. I ran back, out of the way and toward Neo who clearly needed my assistance anyway. "Taichi," I said sharply, "if they have the basic outline of a digimon then they would have been sorted into forms. They may not all be in mega form right now, but that doesn't mean they're all weaker—and it certainly doesn't mean they can't get stronger if need be."

He looked nervous, but nodded, "Well we can get stronger too," he said flatly. He turned back to Greymon who was shakily pulling himself to his feet. "Greymon!" Taichi bellowed, "Go all the way."

"Are you sure?" Greymon asked gruffly.

"Positive."

" **Greymon digivolve to... MetalGreymon!** " " **MetalGreymon digivolve to... WarGreymon!** " " **WarGreymon digivolve to... VictoryGreymon!** "

The refined digimon took shape as the light around him faded, and he stood next to his larger companion, Coredramon. I looked down to Neo who didn't seem to be in the right shape to be digivolving his partner any further. It was true that a connection between partners could become physical, and I had, on more than one occasion, felt Gomamon's pain. I couldn't allow Neo to get too invested in this fight because he was already too badly injured. But it was nothing I couldn't fix. The bullet may have to stay put, but because of its placing, near his shoulder, it was possible that we could make it a clean surgery, and I knew that Neo would love things to go smoothly.

I reached into my bag and noticed that some of the contents had fallen out during our run, but there was still bandages and enough supplies to work with. I set to work on cleaning the wound, and then began disinfecting it, trying to keep my focus away from the battle while I was at work, but my eyes wandered up every so often to gauge how close the fight was.

Hawkmon was fighting with the bat who was snarling at him with its weird cat face, as though it were trying to feast on the nice little bird. Hawkmon looked like he could use some assistance, but he wasn't losing, that was for sure. Gatomon had the banshee ball on the ropes, keeping it back with her fists, but careful not to hurt it too badly. Whenever it got too close to Tapirmon though, she showed him a thing or two and swatted him harder, and once I'd seen her throw it against the wall. I was hoping for it to fall into unconsciousness, but it got back up, determined to keep fighting. Tapirmon, Warg and Labramon were working together to fend off the ferocious panther as it prowled as though on the hunt for some food.

VictoryGreymon had his fight with the winged triceratops under control with ease as he swung his massive three pronged sword around as though he were a kid at a batting range, playing for fun.

But Coredramon was struggling greatly against the large porcupine creature. I couldn't help but feel partially responsible. If Neo had more energy, Coredramon would win easily, but with Neo laying here the way he was, there might not be any chance in a win.

I put more focus down to Neo who was wincing in pain as I poured more of the disinfectant onto the wound. It looked horrible, but I had seen much worse. There wasn't much else I could do here with nothing else to work with, but I could at the very least cover it with bandages. We would be able to do more once we returned to the Coliseum, or to Earth, or to wherever it was that we would be heading after this. As for now, it was imperative that we keep Neo unharmed, which was suddenly a lot harder as the porcupine lunged forward quickly, knocking Coredramon off his feet, unprepared.

"Are you alright?" Mari questioned, moving to help him. He nodded and attempted to pull himself up, but found that he was not as prepared as he thought he might be. Mari pulled on him, wary about his state but he brushed her aside, ready to get back.

He wasn't though. He was lying and he was pushing through the pain, and I wished he wouldn't have to. He stomped his foot sharply and then breathed more of his blue fire toward all of the enemies. He was taking advantage of none of them paying him any attention and was trying to do too much. He winced but let the fire continue to pour from his mouth.

It seemed to be working, distracting the enemies, but soon they all set their sights on him at once. The smaller digimon did not find time to attack though because the porcupine had extended its quills and fired them all toward Coredramon at once.

He let out a deafening roar and collapsed to the ground, reverting to Dracomon. Mari was quick to pick him up from the ground but nervously glanced around until she realized that there was no one to take his place, and she reverted to staring toward the porcupine who was advancing upon her and Dracomon as his quills started growing quickly, sprouting from his back.

Suddenly the porcupine's jaw dropped and a metallic tongue shot toward Mari who had already jumped aside, unwilling to allow Dracomon to feel any more pain. The porcupine's tongue pierced through the ground and cracked the surface. It set its sights on Mari again, but this time Taichi was going to help out. He grabbed a large jagged white stone from the floor where the porcupine had cracked it and threw it as hard as he could toward its head.

I looked away, back to Neo and finished tying the bandages. "I can't do much else," I told him.

"I'm going to die," he whined, his voice was barely coherent through the pain.

"No," I assured him, "You're going to be fine, but I can't do anything until we get out of here." He seemed to find comfort in that at least.

"It feels like I'm going to die," Neo clarified.

"Not if I have anything to say about it," I promised, "Can you stand?"

"Gee, let's check," Neo shot sarcastically before pretending to attempt to stand, "Nope, better ask someone else, maybe try Taichi, he hasn't been shot today."

I rolled my eyes, "No need for that now," I said sharply, "A simple 'no' would have sufficed." When I looked away from him and back up to the fight I caught sight of Mari shoved Taichi out of the way of the porcupine's tongue. Gatomon slammed her fist back into the screaming puffball and it slammed directly into the panther creature so she and Labramon tag teamed the opponents.

"Lightning Claw!" Gatomon shouted loudly.

"Claw Attack!" Labramon joined her. Together, the two digimon rushed forward and began scratching away at the monsters that had been threatening them.

"Feather Strike!" Hawkmon shouted, spotting an opportunity. Warg shot up a "Pepper Breath" to the annoying bat creature that had been caught in a fray with Hawkmon and then the creature fell into a heaping pile with the two that Gatomon and Labramon had collected.

"Step back!" Tapirmon shouted, and the others did as he requested, "Nightmare Syndrome!" his voice was dark and ominous but I realized that he had many violent nightmares captured from his nights with Kiyoko, and from everyone in the Coliseum. The darkness rushed toward the three monsters and scratched and clawed at them, keeping them in place.

My eyes fell to the cracks in the floor and a plan rushed through my mind quickly, "VictoryGreymon!" I yelled, "The walls! Trap them!" I spotted Gatomon's eyes widening as she heard what I'd suggested and she began collecting the others. It meant that we couldn't go back to the others, but we would keep Neo safe, and if he wasn't able to move, that was the best option...

No. The best option was to take their lives, because then they would not go after our friends, but was that fair?

VictoryGreymon seemed to have made up his mind because he was preparing an attack. The three prongs of his sword separated and attached themselves to his arm and with one final swing toward the Porcupine monster, sending him rolling toward the triceratops, and then his arm was pointed at the wall and he shot.

There was a loud booming crack as the wall came crashing down, toppling onto the digimon—er—the monsters. Whatever they were.

"Hey!" Taichi shouted, jumping back as a piece of wall rolled his way, I noticed that Gatomon and the others were standing over by Mari now, and that Tapirmon's nightmares were floating about the skies. "I thought we agreed we wouldn't kill them!"

VictoryGreymon rounded on Taichi, "I thought you understood that I would do anything to keep you safe." Taichi faltered and looked toward the enemies once more.

"Besides," I added nervously, "They're not dead, are they?" But I couldn't convince myself it was true, they were all laying under the rubble, silent and still. They sure looked dead to me.

Then there was movement. We all looked to see as the bat-cat screeched loudly and flew swiftly toward Mari's face. Tapirmon was quick to protect her though, and his nightmares shot through the sky, engulfing the cat. The angry screeching turned to shrieks of pain and I winced, turning away as the nightmares devoured what was left.

Tapirmon quickly gathered his nightmares and captured them once more as the rest of us fell to silence.

"Why is this time any different?" Gatomon asked sharply, "They were trying to kill you, so we should take them out."

"Of course _you_ would think that way," Hawkmon replied, stepping out from behind her protection, "you always were barbaric, even when we became Silphymon."Gatomon snarled and Hawkmon shut up, realizing that getting into an argument right now wasn't opportune. But neither was wrong. These were not kind or good creatures, they had been created for destruction, and it was only fair that they be taken out because they would only ever cause more of it.

As I looked around I noticed that the others were coming to the same conclusion, all except Mari. "I don't think it's fair," she said flatly.

"I-I was just protecting you," Tapirmon said weakly.

"I know," she replied, "I'm not blaming you..." there was silence for a while, "I just don't think anyone should have to be murdered. No one is completely dark." Her eyes then flicked to Neo and worry slowly crept over her face. Taichi was quick to comfort her, but she turned to Dracomon and then Taichi nodded. Mari hurried to Neo and put his partner by his side. Dracomon, still weak and sad, curled up in Neo's arms. He didn't look to be too bothered by this either.

I looked to Hawkmon who was wandering over, sending anxious glances over to the fallen creatures, "Hawkmon," I said, "Where did Wormmon go?"

Hawkmon looked ashamed and he looked away, "I don't know," he admitted, "I dropped him and then lost track."

"I lost Armadillomon too," Gatomon said nervously, "You don't think they—?"

"Of course not," Labramon said flatly. "No, they wouldn't do that."

"They would," Gatomon disagreed, "That's what I'm worried about." I was worried too. Armadillomon and Wormmon weren't the only digimon we had lost track of. Palmon and Tentomon were among them as well, and Betamon too. What would Mimi say when I told her I had been too busy saving myself to save Palmon? What would Emiko say when I told her Gomamon was gone? But that wasn't fair. I wasn't giving them enough credit... there had to be a way for them to have survived...

"Well," Taichi said, "What I'm worried about, is how we're going to get out of here. We have to go find Yamato."

"Why not Sora?" I asked, thinking of Veemon and Biyomon and how much use they could be to our team.

"Because Yamato only has Kurayami with him, and we have her partner," Taichi explained, "VictoryGreymon, can you carry Neo and Dracomon?" His partner nodded stiffly. "Okay, so let's go."

 _ **Iori Hida:**_

I opened my eyes, expecting the brightness to have receded. It hadn't. The light hadn't just been residual magic. It was the walls, and the floors, and the ceiling. It simply _was_. There were no sources for the light. It wasn't as soft and natural as it had been in Sidhendor either. I wouldn't even say it was nicer than it had been in the Dark Ocean. Yes, the Ocean was bleak and dreary, but no matter how little light there was, it was natural. This light was blindingly bright. I squinted, trying to see passed it, trying to get a good look at the world we were now standing in.

There wasn't much to see.

There were pipes up the walls; there was detailed crown molding on the walls. There was a fountain in the centre of the room, causing a trickling sound to fill the air. The water was clear and pure. The ceiling looked like it was held up with thick columns that reached for the sky. The walls were impossibly tall, and the babbling of the water echoed loudly through the chamber we were standing in.

The room—the walls, floor, ceiling, fountain, piping, _everything_ —was a blank, white canvas. It felt sterile, too clean. It was unnerving. I still carried some of the sand of the Dark Ocean in my shoes and on my clothing. I felt rude sending the grains of sand to the floor with my every movement. I was making a mess, but the sight of the dirt helped ground me. This room, this place, didn't seem to fit into my view of reality. It was the third world I'd been in _that_ day, and it was my least favourite already.

"Is this it?" Mimi asked. She gasped and covered her mouth as her voice echoed around, sending many different repetitions of her words bouncing around the room. It was as though she was a one woman choir, with how many voices were being heard.

"It appears so," Winter said, looking unimpressed by the state of this world. She wasn't bothered by the walls repeating her words back to her. She simply strode forward and took Miyako's arm. Miyako was breathing heavily, and was holding her stomach. She looked exhausted, and the black cloak she was wearing—the one Hideto had given her—wasn't doing her any favours. It drained what little colour remained in her face. She was pale, and was swaying where she stood.

I kicked myself for not making her my first priority in this world. I followed after Winter quickly, taking Miyako's other arm and helping Winter bring her over to the fountain. Miyako sat on an ornate white bench, and heaved a sigh of relief when the weight was lifted off of her swollen ankles. She sat facing the fountain. The bench didn't have a back to it, so I allowed myself to sit next to her, but I remained facing the others.

Bengoshi was still holding Lopmon in his arms. They were looking at each other awkwardly, neither wanting to make a big scene that might hurt the other's feelings, but it was clear they both wanted Lopmon to move. I met Bengoshi's eyes, and raised my eyebrow at him, looking to the ground meaningfully. He slowly bent down and placed Lopmon on her feet. She looked pleased, but didn't say a word. She walked over to Miyako's other side, and hopped onto the bench too.

Mimi was on the ground, tears still fresh on her cheeks. She was very upset with Hideto, though I wasn't there to see why she was. From what I gathered, she felt like she was evil for doing something, but I'd been a gold statue at the time. Hideto didn't seem to blame her, so I didn't plan on worrying about it. I wasn't going to hold a grudge against Michael, so it made sense that Hideto wouldn't blame _Mimi_. He was actually really close with her. And it probably hadn't been her fault, just like it wasn't Michael's fault that I'd been turned into a statue.

It would be nice to have someone to blame, and focus my anger, but the people of Sidhendor all had excuses—with the exception of Morganna. Winter had her trapped in a jar though. She'd left her behind, and I hoped that Morganna couldn't find a way to escape and make that world a living hell again during Winter's absence. I wasn't particularly keen on a return visit anytime soon. I'd go, if it needed saving, I just wouldn't _like_ it.

I just wished this world was more comfortable than either of the other worlds I'd been in today.

Hideto was standing with his axe propped up on his shoulder. I couldn't understand why he still had it with him, but I supposed he'd gotten rather attached during his two month stay. It wasn't gold anymore either, so it was virtually useless. I shuddered, thinking about what it had been like, watching the gold spread up my legs and slowly cover my body was one of the scariest things I'd lived through—right after watching Noriko get shot, and thinking I wouldn't get to Hikari in time to save her. I was also afraid when I'd gotten stabbed in her place and thought I was going to die, but I was more at peace with that thought than the idea of losing Hikari or Noriko. Of course I'd lost Noriko in the end anyway.

I gritted my teeth and forced my attention back to Hideto. He was standing at the ready, his axe on his shoulder. His eyes were shifting constantly between the two doors of the room. He was still prepared for battle. I wondered if whatever had happened to him took him out of the fight as it had me. I remembered being turned to gold, and I remembered gargoyles and guards and magic, the adrenaline was running through my veins, and then I woke up. The adrenaline was still there, but there was nothing left to fight. I was still pumped up for a battle, like Hideto was.

The three Armadillomon were positioned around him. One was next to Mimi. She dragged him into her lap and she cried gently over him. He nuzzled her. The other two Armadillomon were focusing on the doors. One was guarding each. We would have enough warning if it turned out to be dangerous here. I kind of wished that it _would_ be. I didn't want Miyako to be in anymore danger, not after the fight she'd just been through. She was one of the only ones that made it to the end. She didn't need any more excitement. But I was anxious to be doing something. I couldn't just sit here.

This world felt so empty, so barren. The water was a nice touch, but there was no colour, no warmth. The temperature was average, but the world didn't feel alive to me, not really. It felt like it was either just getting started, or it was on its last legs of life, barely holding on anymore.

Tatum held on to Michael's hand and led him over to the fountain. She sat on the fountain's ledge, and dipped her free hand into the water, splashing him with some, causing him to smile. Her eyes crinkled at his happiness, and I remembered that he'd been worried not even two hours ago, about not being able to touch anyone ever again. Tatum was radiant as she celebrated the idea of no longer being a beast. Michael sat down next to her and splashed her back.

Lopmon decided to join the fun, and hopped off the bench and into the water, where she started to swim around. Miyako tensed at the sight of it, and my mind raced as I tried to find the source of her fear. One glance at Bengoshi was all I needed.

"It's not the same," I assured her, drawing everyone's attention as my voice echoed despite my whisper. "This water is clean. It won't hurt."

"He's right," Winter said. She was standing beside me, arms crossed as she stared into the water. I had a distinct feeling that she wasn't seeing the water though. She often got that look on her face, and whenever she pulled out of the trance, she had new intelligence, a new mission for me. I often contemplated what it was she was seeing, but had made the wise decision of never asking.

Miyako relaxed, and started rolling her ankles. I sighed and got to my feet, moving to the fountain's ledge directly in front of her. I pulled her left foot into my lap, removing her ballet flat and setting it onto the floor. Her face flushed immediately. "You don't have to do that," she assured me quickly.

"I know," I told her. "I'm going to do it anyway. You might as well enjoy it."

"Thanks," she whispered. "They really hurt."

"You've had a _long_ day," I reminded her. "We went from the Dark Ocean, and the excitement of mine and Bengoshi's fight, to a new world, where everything was in discord. You got kidnapped, had to climb down a tower with only some golden thread, and then Morganna and everything. It's okay to be tired."

"You're not," she pointed out, still embarrassed by the attention.

"I'm not six months pregnant," I told her, rolling my eyes. "It makes sense that you'd be exhausted. You've done more today than you have the last two months."

"That makes me sound lazy and inactive," she pouted. I chose to ignore her. I didn't like the feeling of having our entire conversation echoed to every corner of the room. Lopmon was splashing in the fountain, but that did little to cover up our words.

"You've had enough excitement, I think," Winter said, agreeing with me. "There's been enough excitement for _me_ , so I can't imagine how you're faring so well. I wish to get home and relax, but I know that won't be an option."

"You've got a kingdom to run," Michael said with a grin. He was very happy that he didn't need to be king of a world that he didn't call home. Tatum was happy too, smiling and peeking at him out the corner of her eye. He saw it though, and splashed her again. She jumped to her feet, hastily trying to escape the excessive amount of water he threw her way, but she wasn't fast enough. She started laughing brightly even though she was now at least partially soaked.

"Do we have any plans for what happens next?" Hideto asked, still eyeing the doors, waiting for something to jump out at him.

"Obviously we're going to find Winter's sisters," I pointed out, rolling my eyes. "If they were trying to break through the barrier, then they obviously had good reason to do it. We need to find them. Maybe they'll have news on our friends' wellbeing."

"Don't tease me," Mimi pleaded. "Please tell me you _really_ think others will be here."

"I don't _know_ ," I said, unwilling to lie to her. She was fragile enough as it was, and I didn't want her to get her hopes up for no reason. "But I _do_ know that Summer doesn't spend her free time trying to track down new worlds for no reason. She's got other things to keep her mind occupied."

"Ha!" Winter laughed once, turning her head away. I couldn't keep the smile from my face. Summer spent a _lot_ of time talking about a certain someone that she had yet to introduce me to. She didn't want me to meet him if there wasn't going to be a thing between them. But she _did_ like to talk about him, in a way she probably thought was discrete.

Winter's shoulders grew tense, and she turned sharply towards one of the walls. Her eyes were unfocused again. She uncrossed her arms, and stepped towards the nearest door. "Something's not right. There's something out there. Something is coming, and it's not friendly. You have battled enough for today. I will handle it. You stay here where it is safe."

"Wait," Michael protested. "You shouldn't go alone. Not if it's dangerous."

"I can come with you," I offered, still massaging Miyako's feet. Miyako tensed up at the thought though, and Winter and I both knew it was a lost cause. Miyako wouldn't let me leave her now that I'd spent some time as a statue. Winter nodded her thanks for my offer, and slipped out the door before anyone else got the chance to take my offered place. Michael had his mouth open to do it, but she was gone before the words got out.

"Well, that was helpful," Hideto said sarcastically. "Now we're here without our guide in a world that's apparently dangerous with no real concept of the dangers we're supposedly in."

"I do wish we'd had time to get our friends," the girl Armadillomon murmured. Her friends muttered their agreement, and I remembered the collection of Armadillomon we'd left in a field when Bengoshi had decided to run off on us without any logical explanation. He was the reason that Miyako had gotten kidnapped—though I figured she wouldn't appreciate it if I brought it up. Bengoshi was squirming though, adjusting what remained of the tie around his neck. He'd long since lost his suit jacket, and his dress shirt was in ruins. I wished I could say I looked better, but I knew I didn't. I had dried blood all over my face, and a broken nose, and a split lip, and a gash above my eye that was hopefully healing. I had a beard and a mustache that had grown wildly, without any form of personal grooming available to me. I looked at Michael and Hideto's clean shaven faces jealously. My face itched, and I didn't really need the fur coat that it created. I was sweating already from the fight we'd been in. I didn't need to hold that excess heat inside.

"Give me your other foot," I told Miyako as quietly as I could. She complied, having gotten over her embarrassment in favour of loosening her muscles.

"I wish we could have gotten them too," Miyako commented to the Armadillomon. "At the very least we should have probably told them where we were going. I left them guarding that egg too."

"It was a fossil," one of the Armadillomon commented sadly.

"I know," Miyako sighed. "But maybe with the right amount of love and devotion, it could brighten up again. It might've just spent too long in the Dark Ocean."

"You guys were in the Dark Ocean?" Mimi gasped, horrified. I looked to her confused, but realized we'd only really run into her when we were in the middle of a battle. She really didn't know anything that had been going on with us for the last two months.

"Yep," I said plainly. It wasn't that big of a deal. So what if I was a little angrier all the time? Miyako was okay—mostly. Her baby hadn't moved yet, but it _would_ , and yeah, she was growing more scared all the time. Bengoshi was getting sadder too. We were all affected differently, but it wasn't something we couldn't work through. I'd basically always been this way anyway. I thought I got off lightly compared to the others.

"That sucks," Lopmon offered, spitting water into the air as she swapped from breast stroke to a butterfly stroke. With her tiny legs and arms this particular option wasn't working out all that well for her.

"It really did," Bengoshi said sadly, hunkering down to the ground and pulling his knees up to his chin. He wrapped his arms around his legs and rested his chin on his knees. He looked miserable, and I almost felt sorry for him, before I remembered that he punched me in the nose just this morning, leaving it broken for the second time in the past two months. My stomach was also still aching from his elbows and knees. I knew that it wasn't _him_ that did it, but it was him that drank the water that led to it. And he'd cowered in the corner while we were fighting for not only our lives but also the freedom of that world. I realized not everyone could be a fighter, but he could have tried something at the very least, or he could have just stayed in the field with the Armadillomon like Winter had ordered in the first place.

My anger wasn't always entirely rational.

I tried very hard to find the good in the situation while I rubbed Miyako's feet, but I kept coming up blank. We were in a world that looked empty, but obviously wasn't. We were tired and miserable, and at least two of us were looking for a fight. I'd been beaten today and turned into a statue, and I didn't know what all anyone else had gone through, but Michael had been in an eternal sleep not long ago, and Tatum was a furry beast. I wasn't having a good day, and now my hands smelt like sweaty feet. I longed to be back in the Dark Ocean, beating up shadows, just to have something to do.

Obviously, I would have preferred Earth—or the Digital World if it turned out to have survived the virus' attack. But I could _really_ use a shadow to beat up right about then.

"Do you guys smell that?" Lopmon asked, pulling herself out of the water and onto the fountain's edge. Obviously none of us did. We didn't have noses as finely tuned as hers. "I know that smell. I'd know it anywhere. I shared an _egg_ with that smell."

"Terriermon?" Mimi guessed, even though it was completely obvious. I tried to rein in my anger, and focus on the calm person I wanted to be. It wasn't working though. I was very much annoyed by Mimi's response. I was so annoyed, that it didn't even occur to me what it was that she was saying.

"Terriermon is here?" Miyako asked excitedly.

The words slammed into my consciousness. If Terriermon was here—and we could probably count on Lopmon to know if that was true—then there had to be others as well. A cautious well of excitement bubbled in the pit of my stomach. I was still rubbing Miyako's feet, but the knowledge that Armadillomon could be out there outshone the distaste for the smell. The Armadillomon from the Dark Ocean were alright, they were nice enough, but they weren't _my_ partner. I wanted to see him, to talk with him. I was so tired of the other Armadillomon. I'd catch sight of one of them out of the corner of my eye and think for a second that my partner, my best friend in all the worlds, was there, and I'd even open my mouth, ready to greet him. But it would never be him.

Now though, it _could_ be.

"I'm gonna find him," Lopmon told us, jumping off the fountain ledge onto the white floor, leaving a large puddle of water at her feet. She shook quickly, splattering everyone with water. Several drops splashed the side of my face, causing my eye to twitch. I took a deep breath. Being annoyed wasn't worth fighting about. I needed to find my calm and happy place.

If Armadillomon really was out there with Terriermon, then I didn't want him to see me drowning in all of this excess anger. I wanted to at least pretend I was the same Iori I was when he last saw me.

"Not alone you're not," Tatum told Lopmon, slipping her hand from Michael's as she got to her feet. "I'll come too. You heard Winter. She said there was something unpleasant out there. It's not just Terriermon."

"But if Terriermon's out there right now _with_ that dangerous something, then he's going to need my help," Lopmon insisted.

"Then let's hurry up. Lead the way," Tatum said with a grin. "Follow your nose." Mimi got to her feet too, and walked over to them.

"Don't you mean the yellow brick road?" Mimi wondered with a soft smile.

"No," Tatum said, shaking her head happily. "We're not stuck in a story anymore. We're free to follow whatever white hallway this place has available for us."

"Less talking, more walking," Lopmon complained, already halfway out the second doorway. The girls laughed and hastened to catch up. Miyako was tense, not wanting them to leave, and Hideto and Michael were looking after them anxiously. I wondered just how much trouble any of them got into when they left the relative safety of their group in Sidhendor—they looked very worried.

"Don't you want some more help?" Michael asked, before they disappeared completely. Hideto swung his axe to show how menacing he could look with it. Maybe he was hoping to scare whatever danger was out there into submission.

"We'll be fine," Tatum said, shaking her head. "We're gonna get him and bring him right back. No sweat." I couldn't help the dread that caused my stomach to sink. Those sounded like famous last words if ever there were any. But it was too late to do much about it. The three girls were gone. I dropped Miyako's foot, and she put her shoes back on absentmindedly, not paying attention to anything because she was too full of worry. I looked down at my reflection in the water, and didn't like the mess I saw looking back at me. I stuck my hands in the water, swishing them around, trying to get rid of the smell—while also not letting Miyako know that her feet smelled, so she wouldn't be embarrassed further.

A loud noise echoed down the hallway, through the door Winter had left through. I was on my feet in seconds, rushing towards it. Michael was hot on my heels. We stopped in the doorway, looking down into the endless white hall, trying to find whatever it was that made the noise.

"I don't see anything," I told Miyako, who I knew was desperate for news.

"Hideto, you stay with Miyako," Michael said. "Iori and I can check it out. You keep the axe and the Armadillomon with you. Miyako needs the protection more than us."

"You can't just turn things into gold if they attack you anymore," Hideto reminded him. I flinched, and Michael winced, sending me an apologetic look, even though it had never been his fault. Clearly he'd gotten the play by play of the battle from Tatum or someone, if he knew what he'd done to me.

"Don't go," Miyako pleaded.

"We'll be fine," I promised. "We'll come back. We need to make sure Sidhendor still has a Queen. We don't want to have to fight for their freedom _again_."

"I'm really not ready to be king," Michael agreed. Winter was his aunt too, so I'm sure that helped motivate him. I'd be lying if I said the fact that she was Summer's sister didn't urge me forward—and the fact that we'd formed a very particular bond over the last two months that I was in no hurry to end. She was annoying as all get out, but that was part of her charm. We were both far too stubborn to let each other win. And I wasn't letting some mysterious issue take her out of the equation.

The noise came again, echoing off the walls louder this time. I sounded like someone _hitting_ something else. Not quite knocking, because it was too loud, but I thought maybe Winter was using her magic to slam into something else. Michael and I exchanged looks and headed down the hallway without another word. I heard Miyako crying out for us to come back, but I needed to make sure Winter was safe first. I felt horrid for making Miyako cry though.

We raced through the hall, not bothering to take in our surroundings. There wasn't much to look at. Everything, regardless of shape, texture or size was white. I couldn't focus on the tiny details when Winter was in trouble. We ran faster, when the sound waves legitimately slammed into us. We saw the wall in front of us ripple, and raced to it, passing a doorway that led to another room in the process. I got to the door first, and started slamming my fist into it.

The sound waves stopped, and Winter's voice took over. "The maze is alive!" she shouted to us. "It moves on its own."

"That's awesome," Michael grinned. "It reminds me of a maze I read about once that—"

"No offense, but I don't care right now," I told him blandly. "We've got more pressing matters at hand."

He nodded. "I'll tell you about it later then."

"Can you get back through?" I yelled through the wall to Winter.

"If I _could_ , would I be trying to blast it down?" Winter asked dryly.

"Right," I said, mentally slapping myself. "What do you want us to do? Can we find you?"

"Do you have Miyako with you?" she asked, concerned. When I told her that it was just Michael and I, she seemed to grow worried. "Go back now. You need to get there before the walls move. Don't let yourselves be separated. There's strength in numbers."

"What about you?" Michael demanded.

"I'll be fine," Winter assured him. "It's _Miyako_ I'm worried about. Go stay with her."

We told her that we would, in fact, go back, but when we turned to do so, we discovered that a wall was sliding out of the hallway, effectively blocking off our path. I groaned, and Michael sighed. We'd need to find a different way. We headed back down the hallway to the doorway and slipped into the room. It was round, rather than rectangular like the other room had been, and there was a grand fireplace in the one wall—there was just no wood or fire inside it. The room held a ring of columns and within the ring, the ground was raised higher. There were two other doors, aside from the one we were standing in. directly across from us, there was a large purple and black creature. It didn't look like it had seen us, but I moved towards the wall anyway, just in case. There was piping on this wall too, and I was going to need it if this thing proved to be unfriendly.

The creature sniffed the air, and then its eyes narrowed in on me. I was confused for a second, but realized the difference pretty quickly. I was covered in blood. Michael was not. The creature had the head and size of a shark—with teeth in rows, just as a shark's were. The body however confused me. It looked to be an oversized frog. It didn't matter what it looked like really, all that mattered was that it could smell the blood on me, and it looked very hungry.

It hopped forward, coming a great distance closer with just one bound. I grabbed the pipe immediately, and started tugging it from the wall. The floor vibrated with the shark-frog's landing with each subsequent hop it took in our direction. The pipe didn't want to give. I grabbed it with both hands and put my feet on the wall, pushing with my legs and pulling with my arms.

The pipe came loose, and I fell to the ground.

The shark-frog hopped closer again. I could feel it's hot breath now, and I got to my feet, swinging the pipe as hard as I could, slamming it into the creature's nose. It was shocked, and confused. I was glad it had a shark's instincts. It would be dazed for a minute or two.

"What the nuts was that?" Michael asked frantically, eyeing the shark-frog. I shrugged. I honestly didn't know. I didn't care either. We could figure out what it was _after_ we'd escaped from it.

"Come on," I ordered to Michael. He was still shocked, and I had to reach over and grab him. "The shark-frog came from that door," I said, nodding towards it. "So we should go through the other one." It was the only option that made sense. If we went back the way we came, we'd be trapped in a small section of corridor. At least this way we stood a chance.

Michael glanced at the creature again and decided I was right. I led the way, pipe gripped firmly in both hands as we raced through the hall. I was planning on running until we found a way back to Miyako and the others. I hoped the girls were faring much better than we were.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Kari and Mimi are definitely the most Innocent of their group, so what happens when they enter a world that is such a pure, blank canvas?


	42. Innocent

**Y/N:** Mimi and Tatum and Lopmon were being ridiculous last time, huh? I thought so, but now we'll get a chance to see what they're up to, anyway. I hope you like it.

 **U/N:** Kari's first chapter of the arc. Kari's story has been soooo slow but seriously we had the plan from day one (like way back in 03) but she's finally getting to her point, and Cody finally gets to make some sense of his own random abilities that he's picked up as a result of Kari. This chapter is only a bit of Kari's resolutions but in the next part of the trilogy we finally address all of Kari's weird abilities as well as Cody's. So that's pretty cool.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 42: Innocent**

 _ **Mimi Tachikawa:**_

"Come on!" Lopmon exclaimed, rushing ahead of us. Tatum and I hurried to keep up. Excitement was bubbling within me. I couldn't believe that we were going to find Terriermon. It had been so long since we'd seen our friends. We'd reunited with Miyako and Iori earlier today, and I'd thought that would be it for a long time. I was afraid that they would be all period. But that wasn't true! Terriermon was here, and if he was here, then someone else was bound to be here with him. He'd been in the Coliseum when the virus had struck. Hadn't he?

I tried to keep myself from theorizing who could have come with him. I didn't like reminding myself just how many of us weren't in the Coliseum, how many of us weren't safe when the virus hit. We were lucky I'd been given a key. If I hadn't lost track of Kiyoko and Willis, then Hideto, Tatum, Michael and Lopmon would be gone now. I liked to think that destiny kept my friends alive, but I had to lose Palmon in the process, along with Willis and Kiyoko. I could only hope that they would be here somewhere too. Destiny was tricky, but would it really eliminate _Willis_ from the equation when it was his crest?

I sincerely hoped not.

"Slow down, Lopmon," Tatum called, looking a little worn down. Her dress was hanging off of her, the seams ripped, the cloth stretched past its limit. She'd been a beast not long ago, and after shrinking down to her normal size, her clothes were too big, and she was barefoot. Her hair was a mess, no longer tied into her proper braids. The braids were coming undone, and large chunks of her hair were loose, frizzy and standing on end.

Self-consciously I fingered my hair, double checking that the damage Morganna had created was truly gone. I shuddered at the memory of the hissing snakes that had called my scalp home. It was one of the most horrifying things that had ever happened to me.

"I can't!" Lopmon said happily. "Terriermon is out there."

"He's not the only one," I cautioned. Winter had gone to protect the rest of us from _something_. I didn't like the idea of Terriermon being out there—with or without any others—without knowing there was danger. He needed the warning. It was the only reason that I hadn't tackled Lopmon to the ground and made her stay in the room with the fountain.

She would have hated me, but she would have been safe.

Now the three of us were practically sitting ducks, as we raced through the long white hallway, following Lopmon's nose. The hallway wasn't _boring_ exactly. It could use a good splash of colour, or even just a couple paintings on the wall to break up the monotony that the solitary colour scheme was providing. There were definitely enough _textures_ to make it interesting. If we weren't running through the hall, I might've taken time to really take in the intricate detailing carved into the plaster walls. There were leaves of every kind carved with thin lines in large rectangular panels with only a foot of plain plaster wall between them. They stopped a foot above the molding that met with the floor, so they were _kind of_ like paintings, but didn't have enough punch to really stand out.

The floor was a shining marble, unlike the one in by the fountain. The floor there had been a mosaic of white tiles branching out in a circular pattern out from the fountain itself, drawing the eye to the focal point of the room. The tiles definitely provided more traction for my cloth and leather heels than the marble did. I had very much admired my shoes, until I'd realized just how much running I would need to do in them. The wolf had been bad enough, but after the battle in the castle courtyard, the tiny stitched red and yellow roses, framed with greenery were torn. I would need Sora to fix them, if I ever got back to Earth. They were fancy, and pretty, and _not_ good for my current purposes.

It occurred to me, only as I was running along that marble floor, that we'd all left our original clothing and shoes back in Sidhendor. It wouldn't be _so_ bad to go back, now that Winter was the queen of the land, but it wasn't exactly at the top of my to-do list.

We totally had a perfect vacation house now, for whenever I was reunited with my friends and family, though.

"That's strange," Lopmon sighed. "There's a wall there. I could'a sworn there wasn't one there before."

"You must be seeing things," I suggested, though I didn't believe it. I hadn't seen this wall before either. I'd been a little distracted by the carvings on the walls, but I was _sure_ this hallway was longer. We were at a stop now, and I took the time to look back behind us, wondering if we'd simply traveled a longer distance than I'd expected. "That wall wasn't there either," I said, my voice growing high in my shock and confusion. "Where did it come from?"

"How are we going to get back?" Tatum wanted to know. She was worried. I was too. We'd left Hideto, Michael, Iori, Miyako, Bengoshi and the three Armadillomon back there. They would be waiting for us, but we couldn't get back through. There was a wall blocking our way. What if the danger got to them before we could get back to help them? I didn't like the idea of being separated permanently.

"How are we going to get _anywhere_?" Lopmon asked. She was right. The hall was blocked off entirely. We were in a small section of it, and we were trapped. I was freaking out. I was sure I'd start hyperventilating soon, but then one of the carved panels cracked down the middle, and the two sides sank into the walls, creating a door. Tatum and I exchanged glances, but Lopmon dived through the new opening as though it was going to close up any second.

Realizing that could be the case, Tatum and I jumped through the door as well. It didn't close behind us, but it _could_ have, and that was all that mattered.

"I can't smell him," Lopmon said, worried.

"We'll find him," Tatum assured her. I couldn't do it. I wasn't confident at all.

This place was harder to understand than I'd originally anticipated. We were now in a room, rather than a hall. It was a square room and symmetric to the extreme. Each of the four walls had a door in the exact centre. A path of pure white cobblestones led from each door to the one across from it, creating a plus sign on the floor, and four smaller squares of carpeted floor. The carpet was long and shaggy, and for a moment I wondered if it was just grass. I bent down and ran my fingers through it, and found myself disappointed. It was just a silky carpet. In the middle of each carpeted square, was a tall column that reached to the sky. The walls were covered in the same intricate detailing as the hallway had been, but it was spread all over like wallpaper. It wasn't the nicest looking room, but it gave us three paths to choose from.

"Which way do we go?" I wondered aloud.

"I'll have to get a good whiff," Lopmon decided, heading towards one of the other doors. She didn't get very close though, before she turned around and ran back towards us. Her eyes were wide and panicked. She spit her Blazing Ice, down a different doorway, and ran over to grab Tatum's hand. Tatum grabbed me as Lopmon pulled her behind a column. Our backs slammed into it and I looked at Lopmon, ready to ask what the problem was. Lopmon held up a finger in front of her mouth, warning us to be quiet. I couldn't understand why.

And then the echoing footsteps happened.

The floor rattled with the weight of whatever was coming our way. My heart hammered in my chest. I was afraid of whatever was coming. And I wasn't running. It was so hard to force myself to stay put. I'd been running from the wolf daily for months, and now here I was waiting for an unknown foe to come towards me, without screaming my head off. My knees started shaking, and I was terrified that their rattling would echo and give away our position. Tatum was scared too. Her eyes were closed and she was focussed on her breathing. She had to clench her hands into fists to keep her fingers from trembling. Lopmon perked her ears up, listening for the foe's approach—despite the echoing it was causing.

A low grunting came from the doorway. Whatever it was, it was close. There was a very slim chance that it wasn't going to catch us. It snorted, and I could hear its heavy feet slamming into the ground. It sounded like it was dragging something too—but I couldn't imagine what.

I pressed myself further back against the column. I was having difficulty breathing quietly. And my shoes had heels. Yep. I'd be making noise with every step I took. I rolled onto my toes, prepared to tiptoe my way out of this place. Tatum grabbed my hand, shaking her head, wanting me to stop moving. I winced, and did my best.

Lopmon tugged on our skirts, pulling us between the pillar and the wall. The thing was moving passed the column and would be able to see us soon. I let Lopmon take the lead on this one. But once we were around the pillar, I was able to take a look at what we were hiding from. It was a furry gorilla, with the feet and horns of a moose. It was dragging its long arms along the ground, and grunting as it tried to find something—maybe us, maybe one of our friends. I didn't know, and it worried me.

It didn't find whatever it was though, and continued moving until it followed down the hallway that Lopmon had sent her Blazing Ice down. I really hoped none of our friends were down that particular path. I didn't want to have been a part of the reason it found them.

We waited a few minutes, not wanting to risk the doors disappearing, but not wanting to catch the attention of the gorilla-moose either. Eventually, Tatum opened her eyes, and my knees stopped shaking too badly. Lopmon crawled over to the doorway the gorilla-moose had entered the room with, and sniffed the air, shaking her head. That left just one door that didn't contain a purple and black crossbreed animal.

And we had to take it.

The walls were shaking, and the doors were shifting. We didn't have time to question our decisions anymore. We raced through it, jumping unnecessarily in our panic. We'd have made it just as well if we'd just walked. But it was an intense moment, and we couldn't help but add a dramatic flair. We'd been living through fairy tales for the last couple of months. It was instinct by now.

"I think I can smell him," Lopmon offered, though she sounded far from sure. The hallway was longer than the first, and I thought I could make out a few doorways that branched off of it. My heart was in my throat when we advanced. I was afraid that another creature would jump out at us, and we'd be caught off guard.

Tatum kept her hands curled into fists, waiting for something to dare attack us. I was too worried to remind her she wasn't a kick-butt beast anymore. She was just a weaponless—yet still pretty kick-butt—person. We didn't know how many creatures were out there. We didn't know how _strong_ they were, or if they had any weaknesses. The only thing _I_ knew about them, was that they were alive. I'd heard the gorilla-moose's heavy breathing; I saw the rise and fall of its shoulders and the shifting of its eyes. It wasn't like the gargoyles that were just animated stone. It wasn't like the shadows that we'd faced time and time again, that were already dead spirits that would take their anger about their afterlife out on the living. These weren't even digimon—who under the right circumstances could be reborn as though nothing had ever happened. I didn't know what they were, but I wasn't about to fight one unless I absolutely had to.

For all I knew, these things just _looked_ scary, and were actually just seeking out friendships.

We had no proof that the gorilla-moose wanted to hurt us. We'd just hid because Lopmon told us to. We couldn't always judge the book by the cover. We were probably pretty safe in this world. But Winter's parting words, about going to find a disturbance, kept me from fully believing my delusions.

"We should hurry up, don't you think?" Tatum suggested. I flinched at the echoing sounds. If there were any dangerous monsters out there, they would definitely have heard that. I was being paranoid, but I couldn't help it. I nodded, letting Tatum know I agreed with her plan, and Lopmon started us off at a faster pace.

I was at the back of the group. Lopmon was naturally much faster than us, and now that she wasn't falling asleep anytime she started running, she was doing pretty well. Tatum was barefoot and with the marble floor, that was definitely an advantage. My heels were sliding around and sending a loud clicking noise echoing down the halls. I would've stopped to take them off, if I wasn't worried about falling behind and becoming separated. The heels weren't usually so hard to run in—but I supposed there was more traction on the forest floor than on a flat, glassy surface. They weren't even that tall—just a single inch. I was seriously in awe of Mari. She'd worn much higher heels during much more stressful situations—like the fight against Yggdrasil.

Lopmon stopped suddenly and veered to the right. I fell to the floor as my feet slid out from under me. Tatum stopped and grabbed my arm, literally yanking me to my feet before we could lose sight of Lopmon. We didn't. She was stopped too, sniffing the air and perking her ears. She heard something. And when we caught up to her, I could sort of feel what it was. There was a sporadic set of vibrations, and when Lopmon tentatively raced forward again, we started to hear voices.

The loudest one was very familiar to me, and drowned out the others.

But there was a screeching that overpowered even that voice.

We started running towards it. It was Taichi, and he was in trouble. Lopmon wasted no time digivolving. I thought for a second, that Willis had to be with them. But he didn't have to be. Lopmon was able to access her crest without Willis. Miracles weren't a trait that could be shown.

" **Lopmon digivolve to… Turuiemon!** "

" **Turuiemon digivolve to… Antylamon!** "

We didn't know what we were going to be facing when we got around the corner. Antylamon leaped over top of something, and by the time I skidded around the corner, I slammed into something warm and alive. Arms wrapped around me and I started screaming loudly. Mari was screaming into my face too, and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realize there was nothing to be afraid of. I'd just run into Mari.

"Mari!" I shouted, realizing what that meant. "You're okay!"

"Mimi?" Mari asked, sounding shocked. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same," I pointed out.

"Let's not, and say you did," Tatum suggested. Mari looked from me to her, and almost smiled. She might've been more likely to show enthusiasm if it weren't for the battle that was going on behind them. Taichi and Jou were holding Neo between them as they followed after Mari. Hawkmon flew above them, back to me, facing the battle. Tapirmon was next to Mari, and I reached out and patted his head, relishing in the feeling. He was alive. I was petting a _digimon_. They weren't all destroyed by the virus like I'd secretly been worried about. I'd kept it out of my mind as long as I possibly could, but I had weak moments. I hadn't thought I'd see a digimon other than Lopmon for the rest of my life some days. But here was Tapirmon, within arms distance. I almost cried. I would have too, if it weren't such a serious moment. I would have time to cry later.

And I most assuredly _would_.

Dracomon was on the ground, with Labramon standing over him. Gatomon was between them and the fight, with Warg at her side. They were protecting them while Labramon did something to Dracomon. "Cure Liquor!" he announced, before licking the side of Dracomon's face. Dracomon squeezed his eyes shut, and slowly his injuries started to melt away. He brightened and got to his feet as though he'd never been injured at all.

A large fluffy ball with a beak was advancing on Gatomon and Warg, and Gatomon swatted at it. It was like watching her play with a giant ball of yarn—only this was potentially dangerous. It was adorable though, and I didn't like watching my friends attack it.

Behind them, Antylamon had joined VictoryGreymon in his quest to hold off three separate monsters. One was a giant porcupine that seemed to be attacking them with a metal tongue, the second was a panther, and the other was a triceratops with wings. The dinosaur looked to be the stronger of the three. VictoryGreymon continued to battle that while Antylamon took over the fight with the cyborg porcupine. Unfortunately, that left the panther to pick and choose what battle to participate in.

"Mimi?" Jou called in a strangled voice. I wanted to run to him and to throw myself at him. I'd missed him so much. He was my best friend and I didn't know if I'd get the chance to see him again. I wanted to hug Taichi too, and I even wanted to hug Neo, even if he was as prickly as that porcupine. I wanted to hug all of them. But it wasn't the time.

I would've hugged Jou anyway, but he was propping up Neo, and when I started to move towards them, I realized his shirt wasn't red, it was just soaked in blood. I didn't want to be an inconvenience. I didn't want to risk causing Neo more damage.

"Jou," I said, and my voice broke with how much emotion I was feeling.

"Palmon's here," Taichi told me, and I almost broke my promise to wait before I cried. I threw my hand over my mouth and tried to force the tears back. I looked around for my partner, but I couldn't see her. I'd been so worried about her. I was afraid I'd left her for dead, and I couldn't live with the idea that I'd been the cause of Palmon—sweet, adorable, loving Palmon's—death. I looked around again, desperately trying to see where she was hiding. "She's not _here_ , here," Taichi corrected. "I don't know which way she went actually, I was carrying Neo…."

"She could be with Gomamon," Jou said hopeful. I gasped and he smiled a worried smile. "Yeah. He's okay—or he _was_ the last time I saw him. He was on Earth the entire time. I'd never been so relieved to see him."

"I bet," I told him, because I could actually imagine seeing my partner again, now that I knew she wasn't gone forever. I could understand what he'd been feeling. He and Gomamon had been separated longer, but I didn't think time mattered in this case. It was just such a relief to know they were both okay.

"Where's Terriermon?" Tatum asked. "Lopmon was leading us to him."

"He's with Sora maybe," Mari guessed. "I don't know. We got split up. Spring brought all of Arnold's mad science experiments with us, and they're kind of out for blood on Arnold's orders."

"Sora's here?" I asked in a breathy whisper, hardly daring to believe it was true. She'd been on Earth, so I'd always known she was safe, but it was nice to hear she was here. "How? Did she find you?"

"She did," Jou said with a grin. Taichi shook his head with a smile.

"She's the one that brought all of these guys along," Taichi commented, nodding his head to the purple and black monsters. Neo groaned, and murmured Dracomon's name. His digivice glowed and Dracomon followed suit, transforming into Coredramon. Coredramon raced towards the panther, and picked it up in his hands. He spun around in circles, imitating to the best of his ability some sort of wrestling move. But the panther was squirming, and bit his fingers. He freaked out, and threw the panther. It soared through the air, over Labramon, Gatomon and Warg's heads, nearly knocked into Hawkmon who had to fly out of the way, and crashed directly behind Tatum and me.

I gulped, and turned around.

The panther was on its feet, lowering itself for the prowl. I backed up into Jou, and he wrapped his free arm around me. I leaned in to him, wanting to close my eyes. Mari had backed into Taichi, and Tatum was standing in front of Neo, brave as ever. Her fists were clenched, and she was daring the cat to come for her.

It took a step forward, and Tatum moved to greet it, before recalling her lack of beast status. She backed up again, and called over her shoulder for help. "Antylamon? Gatomon? Anyone?"

"There's only room for so many felines around here, and I fill the quota," Gatomon snarled as she launched forward, tackling the cat and rolling away with it. It nipped at her, and growled, but Gatomon was smaller, and quicker. She might not _win_ the fight, but she'd be able to hold her own for a good while.

"The wall," Tatum gasped. I felt the vibrations distinctly when she'd mentioned it. I'd been ignoring them in favour of the fight. "Gatomon, fall back!"

"Why?" she asked. "I've got him on the ropes."

"Now, Gatomon," Taichi called urgently. Gatomon punched the panther in the face, causing it to back away, before she came towards us, glaring at Taichi for interrupting her winning streak.

The barricade shot out of the wall _just_ behind her, hitting her tail on its quest to close of the hallway. Her eyes widened, and she held her tail close. The panther was no longer a threat. We just had three left, and with the three digimon facing off together against the stronger two, it didn't seem nearly as impossible as before.

Atylamon dodged out of the way of the porcupine's metal tongue, and before she could retaliate, the porcupine shot its tongue out at us. I screamed, but Coredramon grabbed the creature's tail, and swung it around so that it slammed into the flying triceratops. Both Antylamon and Coredramon sent off attacks—Bunny Blades and Blue Flare Breath—which hit the two creatures _just_ as VictoryGreymon's sword slammed into them because of his Victory Charge.

"NO!" Mari screamed. Taichi yelled out too, and Jou clenched his eyes shut. It was only _then_ that I realized what must've happened. Our opponents weren't as strong as I'd imagined. They weren't Yggdrasil, or Fanglongmon. They couldn't resist combination attacks as powerful as those had been.

The sound of their bodies slamming into the floor resonated around us and filled my heart with dread. I was ice cold, and I felt Tatum latch onto me. She felt just as cold as me.

"We agreed _not_ to kill them!" Taichi shouted. VictoryGreymon and Coredramon looked chastised, but it wasn't their fault entirely. They'd all attacked at once, but I didn't think they'd planned it. I _couldn't_ think that. Antylamon was confused, looking at the monsters that now lay lifeless on the floor. She was expecting more of a fight, just like I had been. She wasn't prepared for them to die. She reverted back to Lopmon, and sank to the ground near them, in shock.

"What'll we do about _that_ one?" Gatomon wanted to know, pointing towards the adorable fluff ball with a beak. I was moving before anyone could answer her. They weren't going to kill this one. I wouldn't let anyone even _accidentally_ kill it. I couldn't watch anymore of them die. It was too painful, even if they were the enemies. They were alive, and I couldn't bear to have it happen again. I flung myself down on top of the fluff ball, and wrapped my arms around it. I pet its fur and nuzzled it.

"Mimi!" Jou shouted, aghast by my impulsive behaviour.

"They're not exactly _friendly_ ," Warg cautioned me.

But I didn't care. It wasn't even trying to peck me. In fact, it nuzzled closer to me. It wanted the attention. I figured it never really got any love from whoever this Arnold guy was. My heart broke knowing that the porcupine and the triceratops had never felt love either, and now they'd never get that chance.

I couldn't hold the tears back anymore, and they exploded out of me, sprinkling down on my new friend. I wouldn't let anyone hurt her. I would love her, and show her that she didn't need to do what the bad guy said. She could be good, and help people too.

Tiny arms enclosed around me on either side, as Lopmon and the newly reverted Dracomon hugged me and the fluffy bird. Tatum circled around to the other side, and completed the circle, with Hawkmon hugging me from behind, and Labramon nuzzling in beside Tatum. Tapirmon, Warg and Gatomon all hung back by Taichi, Neo, Jou and Mari. And VictoryGreymon was looking down sadly at the fallen monsters.

"We don't hurt it," I announced through my tears.

"We won't," Jou agreed. The others all murmured their consent—even though I would've disregarded it if they disagreed with me—and we sat in silence for a moment or two.

"Can we find Terriermon now?" Lopmon asked. She was crying too, and I nodded.

"We've got to get Hawkmon here to Miyako too," I reminded her. She nodded, and Hawkmon tensed in surprise.

"Miyako's here?" he asked, hesitantly.

"You bet she is," Tatum said, smiling a shaky smile. "And Michael, and Iori and Hideto too."

"Hideto's okay?" Mari asked. "You hear that Neo. He's okay."

Neo made a non committal noise, and Jou straightened up. "We can't stay here forever," he said. "We've got to find everyone and then find Spring so that she can get us out of here. Neo needs medical attention, and there are more than just these monsters on the loose."

"We've got to make sure they aren't all destroyed," I said, nodding. I pet my cuddly, fuzzy bird, and she nuzzled into me again. I decided to call her Jezebel, just because she needed a name.

"Let's go find our friends," Taichi decided, and my mind went immediately to Palmon. I couldn't wait to see her. I'd been waiting so long. I just hoped she was okay.

 _ **Hikari Yagami:**_

I couldn't help but feel like I needed to find somewhere to be alone and vomit, even if I was sure it could never clean out of my perfectly white surroundings. Summer and Ken were patiently waiting with me as I caught my breath and held tightly to the ridges in the wall, but I wished they would just move on without me. I didn't need people staring at me in this state. I knew my hair was a mess, I knew my face was paling and I could barely keep my eyes focused long enough to stand on my own two feet.

I felt pathetic.

What was worse was that I knew everyone else looked kind of worn too, and that was _my_ fault. Akumu had created the Reaper from my own negativity, and that beast had fought with us, trying to take as much of the negativity from my heart as it could. It hurt. It really hurt. I could still feel a phantom burning in my chest.

But I felt lighter now, like the negativity, while not gone, was less potent because the Reaper had been feeding off of it. I felt _very_ guilty for not feeling bad that it was gone, or that it was in a separate world wreaking havoc on Yume and Ryo. I mean, I felt scared for their safety, but that world had taken what was inside of me and expanded it until it was nearly unbearable—and now that was gone. I felt free.

Aside from feeling dizzy now, like I was going to pass out.

I looked slowly toward Summer who was smiling gently to me, holding her arm out in case I would need it to help me stand. I didn't want her to, because I didn't need her help. Or, I didn't _want_ to need her help. As I tried to stand, removing my hand from the wall, my vision instantly began to fade away, and my head seared with sudden pain.

I felt Ken's arms under my own as he caught me from falling to the floor. "You alright?" he asked timidly, pulling me to stand again. "I really think you ought to sit for a bit longer."

"I—" talking had not been as easy as I was hoping for it to be, and suddenly I was slipping from Ken's grip, nodding, "Okay, yeah."

Then we were grouped up, sitting on the cleanest floor in the history of the worlds and leaning against the ridged wall of the new hallway we had found. I closed my eyes and winced in pain as the headache spread and intensified.

My hand reached for Summer and I grabbed her wrist tightly, biting my lip to keep from crying out in pain. But the pain itself was beginning to be just too much for me, and I tightened my whole body, wishing for it to go away. I could feel the pressure building in my head and I knew I probably looked like a tomato, but it just _hurt_ so much.

"Hikari," Summer's ever gentle voice wafted in through my burning ears, she began to stroke the back of my hand, and I released her wrist, "Please, speak to me." I shook my head, afraid that if I spoke I might release all pressure and explode. I felt tears in my eyes suddenly and I clamped my eyes tighter and there were stars in my vision and I honestly felt like I might have been dying.

"What's wrong with her?" Ken asked, worried, "She wasn't like this in the Land of Dreams, it has to be something about this world."

"No," Summer said helpfully because I knew I couldn't, "there is a darkness walking in our midst. The light inside of Hikari is reacting to this darkness. She will be fine, I am sure, she just needs time to get over the initial shock."

That was true. I knew she wasn't lying because I could just _tell_ that was what was going on. But it wasn't all that was going on. In my chest there was an odd tingling of remorse and sadness, like a bubble in my chest that was being poked by outside forces, but refused to pop. Those outside forces were the darkness that Summer spoke of, and if she was right, then I would soon get over that. But the pain in my head was something different. There was something trying to get in, something trying to get in, and use my mind.

My mind immediately jumped to Fanglongmon.

I was scared.

And the pain and pressure was increasing at a constant rate, to the point where I couldn't hold myself back any longer. I reached once more for Summer, and also to Ken now, and I grabbed their hands tighter than I should have and, panicking, dragged them toward me, gasping in pain. My eyes were still shut as tight as they could be and the stars in my vision were brighter than ever. I could hear Ken's panicked voice outside of my mind, but it was like a distant buzz now because it just didn't seem important. All that was important right then was how much I hurt, and how much I _desperately_ wished for it to stop.

It only hurt because I was fighting back.

I had to let go.

Instantly the stars in my eyes faded and became swirls of light and of colour. Then there were nine orbs of light glowing in my eyes, spinning around one another in a large hoop, graceful and calm. It wasn't so bad, I enjoyed watching them twirl, I was happy to have let go of the pain. I had let go of everything now, not feeling or seeing anything outside of these peaceful orbs. But with a pang of realization and sorrow, I saw a tenth figure, this one was a human shape, but shadowed like a silhouette. As I stared toward the figure I felt and heard something ominous. A heart beat. The beating began slow and peaceful, like it was keeping time for the dancing orbs, but soon the beating grew pained and quick before it stopped entirely, and the figure was standing alone in silence once more. The orbs stopped spinning as the figure reached out with long graceful arms, and soon the orbs were travelling toward her, rushing into her wicked embrace. And then, as the orbs came in contact with each other, then all began to meld together into one massive beautiful orb. It made the wicked silhouette very happy, and yet I could feel only danger for the orb itself. And then the silhouette turned sharply toward me.

"Hikari?" I was startled awake, and a jolt of fear ran through my body when I felt someone's hand stroking my hair, but when I opened my eyes I saw Summer, though barely. My eyes could not adjust to the light of this new world as quickly as I'd have liked them too. "Careful," Summer said sweetly, "Go slowly now. You fainted, Hikari, I don't want you to overdo yourself."

I had fainted? So what were the spinning orbs? Just a dream, I realized.

Summer was right though, I had to take this slowly, the pain in my head was gone entirely, and I felt much better, but I knew that if I were to stand up I might upset something and fall again. The darkness was just as present as ever, though my heart was ready now, having built up the strength it would need to stand up to the forces trying to break inside. How long had I been out?

"It was just a couple minutes," Ken said kindly. I wasn't sure if he had developed mind reading abilities, or if I had spoken aloud, or if maybe he was just knew I would be thinking that at some point. Either way, I nodded my thanks to him.

I wanted to be ready to stand, but I didn't think I was, and Summers dress was just so comfortable for my head to rest on. "The darkness must really like you," Summer said softly.

"Does it ever," Ken said, answering for me. Of course Ken knew, he had been there the whole time, seen me through my struggles, and understood them better than most of the others. The Dark Ocean only drew those with enough sorrow or anger into its grasps. Ken knew what that was like, but he had fought it off, and was now living a peaceful life. I wanted that too. "But we've always been here to help her when things get too dark."

He was right, and I wasn't proud to admit it. I couldn't do everything alone. When I was small I relied on Taichi for _everything_ , and now I refused to rely on anyone for anything at all. There had to be some middle ground where I could be happy and comfortable. I would open up more if I thought people wouldn't think less of me. That was stupid. I knew that was stupid. Everyone had their own problems. It wasn't just me. People wouldn't stop caring if they knew I was more than just Hikari. Would they? No, of course no—

I sat bolt upright, gasping, a hand over my chest.

"Hikari!" Summer gasped, worried. I could barely pay her any mind, I was busy trying to understand what I had just felt. It had felt like someone had pulled very sharply on my heart, as though they were trying to drag me by using their grip on my insides. It had stopped just as quickly as it had come, but the feeling had been very real. "Are you alright?"

I looked back to her, my eyes burning as they were forced to adjust to the white qualities of the world, and I nodded, forcing a smile. I paused. No, I would tell her, "Something pulled at me."

"What does that mean?" Ken asked, worried.

"My heart," I said my voice weak now. "It was like someone had a fish hook in my heart and they were reeling it in." Summer's eyes narrowed and Ken just started looking around for someone who might actually have been the cause of it. "I think it was the darkness."

"This world is really messed up," Ken's voice came out shaky.

"Ken, it isn't this world," I said defensively. There was something about him fearing the place we were in that made me sad, because it just felt so pure, and calm and _alive_. Whatever this darkness was, it didn't belong here any more than we did. Ken looked like he might actually believe me this time, and nodded.

Summer reached for my shoulder, worried, and I fell into her touch because there was something so comfortable and peaceful about her, but it didn't matter. We had to get up and return to Takeru and Koushiro. They were probably worried, and we'd promised we wouldn't go far. We would have kept to that promise too if the walls hadn't moved in and closed on us. "I'm ready to go," I decided, "We should find the others." Summer looked as though she might disagree, claiming I was too weak to move on, but decided against it and nodded before getting gracefully to her feet. Ken hopped up after her and reached out for me. I smiled up at him and let him help me stand.

Ken didn't let go until we were both sure I could stand without feeling dizzy again. And I didn't. I didn't feel like I was going to fall over, but there was a tight tugging inside me, less jarring than it had been the first time. I turned my head to stare down the hallway to the right, knowing that was the way my heart was trying to drag me, and I was curious enough to actually step in that direction.

Summer placed a hand on my shoulder, "We've just come that way," she explained, "we should try this way." I shook my head, not bothering to explain, I just wanted to go see what this darkness was. There was something that was calling to me, and my curiosity _needed_ to be fed. I kept walking, slipping out of Summer's hold and ignoring the two of them calling from behind me. Eventually they both caught up and Summer jumped in front of me, "Hikari, if you wish to find your friends, we must travel in this direction instead."

If she was right, then I would have to go with them. I wanted to get back to Takeru and Koushiro. They could go with me to see the darkness. Then we would stand together and with hope by my side, I certainly wouldn't succumb to the darkness no matter how strong it obviously was.

I nodded, and Summer found this to be good news, "Right, come with me then. We just need to keep—" Summer froze in her tracks. Staring down the hallway the direction she had wanted us to go, her face void of any emotions to read. Ken looked worried again, but stood guard in front of the two of us, ready to protect us if need be. "I thought I heard..." Summer's voice was quiet again and she looked around Ken before moving forward, and then she paused once more, listening.

Even I heard it this time. It was footsteps, and Summer was frantic, taking Ken's and my arms and dragging us roughly the way I had wanted to go in the first place. We were moving quickly, desperate to turn the corner before someone saw us. It may have just been Takeru or Koushiro, but it was clear to both Summer and I that there were other beings walking these halls, and the fear was beating against my chest as we rushed to the corner.

We flew around the bend and slammed ourselves against the wall with a soft thud. Surely whoever it was would have heard that anyway. We had to continue moving, but it was clear to me that Summer possessed a curiosity even more powerful than my own and she held a finger to her lips as she gently poked her head around the corner. She waited in silence and then retracted herself, understanding that no one had come down this hallway. Perhaps they had walked right by.

Were we safe?

Summer risked one last look out into the hallway and her body tensed up sharply as a scream escaped her.

"What is it?" Ken asked loudly, reaching for Summer's arm, ready to run. I was on board with that plan too, especially since we would be running toward the darkness that was calling to me. But Summer was not coming because her scream had faded into a deep sigh as laughter filled the hallway. A brief fear washed through my body at the laughter, but Summer didn't seem worried. She simply stepped out into the hallway with her hands on her hips.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, annoyed. Ken and I looked to each other and shrugged, stepping out after her. I was relieved to see the Winter fairy standing before us in her elegant gown. Her blue skin looked more vibrant in this world next to the white, just like Summer's pale green skin did. Winter's eyes looked to the two of us and she nodded, like she was expecting to see us.

"Oh please," Winter decided after eyeing Summer and her stern face, "I can't possibly have done something wrong this time. You're here just as much as I am. If I've done wrong, then so have you." Summer seemed to realize she had a point and dropped her arms to her side, "You're welcome for crashing through the barrier by the way."

"You did that?" Summer asked. I had thought Summer was behind it, but I guess we never really spoke about it to each other. "I felt something powerful help us along and then the passage was open."

Winter nodded, "That was me, _I_ was that powerful something." She seemed very proud of herself I noted. Then, very slowly, she brought her hand up to point to the beautiful tiara on her head, "I got a power boost."

"You were crowned Queen?" Summer asked, letting go of all resentment she had to her sister to let excitement take its place. She rushed to Winter's side and hugged her before hopping up and fluttering her wings to get an aerial view of the crown, "I'm so proud of you," Summer said before letting her feet gently touch the floor again. Winter looked confused, as though there was a long past between these fairies and that crown, but it wasn't up to me to invade on their memories. "What happened?"

Winter looked pleased to be able to tell this story, but her eyes flicked toward Ken and I and she pouted, "Another time, perhaps."

Summer followed her gaze and nodded, "Of course," she said, letting her excitement die down, "why did you come here?"

I felt another sharp tug from inside my chest and I looked over my shoulder, down the hallway. I knew I had to get to this darkness. I wanted to wait for Takeru but there was something that was telling me just how urgent it really was.

"I imagine it was the same reason you came," Winter said, gesturing toward Ken and myself, "to find a way home for the helpless children."

"I'm not sure I would have worded it quite in that way," Summer scolded gently, "but I am sure they thank you. Have you seen the other two?" Winter seemed confused. "Takeru and Koushiro, they are here as well."

"I am not referring to the children _you_ came here with," Winter clarified, shaking her head, "I just wish to find home for the exasperatingly troublesome lot that follow me wherever I wonder off to."

Ken and I looked sharply to one another, our eyes widened in shock but when we turned to ask Winter about those she had brought with her, Summer had already done so, "Who?" she simply asked.

Winter rolled her eyes with a soft 'ugh' and she put one hand on her hip, "Honestly there are quite a few of them. I couldn't be bothered to learn their names, but one is Autumn's son."

"Michael!" I gasped.

Winter nodded and gave me that look that a babysitter might give an annoying child. I deflated and then Winter continued, "And our two of the Holy Three. Darling Summer, you really must take better care of your—"

I hadn't even registered who they were before Ken was rushing forward and grabbing Winter around the wrist, "Where!" he barked loudly, his voice shaking, "Where is she? Take me to her! You have to take me to Miyako!"

I felt another tug on my heart, this time even stronger than the last time and I risked another glance down the hallway. It was a mistake because it only caused the pulling to grow in strength. I looked back to see Summer and Winter trying to calm Ken as Winter began to explain how she found herself separated from her, but Ken didn't seem to care, he just wanted more information. He wanted to know where she was, where she _had_ been, what had happened, why weren't they already moving to find her...

They were all distracted. I wanted to be too, distracted in the joy of Miyako's confirmed life, and I was—happy that is—but I was also aware that I was about to run. There was no point in delaying it any further because it was true that I was going to go no matter what. With one last look to the fairies, I turned and I ran. They couldn't see me, they didn't know I had gone. I may have been able to put enough distance between me and them before they caught on, and I would at least get to _see_ the darkness. I could feel it growing ever stronger. It was like I was stepping over the edge of a cliff though, because I was losing my footing. I was losing my grip and the tugging was growing stronger and stronger.

I rounded the corner and kept running, following my instincts, begging for the pulling to stop now. It was no longer a gentle suggestion, but rather a sharp, painful tug.

I was nearing another corner, and I knew whatever I was looking for was behind there. I could _feel_ a body—a presence. It was what I was looking for. I felt excitement rise inside me, but as my feet led me around the corner it all turned to fear and I wished I had waited for the others.

I screamed when I slammed into someone on the other side and then my vision was black again.

I saw the spinning orbs once more. They were dancing and spinning just as they had been before, all working in unison to spin around the dark force that drew them near. The orbs all became one again and the figure looked directly to me once more, holding the orb in one hand. She grew from the distance and stared down at me. There were no defining lines upon her silhouette, just total darkness. But as she looked to me, I knew what I had to do, and I reached for the orb filled with fear and danger, and I knocked it from her hands where it fell and it broke.

"Wake up!"

I screamed again at the shouting and looked up to see a blonde boy shouting into my face. I panicked and moved back, crawling backwards to the wall where I slammed my back into it.

He threw his hands up and apologized, "I just don't want to be alone," he admitted. It finally sunk in that I was staring at Michael. I tilted my head, confused, but then Winter came back to my mind and I realized he must have come with her. He smiled and I couldn't help the spreading grin on my own face as well and I jumped to my feet to hug him. He sighed in my hug and I pulled back, "What are you in for?" he asked as though it were prison.

"We had to escape the negativity that was drawn from my heart because it was trying to destroy us and the entire Land of Dreams," I explained quickly, "you?"

"I was Cinderella," he said as if it summed it all up. He then looked down to the left of us and I followed his gaze to see a very mangled looking Iori laying on the ground. There was blood all over his face, his nose looked crooked, his hair and beard were dirty and tangled and his clothes were ripped.

But it was Iori.

My body lit up with excitement as I fell to my knees next to him, pulling him into my arms to hug him even if he was too unconscious to do the same. I didn't care how dirty or bloody he was because I just wanted to hug him. I was sure he'd be okay. I could see his chest rising and falling. "What happened to him?" I asked quietly.

"I don't really know," Michael admitted, "he as in the Dark Ocean." I looked down to him sharply and tears filled my eyes. "I just met up with him today. Winter brought him to us."

It was hard to imagine what Iori must have gone through in his time in the Dark Ocean—I had spent time there myself, but _never_ two months straight. I held him tighter, apologetically. I should have ensured that he received a different key. "Have you b-been dragging him?"

"What?" Michael asked, "Oh, no. He just passed out when you bumped into him. The two of you fell and kind of seizure for a minute. I was _freaking_ out. You stopped though." I looked to Iori. So he had gone through what I had? Was he seeing what I had seen too? Was it more than a dream?

I heard distant yelling and groaned. I still felt the tugging at my heart and there was a big part of me that wanted to wait for help, but I _needed_ to see what was at the end of this fishing line, and the others weren't going to let me. "Michael," I said, setting Iori down on the floor, "I have to go." He looked panicked and was clearly trying to decide how to drag Iori to safety, "No, don't worry. It's just Ken, but he's going to stop me."

"Ken?" Michael asked, looking down the hallway, "Why would he stop you?"

"He'll want to find Miyako," I explained, "but I have to go this way. I shouldn't..."

"Then _don't_ ," Michael warned, "There's something dark out there, and it won't be safe to go alone." I hesitated, staring to Michael in shock. He felt it too, but didn't desperately need to satisfy his curiosity? Didn't he want to know what it was? In my moment of shock, Ken, Summer and Winter had emerged from a beautifully arched doorway and stood, unimpressed, staring toward me.

But then Summer spotted Iori and she fell down next to him like I had before. She brushed his hair from his forehead and gently placed a hand on his chest. There was complete silence for a moment, but then Iori gasped and sat up quickly staring dead ahead to the blank wall.

His heavy breathing and recuperating time was cut off by Ken, "We're leaving _now_." He said sharply, but there was plenty of excitement in his voice this time, "Miyako is out there, we have to get to her." I didn't blame him for being eager or excited to see her, but he would simply have to wait, just like I'd have to wait to see whatever that darkness was.

"Are you alright, my Forgiving Knight?" Summer asked gently. Iori turned his head to her, confused and then grinned, throwing his arms around her. Over her shoulder he spotted Ken and his smile did not fade. He knew that Miyako would soon reunite with Ken; he knew that his friend was _alive_. And then he pulled from the hug and got to his feet shakily. He looked around for a moment and then his eyes found me and his smile fell entirely.

He stared at me for a moment and then looked worried, "Did you see...?" he asked. I nodded, but I didn't understand what it was that I _had_ seen. He seemed to understand and broke eye contact. Ken was pulling himself out of Michael's hold I noticed as he pulled on Winter's arm, _begging_ her to bring him to Miyako. And then I looked back to Iori and he moved toward me quickly to hug me. I threw my own arms around him and smiled.

"I'm glad you're okay," I told him quietly.

"You too," he said softly in his gruff voice that had never sounded that way before. "Be careful," he warned, "I don't... I don't know what it meant. Be careful."

I nodded and pulled from the hug, "I will."

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** What's Better Than Revenge? Sora and Koushiro will find out in the next chapter!


	43. Better Than Revenge

**Y/N:** This time around we start to get some answers, or maybe it's just more questions? You won't know until you read, but it's Koushiro, so you'll get _some_ answers. He's good for that.

 **U/N:** Sora's first of two chapters of course and that's cool. I quite like Sora now, which is a big change from... thinking she's the most boring character. Her first real enemy is Arnold and I really like their opposing forces. He's kind of crazy of course, but it's a good tie in (I think) to her plots from 03, 04, and 05 which will make sense in a couple chapters I guess.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 43: Better Than Revenge**

 _ **Koushiro Izumi:**_

"Fascinating."

"You've said that four times now," Takeru said, growing impatient. He was upset that Hikari had gone off into the world without him. I could understand that to a degree. I wasn't particularly thrilled with the idea myself. Summer, Ken and Hikari were all gone now, and we knew nothing of this world. For all I knew, we would never find them again. We had no indications on how large this world was, or if there was anything other than the white walls we were trapped inside. I hadn't exactly bothered to do much by way of exploration, but I imagined it would be difficult to find an exit from whatever we were stuck inside. Perhaps the entire room was made up of rooms and hallways. Maybe we'd gone from a world of endless possibilities— _illusions_ —to being trapped within an oversized, white box. There was no perpetual sun to be angered by, there were no sudden rain storms. There weren't any stars either. It was nearly suffocating. There were no windows, but the walls reached _far_ into the air before they met with the ceiling they were holding up. We were literally in an oversized box that's only exit led to hallways that were also like boxes.

I'd never thought I was claustrophobic before, but I was starting to feel the itch for fresh air, for a way outside of these walls.

The only saving grace for me was that I could focus all of my attention onto the symbols in front of me. They were small and numerous. It was Gennai's creation, the language he'd created for the Digital World—or perhaps he didn't _create_ it, just simply deciphered it long ago. I couldn't ask him, just as I couldn't ask how the language ended up carved into the walls here of all places—a world that no one thought existed.

They were telling me stories, the history of the worlds. I'd learned much more than I'd thought possible about Yggdrasil already, and I'd barely scratched the surface. Yggdrasil had found a partner, someone to love. And he'd created a son out of that love. He'd created Sigma.

"It _is_ captivating," I pointed out, tracing the words with my finger, trying to grasp the concept that was written in front of me.

"Just tell me what it says," Takeru exclaimed.

"It's explaining the process of Sigma's creation," I said simply.

"I don't want to know about that," Takeru said, scrunching his nose at the thought.

"He was _created_ ," I explained anyway, rolling my eyes as he shuddered. "He wasn't born in the typical sense. He was created when Yggdrasil collected his loyalty to his loved one—the _world_ —and formed it into a physical being. Yggdrasil—who was formed out of peace—literally gifted his wife—or girlfriend, or lover, or _whatever_ she was—a child formed from world peace."

"I have so many questions, I don't even know where to start," Takeru said in response, looking entirely overwhelmed. But I could see his brain absorbing everything I was saying. He was like this whenever anyone shared something relevant to one of our "adventures". He was probably filing the information in the back of his brain so he could work it into another work of non-fiction—which would most likely be marketed as a work of fantasy, regardless of the amount of truth within its pages.

I looked at him expectantly. He could ask his questions, and I could provide answers, or he could keep them to himself, and I could continue reading.

"So, let's say I can wrap my head around the concept that Yggdrasil married the world. It's weird, but I guess at this point, we've seen weirder," Takeru said, tapping his hands against his legs, before stuffing them in his pockets. "How could Yggdrasil be made from peace? It doesn't make sense."

"From what I've gathered, he was planted by a person, and grew into the being we saw and defeated. The seed was the result of perfect balance. This woman planted the seed of peace, hoping it could grow and preserve said peace by watching over the world," I told him, having had to hunt down that section of the wall to explain it properly. I had to suspend my disbelief in order to accept that this happened, but having spent a couple months in the Land of Dreams, I realized that literally anything could be possible, no matter how outlandish it seemed.

"Okay…." Takeru said, furrowing his eyebrows at the thought. "And Yggdrasil and the world formed their loyalty into a son. Is that a onetime thing, or did they have to populate the entire world or something. I'm really confused here."

"Yggdrasil fathered only three children," I decided, having looked long and hard at the wall. I hadn't read it thoroughly yet. I didn't know how much time I'd have to do it, but the longer Hikari, Ken and Summer were gone, the more antsy Takeru got. I didn't want him to wander off on his own, but I also didn't want to leave this historic gold mine. I'd already gotten answers to several questions that had been irritating me since we'd fought Yggdrasil in the first place.

" _Three_?" Takeru gasped. "Please tell me that they're not _all_ great evils."

"I highly doubt it," I drawled. "One has been dead a long time, and the other was only an idea. There's no proof it was ever born. If I had to hazard a guess, I would assume this one is Norn."

"Norn was made of his loyalty?" he asked incredulously. "She kind of turned on him at the end there."

"He had no loyalty left to give," I pointed out. "He needed to use other parts of himself to create his offspring. The second, _Zeta_ , was created from his sorrow. I'd have to look into it a little deeper to figure out what exactly caused him to make the decision to get rid of his sorrow. Yggdrasil was created from balance. He already lost his loyalty, which tipped the scales against him, but to get rid of the sorrow entirely…."

"It would be like having light without darkness," Takeru summarized. "If he prided himself for his balance, then why would he do that?"

"I could find out," I told him, already flitting my eyes over the symbols in front of me, trying to find another mention of this Zeta. We stood in silence as my eyes flew over the words, looking for the right symbols. There were three distinct sections on the wall in front of me, and I'd already determined that the first was about Yggdrasil himself, the second was Sigma, and the third was Zeta. There were the beginnings of a fourth section, but obviously it never got finished. There was very little information about Norn represented there. I wondered if Yggdrasil—or whoever had carved the words—hadn't had time before his demise to include her.

I contemplated coming back another time with a chisel and hammer in order to carve out her portion of the story. Of course I'd need to _learn_ her part first, but that was very much a possibility.

"Aha," I murmured having found the origins of Zeta. "She was born in the world's core, where Yggdrasil stowed himself after Theta's body was destroyed. Yggdrasil was in despair, and wanted to find peace again. In his desperation, he threw his sorrow from his body and Zeta was born."

"Who's Theta?" Takeru wanted to know. I was curious myself and was already searching for mention of her in either Yggdrasil or Sigma's sections of the story. I found her quite easily in Yggdrasil's.

"Theta was the world," I summarized. "She formed a humanoid body in order to walk among, and learn from, the people. She met Yggdrasil in this form. Obviously, Yggdrasil was far too overcome with grief to stay on the surface of the world when Theta's body was destroyed, so he made the choice to live within the world, with the remnants of his love."

"Do you suppose Zeta is still hanging out in the core of her mother then?" Takeru asked, making a face again. He shuffled his feet and looked to the doorway. I looked around, wondering if there was anywhere here to plug my computer into. I could probably figure out a map of the place if we were in the Digital World. I didn't know what the rules were in this place. But, based on the lack of electrical outlets, I figured it was safe to assume that it wasn't an option here.

It was disappointing.

"No," I told Takeru, having already read this part of the story. "Zeta was thrown to Earth when it was created, because Yggdrasil didn't like the constant reminder of the emotions he'd once suffered."

"Wait, Earth isn't Theta?" Takeru clarified.

"Not to my understanding," I told him. "It _could_ be, I suppose. At the very least it is a part of her. All the lands were, except for the land of light and the land of dark."

"The lands of the dead," Takeru summarized. I nodded. "So Theta was the land of life. And her son did his best to destroy that, and so did her husband. I'm thinking she didn't make the best choices."

"I concur," I said, searching for more information on Theta.

The air was filled with a rumbling growl. It was getting closer. Takeru and I looked at each other, and turned towards the deep hole in the centre of the room. We edged over to the ledge and looked down expecting to see some sort of monster peeking up at us, but there was nothing in the hole. We looked at each other and shrugged, before I turned back to the wall.

The growling grew louder still.

I could feel the sounds deep in my bones. I didn't want to look away from the words, but it was obvious, even to me, that something was wrong. I followed the sounds, trying to locate their source and my eyes landed on a panther with purple fur. My mind took awhile to get off of the fur colour, and I didn't react at all like I probably should have.

"Curious," I murmured.

"That's a big cat," Takeru commented. I nodded, because it was true. And then the cat moved towards us. Takeru stepped away, but I was still looking it over. Takeru had to grab me to get me moving.

The cat let out a loud snarl that echoed off the walls around us as Takeru pulled me through the open doorway. He hesitated for only a second, trying to decide which direction was most likely to bring us to Hikari—and whether he really wanted to bring a panther to her at all—before dragging me down the hall behind him. We were heading in the direction the others went, so I figured the lure of Summer's magic had to be a big enough draw to convince him it was safer to do so than to simply hope to outrun it. I tried to keep up with him, so that he wasn't pulling me along, but he was a faster runner, and I stumbled several times. Each time, I was able to catch a look at the panther behind us.

It was faster than me too—probably faster than Takeru even.

"Maybe we should split up," Takeru offered. "I can lead it away and you can find Summer so she can deal with it."

"No," I said bluntly. I knew that the chances of me finding Summer before the panther could eat Takeru were slim. Slimmer still, were the chances that the panther would chase after Takeru at all when I was the slower prey. It wanted to _eat_ , not play tag. It would go for the easy pickings. I wasn't ready to be lunch. I wanted to learn more about Yggdrasil, and there was still the matter of dealing with the DWD left. I just didn't have _time_ to be lunch today.

"Hurry up then," Takeru shouted exasperatedly.

I gave him a dirty look and tried to move faster. It didn't work. The panther was going to catch us, it was just a matter of time.

Takeru yanked my arm hard, pulling me down a second hallway, hoping to catch the panther off guard. It worked to a degree. The panther skidded passed the hallway we were now running down, but it got turned around quickly and was after us again. Takeru yanked me around another corner, and the panther missed it again, but it took less time to catch on this second time. I was worried that we'd run out of corners, or the panther would learn this trick, before we could get away. Once again, I was tugged around the corner. My shoulder ached from the roughness of it all.

And then I slammed into Takeru's back.

"Get moving," I hissed, hearing the growling grow louder. It wasn't the only sound anymore. Our breathing was pretty loud, but there was a deep grunting coming from in front of us that rivaled the growling from behind. I glanced around Takeru and didn't know whether to be petrified or excited.

On one hand, there was a large gorilla with moose antlers grunting angrily and slamming his enormous hooves to the ground, causing the floor to shake, nearly toppling me over.

On the _other_ hand, there were several loud, terrified screams and one loud "Electro Shocker!" that made me happier than I'd ever thought I could be again.

"Tentomon," I gasped, wobbling forward, forgetting about the gorilla-moose and the panther for a second. I had to see if it was really him. Takeru, thankfully, wasn't so easily distracted by the matters at hand, and stuck next to me, guiding me through my trance. I had to see if my partner was here, was _alive_. I'd spent so long absolutely sure there was no other option, that he'd been dead alongside Mimi for months. I'd left myself no room for hope, and scoffed openly whenever Takeru urged me to find some.

And there he was.

He was flying in the air above the gorilla-moose, collecting electrical energy, ready to take out the monster that was threatening our friends. It took a moment to tear my eyes away from my red and black best friend, not wanting to risk him disappearing if I wasn't looking at him, but I needed to know who else was in danger.

Betamon was curled up with Gomamon, who was protecting him the best he could. Armadillomon was rolled in a ball, just _waiting_ to attack if the gorilla-moose got any ideas. Wormmon was climbing the pillar they were using as a shield, and was lurking _just_ out of reach, trying to spit his Sticky Shot at the monster.

And there, behind the pillar, peeking out at Tentomon, and wishing him luck, was _Palmon_. She was just as much a part of my family as Tentomon was, and here they both were: safe and sound—relatively speaking. They were fighting a gorilla-moose, but they were alive, and that was what mattered.

"Tentomon, digivolve!" I shouted, losing control over my voice. It cracked embarrassingly, and I refused to look in Takeru's direction. He'd make a big fuss about it all. I watched with eager, desperate eyes as Tentomon digivolved into Kabuterimon. I drank in the sight of every blue limb, of his four tattered wings, of his large teeth and his black helmet. I didn't think I'd seen anything so perfect in my entire life.

"Beetle Horn Attack!" Kabuterimon shouted, charging his horn with electricity. He flew towards the gorilla-moose, who—rather comically—started to run away at the sight of it. He ran directly towards Takeru and me. We were still trying to inch our way away from the panther, but the panther started backing away too at the sight of Kabuterimon.

"You were right," I admitted to Takeru. He didn't seem to understand what I was talking about. Gomamon and Palmon raced towards us. Gomamon stopped at Takeru's feet and smiled up at him. Takeru bent down to rub his hair. But Palmon came to _me_. She threw her arms around me and I sort of fell to the floor, holding her tightly. She nuzzled her head into my neck, clinging to me in the way a child would, arms tightly around my neck, legs in the air—so I would have to hold her tighter, lest she fall. I was aware first of my shoulders shaking, before I felt the wetness rolling down my face.

"You okay?" Takeru asked cautiously. I shook my head, trying to focus my emotions once again, but it was futile. I'd been proven wrong, and for once I was actually _happy_ it happened.

"You were right," I repeated. His eyes widened as he finally understood, and he gave me a crinkly eyed smile as he nodded. He'd been right to keep the hope alive. I'd tortured myself—and by proxy Hikari and Ken—with my opinions for months. I didn't know that _everyone_ was alive, but it was enough that _some_ of them were.

"I missed you, Koushiro," Palmon cried. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

"I didn't either," I whispered, still crying, unable to stop. "God, it's so good to see you."

"Is Mimi here, do you think?" she wanted to know. I could only shake my head and shrug my shoulders. I found it hard to scrape up the hope that Mimi could be alright, but I'd been proven wrong before. I didn't know.

Kabuterimon wasn't flying at the monsters anymore. The two monsters were trying to attack him, but they weren't working together to do it. The gorilla-moose would go first, but the panther would cut him off, and vice versa. My heart was hammering in my chest. I knew logically that Kabuterimon had enough power to defeat these things. If _Kabuterimon_ wasn't enough, there were several higher levels he had access to, now that I was here. But it was so hard seeing him, and immediately watching him go into battle. I wanted to talk with him, to tell him all about the room we'd found, and how miserable the Land of Dreams turned out to be.

"You're okay!" Wormmon said, literally climbing up Takeru's side.

"We didn't know where ya were," Betamon added. "Patamon was real upset."

"We knew where Koushiro went, on account of Taichi seeing it happen," Armadillomon said. "But no one knew where you or Miyako, Willis, Kiyoko, Iori, Rei or Ken went."

"We knew some of you had keys," Palmon said in a watery voice. "We knew _Mimi_ did. She got out with Tatum, Michael, Hideto and Lopmon. But we didn't know about anyone else. Who had the keys, and who didn't. It's been a really hard time."

"Mimi's alive?" I choked out, positive I couldn't handle any more highly emotional moments. Not everything was right with the world in that moment—a lot of our friends were still evidently unaccounted for—but it sure _felt_ that way to me.

"Yup," Palmon said with a smile. "We're all gonna be together again someday. I just know it."

"You know, _Ken_ is somewhere around here too," Takeru told Wormmon, who perked up immediately.

"Koushiro," Kabuterimon called. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Mimi wouldn't like it if we killed them," Palmon said, worriedly.

"And we won't," I told her. I knew it was the easy way out, and we couldn't take that path this time around. The easy way wasn't always what was best. Sometimes it would be better to struggle, even if it meant convincing yourself something that you could never believe, but turned out to be true in the end anyway. As it was, Palmon was right, and we couldn't kill these creatures, no matter how aggressive they may have been.

"Maybe we should just make a run for it?" Takeru suggested. "Hikari, Ken and Summer have to be around her somewhere. They came this way."

"We haven't seen them," Armadillomon told him.

"But they _had_ to have come this way. There were no other paths to take," Takeru insisted.

"The walls move," Betamon whispered conspiratorially, as though they might start moving just because he told us their secret.

"How are we supposed to find them then?" Takeru wanted to know.

"Don't know," Gomamon said. "But we've got to find Jou and the others too. There are a lot of these monsters out there. Arnold brought them all with him to the Digital World, and Spring brought them here with us. They're on the loose, and we all got separated."

"I'm real glad that Summer was nice enough to leave the nightmares behind," Takeru joked weakly. It was a sad attempt at finding the good in a situation, but it was typical Takeru. He was worried, and for good reason. Our team from the Land of Dreams was out there, in danger of becoming lunch to monsters, and they didn't know it. Thankfully, they had Summer. She was most likely capable of protecting the others.

But I was sure we'd all feel more confident when we were all reunited once more.

I didn't wipe the tears off my face. I didn't want to bring attention to them. I just got to my feet, still holding Palmon in my arms. We needed a plan, and I was going to have to come up with one.

Kabuterimon was still just sort of holding the enemies off. He didn't want to risk hurting them, because he was too powerful to not kill them if he attacked in a digivolved state. He couldn't really control the level of electricity that he emitted during an attack. The two monsters were still fighting over who got to be the one to attack. The gorilla-moose got angry and let out a howl, launching the panther at the wall. It hit it hard, and fell to the ground with a thud. It didn't get back up.

"Is it okay?" Palmon asked anxiously.

"Don't know," Betamon told her.

I closed my eyes. I couldn't tell from here whether it was breathing or not, and I really didn't think I wanted to know at the moment. We had to deal with an incredibly angry gorilla-moose before I got around to worrying over the panther. I doubted the monsters would kill their own allies, anyway. I wondered if I could make myself _believe_ that if I simply repeated it enough times.

"Kabuterimon," I called loudly. "Fall back."

"Are you sure?" he buzzed in his low voice. I reached down with my free hand and scooped Wormmon into my arm. Takeru caught on to my idea, and slung Gomamon over his back, allowing him to hold onto his shoulders, while he tried to juggle Armadillomon and Betamon in his arms.

"Do it," I told him firmly. He listened, flying back towards us. He had four arms, and two oversized feet. I tossed Wormmon into the air, scaring him unintentionally—I realized only after that I should have provided warning—and Takeru held Betamon up high, allowing Kabuterimon to take them in his arms. He took Armadillomon next, and then Takeru and I clambered onto his feet, holding onto his legs for balance, and keeping Palmon and Gomamon with us.

"How are we going to navigate in this maze?" Takeru asked. He wanted to find the others—and would most definitely appreciate an immediate gratification.

"We're not," I told him with a smirk.

"That's depressing," Betamon sighed.

"Kabuterimon," I called up to him. I held his leg a little tighter, happy to have him back. "Break down the walls. We've got friends to find."

"My pleasure," Kabuterimon said, happily letting loose an Electro Shocker at the nearest wall, completely demolishing it.

"Yeah!" Takeru cheered, along with the digimon. Palmon snuggled closer to me, and I moved even closer to Kabuterimon. I was actually _happy_ for the first time in months. It was unexpected, and it was the most amazing feeling.

The gorilla-moose was still on our tail, but I was confident we could outrun it. We could find our friends before any of _its_ friends got any ideas.

 _ **Sora Takenouchi:**_

"What were you thinking?" Daisuke asked the moment we had veered from the others. It didn't matter what I had been thinking, because it was over now and I could see that it had been a mistake. I thought that perhaps the enemies would split themselves more evenly, and everyone would be able to escape, or to fight their way through, but it hadn't gone entirely as expected, and it seemed that most of the creatures had decided that running our direction was their best bet.

Terriermon wasted no time in firing back over his shoulder, "Bunny Blast!" he shouted, sending balls of his super heated air. There were whelps and whines behind us, and it sounded horrible, but I was glad to hear them. It meant he had hit. Now, if only he could hit _much_ harder and make them all back off entirely, that would have been awesome.

This was a nightmare. It was a textbook one at that. We were running down a thin and narrow hallway with the understanding that we would never find an exit because no matter how many times my foot fell to the smooth white floor, it never looked like I had gotten any closer to the end of the passage, like it went on forever. Thinking perhaps we could fly over the tall walls, I noticed that they stretched directly to the ceiling. The only escape would be to go forward and to never stop running.

That was the worst conclusion I had ever come to. I was thankful that I was at least athletic, and that Daisuke himself didn't seem to be tiring of running yet, but how long could we actually keep it up? We could not run forever, I could already feel the hints of pain in my side. Soon my legs would scream at me to stop running, but I would have to tell them that it wasn't an option. I wasn't sure how well they would take that news.

"Bunny Blast!" Terriermon shouted once more, firing behind us. He made up the rear of our small group, realizing that in order to hit the enemies he was going to have to stay behind us. Gabumon was in front of us, and briefly I had thought it might have been Melga, but upon closer inspection I was sure it had been Gabumon, and that Yamato had taken Melga. Gabumon was the one who looked the most exhausted, like he wasn't ready to run any further. He had been hurt pretty badly in the fight in the Digital World, and I couldn't blame him for not wanting to run. I wished I could have let him stop, but that really wasn't an option here. Veemon looked confident and determined as he ran smoothly through the empty world. I wasn't worried about him and besides, he was clearly just waiting for the moment to digivolve.

Suddenly I realized how we might be able to get out of this, and I turned to Biyomon who was flying next to my head, flapping her wings like crazy. "Biyomon," I gasped the word, realizing just then that I was in need of some well deserved _breathing_. "Digivolve."

She didn't bother asking questions and just went for it, " **Biyomon warp digivolve to... Phoenixmon!** " I pushed myself to run faster to get out of her way as she stretched her wings across the hallway, and I caught sight of Terriermon doing the same, slipping under her newly formed clawed feet. I looked back and saw Phoenixmon flap her wings twice and I smiled, she was going to do it. "Crimson Flare!" I nearly face palmed, but knew that I would not survive the temporary blindness of a hand in my face.

I risked a look back and saw that at least some of the monstrous deformities had fallen back to put out the flames, but it hadn't at all been my intentions. "Try the other one?" I suggested loudly, my voice still harsh and desperate for more air.

"Star-Light Explosion!" Phoenixmon sang out. I watched as the golden stardust fell from her wings, dusting down toward the enemies. It was intended to take all of the wickedness out of their hearts and change them into beings of light, beings in which they were meant to be. They too had been held in Arnold's control, and he was making them do things that they did not need to do—that they didn't _want_ to do, I was sure. I could relate to that feeling. I could understand how it felt to have someone so utterly _horrible_ force you to push a damned button that sent out a deadly virus. I knew that feeling. I lived that feeling. And I was going to get these creatures out of that.

Only it wasn't working. The wickedness from their hearts was not fading like it was meant to. The monsters were still running, still snapping their disgusting jaws and bounding down the hallway with their thick legs, or soaring and whipping through the air at speeds that should simply not be possible. What did that mean about who they were though?

"What's that?" Daisuke asked. I looked up and spotted a dead end. That couldn't be possible, there was no way we had run all of this way to encounter a blank wall that would have a double meaning as a dead end soon enough. As we ran closer, I was sure that had been what we saw, a place where we would stand, and we would likely die, but a few stretched out paces before the end there was a hallway, one that veered to the left, and Daisuke had caught sight of it before I had, and pulled me sharply in that direction. I saw Terriermon and Gabumon follow, but hadn't seen Phoenixmon or Veemon. I nervously kept checking over my shoulder, but I didn't see them _or_ the monsters.

I ripped my hand away from Daisuke and looked back to the hallway, my running finally stopping. My legs cheered for joy now, and I was hyper aware of all of my aching muscles. I could feel the sweat forming along my entire body and I could hear my legs asking me to fall into bed and stay there for a year and a half. I had been so cramped up in Mimi's restaurant, not getting to do much exercise, and now it was all thrust back upon me—if only I hadn't been a wanted criminal, I might have been better at escaping.

I stared toward the corner where we had turned, expecting to see Phoenixmon at any second, but there was nothing. I could hear the faint snapping or snarling every couple seconds, but I couldn't see anyone. And then the monsters came, like an ant colony escaping a collapsing home. I turned, wide eyed in panic, and ran, reaching for Daisuke. He took my hand and pulled me along, thankfully. Now that my limbs had felt what it was like to _not_ run, they weren't in the mood to keep going.

Where were Phoenixmon and Veemon though? We certainly weren't going to stand a chance without the two of them on our side.

"A room," Daisuke pointed out, "Maybe we can lose them." I looked up and saw that dead ahead, a wide open space lay in front of us. I couldn't see much, but it was clear that it did open up. I wondered if Daisuke was right. If there were enough doors we could potentially slip through one of the exits and get away—or perhaps there was an actual _exit_ and we could get out of this place. What even was it? Where were we? Was this a castle? Was this a home? Was it the entire new world that we had been promised? Or was it just one building inside of that world?

We flew through the opening at the end of the hallway and I took a brief second to look around. There was a tall elegant fountain in the center of the room, spitting crystal clear water up into the air, and along the ground the water ran in five separate directions, in small creases in the perfect white floor. The water was travelling toward five pearly white trees, each of them the height of the average person, small perfect trees that certainly couldn't be alive—but they somehow looked like they were, even in their absence of colour.

Suddenly a thought shot though my mind about butterflies and how they could see other colours than we could, a whole bunch of other colours. What if this world was simply designed and crafted out of those strange butterfly-colours and that was why I couldn't see anything aside from perfect white. That didn't seem likely, but I wasn't in charge of the random thoughts that jumped into my head.

Daisuke had been focusing on something other than the beautiful room though, and had grabbed my hand running directly to the opposite end of the room where the only exit sat, waiting for us.

"Crimson Flare!"

My heart skipped a beat at the sound and I turned back to see a blast of red fire wash over the crowd of monsters, the world distorting around the flames in the heat it let off. The monsters emerged from the flames, but soon Phoenixmon did too, with Veemon holding onto her legs for dear life.

"We should fight them!" Terriermon suggested, his voice small as he ran, stretching his little legs as far as they could go.

"I c-can't r-run any-anym-more!" Gabumon agreed, sounding like he might just fall over at any second. Daisuke and I exchanged glances, paused and then nodded, stopping firmly in our tracks before spinning to face the creatures advancing upon us.

" **Terriermon digivolve to...** **Gargomon!** " I was surprised to see Terriermon digivolving, but I couldn't be sure why. I had seen him digivolve all the way to his fused form with Lopmon without Willis before. Since they held the crests, and those crests did not need to be felt or exhibited by Willis, they were able to utilize them on their own. "Gargo Pellets!" Gargomon shrieked maniacally before propping up his two arms and firing away like a mad man. His bullets pierced through the crowd and forced them to scatter, which may not have been the best idea, but it stopped them from advancing upon us at top speeds.

"Melga, don't!" I turned to see Daisuke talking to Gabumon who was drinking out of the fountain, "We have no idea if this water is safe to drink, this is a new world, remember."

"I was thirsty," Gabumon said, "And I'm not Melga." He then turned to the nearest monster and ran as his body lit up like a light bulb, " **Gabumon digivolve to... Garurumon!** " His training with the knights certainly paid off. He was now as strong as Veemon or Gatomon in terms of being able to withstand his champion form on his own. I knew some of the others could do that as well... I wondered if maybe Biyomon could... probably not, she'd never shown me. I would have to work with her on that, just in case. "Howling Blaster!" he fired his blue flames off toward some of the enemies that thought they might sneak around the group of us, including the horribly disgusting octopus-crab who didn't take well to being burned.

The tentacles moved quickly and smoothly, shooting through the air toward Garurumon who snapped his jaw, biting one, hard, but there were three others wrapping themselves around him.

"Not you again!" Gargomon whined, spinning himself around and firing away at the creature that had captured Garurumon. The bullets smashed into the dark violet shell of the crab body, chipping away at the only protection the creature had, but soon it had proven itself to be useless, because the crab's shell was holding out, so Gargomon, annoyed, aimed at the tentacles instead.

Within seconds, two of the creatures tentacles had been torn from its body and they lay on the ground, flopping around, as Garurumon untangled himself from their grip. Gargomon looked the way that I felt, distraught. The poor animal had lost its legs—but we couldn't let it keep hurting Garurumon, could we? No. It had to be done.

I couldn't convince myself of that, but it didn't matter anyway, because I was suddenly busy with a completely different monster.

"Look out!" Daisuke shouted, swinging his fist near my head. I screamed and jumped away, turning to find that he had located the floating skeletal fish. It chattered and clicked as he fell to the ground, disoriented. Daisuke took my hand and started leading me away from the fighting, for safety, but our path was cut off by something that looked kind of like a komodo dragon in size, but its mouth was filled with saber like teeth that perhaps were made of metal.

The lizard barked some weird strangled sounds and then began approaching us, moving slowly. Daisuke and I both began backing up, but watching the creature move so slowly was unnerving. It had just been chasing us at full speeds, I _knew_ it could move faster—I had even seen it climb along the walls, and watching it now, moving so slowly and normally made everything seem much more frightening.

I heard a low clattering sound by my head and slowly I looked back and let out another scream as the skeletal fish bit hard, sinking its teeth into my shoulder. I grabbed its jaw and pried it open, throwing the fish toward the lizard that moved quickly, scuttling across the floor as if its feet had suddenly been put on fast forward.

Before Daisuke and I even had a chance to move, Veemon had slammed his head into the side of the beast. Thankful, I took the free moment to glance at my hands and saw blood. I checked my shoulder and saw that the wounds the fish had left were not deep, but they stung and were bleeding. I winced when I ran my fingers along it.

" **UlforceVeedramon!** "I looked back to see that Veemon had digivolved again and his chest immediately began glowing. "Ray of Victory!" He called out, sending a beam of energy toward the lizard creature, not willing to give it the chance to stand again.

I found that my legs were more worried about my wound than my brain was because I hurried toward the fountain without thinking about it and thrust my hand into the water, tainting the purity with my blood. But I watched as the blood faded out of existence. Slowly I pulled my hand back out and used my wet sleeve to wipe away at my wound. I winced at first, but the pain vanished instantly. I looked down to the wound and it was clean but very much present. I guess there was a part of me hoping that the water would cure me completely, but somehow it had made the pain vanish at the very least.

I looked deeper into the fountain and saw that there were leaves carved into the basin, all around the bottom, underneath the water.

"Sora!" Gargomon shouted, "Duck!" I did as I was told, nearly falling into the water that I had leaned toward to get a better look, and Gargomon fired from his gun-like hands, at the skeletal fish that, with a series of clicking sounds, fell apart. The pieces of bone fell to the ground in a pile of chipped nothingness. I swallowed thickly, staring to the dead body of the creature. It was a pile now, but it had still been alive—and it was still here. That was never the case with digimon... I may have witnessed death after death, but I'd not seen many dead bodies. "You need to keep watch of yourself," Gargomon told me, rushing over to the fountain, "I can't watch over everyone."

"I'm sorry," I said weakly, "I—I just..." my voice faded as I stared toward the pile of bone to where the glowing violet heart that had been held amidst the bones was now dimming slowly as the creature succumbed to death.

There was a silence in which Gargomon scanned the battlefield. I looked around too, gauging how many we were against, and it didn't look good. Phoenixmon was backed into a corner, though she could easily escape by flying, by the black bear with the long snout that resembled an alligator. The alligator-bear was joined by a long disgusting centipede, it was enormous and its pinschers were long with sharp blades sticking from them, all pointing toward Phoenixmon. UlforceVeedramon was fighting against the determined Komodo dragon who never seemed to want to give up, and had grown out its claws into sharp vicious looking weapons. Garurumon was still tangled in a fight with the octopus crab, now down to six legs—I purposely avoided looking at the two removed limbs that had finally stopped flopping around—and the beady eyed little rodent creature was snapping away at Garurumon's heels, trying to catch him by surprise.

Gargomon set up his guns again and began firing away toward the two headed bird that somehow resembled a velociraptor just as much as it did a bird. The monster began dancing, trying to escape the bullets that were being aimed for his feet. Gargomon seemed to be enjoying himself which I found troubling, but it _was_ in a digimon's nature to fight, so that wasn't all too surprising. He looked over to me though, like he wanted to say something, but decided against it, focusing more on the weird bird creature.

I glanced back to Phoenixmon who flapped her wings sharply and rose into the air to avoid the centipede creature closing its pincers with her inside. "Crimson Flame!" she called out, firing more of her red fire, but this time it became more effective, catching the centipede on fire briefly before it began rolling around on the ground to remove the pain. I looked away, disgusted by the mere sight of the creature and saw that Gargomon was looking to me once more.

"What is it?" I asked, knowing he wanted to say something.

"It's nothing," he lied, "nothing." I waited, sure that he would speak up if I just let him. "It's Willis," he finally relented, "Willis is here, in this world. I can feel his digivice. When I evolved I felt its power more prominently than I should have."

"That's not possible," I was so certain, but there were parts of my mind that wanted to believe what he was saying. I tried to convince myself that it could be true, but when I remembered that Willis hadn't even had his digivice at all, I knew it couldn't be true. It was possible that Arnold was now in possession of his digivice, and that was why Gargomon felt the power.

But still, there was part of me that was begging to believe his words.

Already I had been reunited with Biyomon again, and with all of the digimon, and with Taichi, and Jou, Daisuke, Kurayami and Mari. And with that reunion came a whole bunch of crazed monsters, so I think I'd had enough reunions for one day. At least until we could sort out this mess. But that was selfish. Of course I was pleased with who we'd found because I had my partner back, but Gargomon didn't. I couldn't take his hope away because he deserved to meet up with his partner, with Willis— _and_ with Lopmon who I had noticed was nowhere to be seen. I wanted to ask him about her, but I was afraid to find the answer.

It seemed for a moment that we might be able to succeed but when one particularly vicious looking vulture, who had apparently escaped everyone's notice, things started to fall apart. UlforceVeedramon attempted to take on the two beasts at once, but found that the moment he turned his sights from the super speeded lizard he was overpowered, and hit from behind, and so Garurumon hurried to help him when his sword had faded from his wrist, slamming into the lizard, leaving the octopus-crab open to come after Daisuke and I. Gargomon was quick to step in the way, using his "Bunny Pummel" attack, and slamming into the underside of the crab, who simply _hated_ Gargomon for removing his arms. The beast was quick to wrap its legs around Gargomon's waist and neck, and no matter how much kicking and pulling Daisuke and I attempted, the grip seemed to be permanent.

It was then that two of the free tentacles grabbed onto the two of us, wrapping around our torsos. One of my arms was caught in the painful, tight hold, but both of Daisuke's arms were free, which gave him the opportunity to try to free himself.

Honestly, everything about what Daisuke was doing seemed immensely brave and strong now, because if the tentacle that was holding him was anywhere near as tight as the one holding me, Daisuke was a hero. My vision was already blackening as the tentacle grew even tighter, gradually squeezing harder and harder, attempting to pop me like some kind of lab experiment.

 _Let's see how long Sora can last under the pressure of an octopus squeezing her organs out through her mouth._

I was swinging my arm around pointlessly, trying to punch something, but I could hardly think straight now, and the pain was nearly overwhelming, and then I had hit the floor, gasping for breath. I was on my hands and knees, and the pearly white floor slowly came into focus as my body heaved, desperate for air. The coughing _hurt_ , but I couldn't stop it from coming.

And then the world was spinning and there was a shrieking little rodent creature with wide beady eyes, snapping around, trying to bite at my face. I had pain spreading through my back and I remembered the glass that had cut me earlier, back on earth which somehow seemed like days ago, rather than hours. There was another sharp snap as the rodent tried to bite me. Panicking, I flung my arms toward it and brushed it off, sending it rolling to the ground. Daisuke was next to me a moment later, grabbing the creature from behind with both hands and then throwing it over his head, toward the other side of the room.

"You alright?" he asked as he reached for my hand to pull me to my feet. I shook my head, glancing toward Gargomon who was the one dancing now as the tentacles reached for him from every side. It had been Garurumon who saved us it seemed, and he hadn't played nicely either. Another tentacle had found its doom and was now flailing around as the last nerves stopped working.

Garurumon turned toward me and his eyes widened. I didn't risk the look back and instead tightened my grip on Daisuke's hand and ran toward Garurumon who leapt over our heads, snarling. I looked back now and saw the velociraptor bird come into direct contact with Garurumon who was snapping and biting at the bird, growling loudly.

I realized UlforceVeedramon would be in danger now and when I looked I was not proven wrong. The small beady eyed rodent was biting at his leg as he lay face down on the ground, the vulture snapping its beak at his head while the lizard lay across his body, biting down on his arm.

"Get off of him!" Daisuke yelled loudly, rushing to the aid of his partner. Daisuke swung his fist toward the Vulture who narrowly avoided his face being hit, but Daisuke wasn't going to let him get away. He leapt toward him and threw his arms around the bird, swinging himself behind it so he was sitting firmly on its back. The Vulture screeched and flapped its wings, taking Daisuke into the air.

I was heading to help UlforceVeedramon with the freaky lizard when the devil walked into the room.

"That will be enough fighting, my _beautiful_ darlings." The voice was crisp and clear, even over the sound of the angry creatures who all obeyed and froze in place. UlforceVeedramon stood quickly, knocking the lizard from his back and kicked the tiny rodent away. Phoenixmon took her opponents distraction in stride and used the time to get out of the corner, scratching at the alligator-bear along the way toward me. Gargomon backed up too, and everyone slowly began to gather around the fountain. Even the vulture landed, allowing Daisuke off of its back. When he slid off and started toward the fountain, the bird snapped its ugly beak toward him and nipped the back of his leg. He quickened his pace and joined us as we all turned to stare to Arnold as he stood, tall and pathetic.

Arnold was standing by the door that we had come in through, standing with the strong, beastly form of the Behemoth. I elbowed Gargomon, "Digivolve," I said flatly.

"Now?" he asked me with a voice that was barely audible. I nodded and he shrugged, willing to go along with whatever. He glowed and Arnold grew suspicious, watching to be sure he wasn't about to explode or anything. " **Gargomon digivolve to... Rapidmon!** " When the light from the digivolution faded, my heart began to beat faster with more excitement. There hadn't been any signs that Arnold wielded the digivice that Gargomon had spoken of. If that digivice was really in this world, then there was another living person amongst us that held it. Perhaps Willis really _was_ here.

"Now what purpose did _that_ serve?" Arnold questioned, gesturing to Rapidmon who stood, ready to strike if need be. I noticed that the centipede and the alligator-bear were joining Arnold by the doorway, as the vulture and velociraptor slowly trotted across the floor to join them.

"It's just insurance," I responded quickly, ready to counter anything Arnold had to say. "We can't have you killing us when we're not ready, right? That wouldn't be fair—only, you wouldn't care so much about that, would you?"

Arnold laughed, cold and dry, "Are you stalling with mindless banter? Are you teasing me, trying to lower my spirits?" there was a pause, "Well it will not work, because I am not afraid of you. In case you have forgotten, it works the other way. I know you're afraid of me."

"As if," I spat, even though it was entirely true. Maybe I wasn't the bravest person ever, but I was going to stand up to him—and really, that's what courage was. Courage couldn't exist if fears didn't. I stood tall, ready to take him on. "What are you even _doing_? Why do you care so much if we live or die?"

"Oh I don't," Arnold said, putting his hands in the pockets of his loose pants. He began pacing toward us, and all four of our digimon companions stiffened their stances, preparing for any funny business, "My companion does though. To quote his royal gruffness, _'I want them out of the way.'_ " Arnold paused and smirked, "And I took from that what I wished to."

The way his eyes sparkled with fondness over the idea of killing us sickened me. He was looking directly at me too, as if he wanted _me_ dead specifically. I was not wrong.

"You there, Sora," Arnold said with an unimpressed voice, "You might be wondering why I chose to follow after _you_ here in this world." I wasn't, but I said nothing. "It's because _thrice_ now you have escaped me and my plans for you, and I simply don't take kindly to people thwarting my plans."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," I said sharply, crossing my arms across my chest, but wishing I hadn't because of the wound the fallen monster had caused. "I'll wait here for you to kill me then, shall I?"

"Don't sass me," Arnold snapped sharply, "You do not know what I am capable of."

"I think I do," I said, letting my arms fall now, "You're capable of hate, and destruction, and _genocide_. And here I am, still 'sassing' you. I guess that just proves how little respect I, or anyone else, could ever have for you."

The dangerous flare in Arnold's ambitious eyes sparked up again and his nostrils flared, "I'll have you know that I am _highly_ respected, you stupid girl. If I was not, then how would I have risen to the top as I have?"

"The top of _what_?" Daisuke asked, flabbergasted, "You're pure evil."

"Evil is a term designed for children's make believe stories," Arnold replied swiftly, "It has no real world connections."

"I beg to differ," Daisuke laughed.

"'Evil' is a relative term," Phoenixmon said wisely, "In the ideal world, there would be none. But in the perception of a 'real world' you are as cruel and as vile as they come. You are the evil the children of the world fear when they lay in their beds at night. They fear a monster that would have no compassion or love for another. They fear you."

"I love many," Arnold said, "but in no way do I need to explain myself to you." He was angry now. "I have many who respect and who worship me. Many who work for me out of adoration of what I can do."

"They fear you," Daisuke responded without missing a beat, "They fear you and your monsters."

"My _'monsters'_ are beautiful," Arnold said, completely offended now. "And no, my coworkers do not _fear_ me. They see the genius behind my eyes. I was asked to assist a man on his journey home, and was given the liberties to add to the plan as I saw fit. " Arnold stopped his pacing and was standing in front of all of his monsters now, facing the group of us, "I designed these creatures to aid me in the inevitable split. When my partner decided that he was done with me, I would not let him go free. For now I use his strength as my protection, but when I am finished, I will not hesitate to use my darlings to end him."

"How _very_ respectful of you," I said dryly.

Arnold scrunched up his nose in anger and in frustration, and I could tell that he had balled his fists, anger coursing through him now. "Without my brain-dead companion, I created a virus to clear away the nonsense inside the Digital World, and Sora here helped me with that."

Daisuke looked to me, confused, but said nothing. "It didn't work," I said weakly, "we were one step ahead of you, and we created protection."

"We survived," Daisuke confirmed. I nodded, looking to him, but there was still no proof that any of the others had survived. No proof that I had not killed Takeru, and ruined Yamato's life forever. There was no way he could forgive me if that were the case, and I would never expect him to. I was a bad person. I had been so bad to him.

"I shall try again," Arnold said with a bitter smirk, "I will try again, and I will destroy what you have built, and rebuild in my own world. I will help the people, using the mystical properties of that world, and I will be _king_."

"Okay," I said, rolling my eyes, "Neo's already tried that, and it didn't work out. Besides, following up 'I want to help people' with 'so I can be king' is not the way to convince people you're a good guy. You're heartless, completely vindictive and full of only hatred. I will not let you continue wreaking havoc on this world. I'm going to bring you down, and I won't hesitate to give you the justice you deserve."

Arnold looked shocked for a moment at my words, and I was too, but wouldn't admit to it, not out loud. Arnold tilted his head back, narrowing his eyes and then a smile crept onto his face, "Very well," he decided, "I see how it is." He held his arms up and smiled, as the Behemoth, with its strong legs and dark shimmering fur moved toward Arnold, standing just behind him, twisting its long fang filled snout toward us where it glared with its dark eyes directly toward me. It was just as angry at me as Arnold was that I had escaped. "Darlings, you may now _feed_."

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** When you know something immediately but have no power to put an end to it, you have to ride the worst of the waves. Yamato and Ken both Knew just how much Trouble she was When she Walked In.


	44. I Knew You Were Trouble

**Y/N:** Ken gets to have some fun, but he's still on a quest to find Miyako. Will he find her? I'm not sure—literally, I'm so confused trying to figure out what chapter each plot point happened in. We wrote these so long ago. I don't even know anymore.

 **U/N:** Matt (strangely enough) had to take Kurayami's development since she didn't get a part herself. So if you remember at the end of arc 2 she embraced the darkness and all that jazz, and while Matt isn't the best choice to deal with her inner thoughts, I think she expresses herself well enough, and she will get her chance later as well. Anyway, here's Ken and Matt, hope you like it!

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 44: I Knew You Were Trouble**

 _ **Yamato Ishida:**_

" _Sora?" I had asked. She hummed a response. "Do you think he's okay?"_

" _I hope so." She said. "I hope they all are." Her voice was shaky. "I'm sorry."_

" _Sorry?" I asked. "Are you okay?"_

" _I'm scared." Sora said quickly. "I can't stop my mind from thinking about tomorrow. W-what will it be like? How can I keep going without them? W-without my parents, or Biyomon? Or T-Taichi or Koushiro? They're all in there, and now I may never see them again, all because of that stupid b-button."_

 _I paused, "What button?"_

 _Sora's arms tensed up and when she spoke her voice was quiet, "The one that sent out the virus."_

" _Whoever pushed that damned button is going to pay." I said through gritted teeth._

 _Sora immediately removed her arms from around my waist and I heard her stand up behind me. "R-right." She said, "We should go."_

I sat in silence, leaning against the smooth wall that reached up to the ceiling. The surface was cool to the touch and everything around me felt like it had been crafted out of the finest material in all the lands. My eyes were closed calmly, and I was thinking to myself, trying to wrap my head around the thoughts that were escaping my hold, bouncing from one end of my mind to the other, digging up old nonsense. I tried to shake my mind back into reality, to focus on what was going on, but I couldn't. I knew the others would have a better understanding anyway, they had been speaking with Spring about it for a while, so I would leave the exploration and understanding to Jou and Daisuke who oddly enough seemed like our best bets right then.

I wanted to head out to find Gabumon, because I had grabbed Melga's arm in a hectic moment, accidentally making the same mistake I had made three years ago when Hideto slipped his Gabumon in the place of my own. I was certainly going to have to make up for that one. My first act after having been separated for two months was to take the _wrong_ Gabumon.

But to be fair, my mind was so busy, so messed up and focused on the wrong things. No, that wasn't fair. Nothing was fair—I had made a mistake.

When I opened my eyes finally I was caught off guard by how blinding and perfect this world was, forgetting what it looked like. Kurayami was leaning against the wall across from me, nervously looking down the path we had come, probably wondering if we should return. We should. It was important for us to get back to help the others, but I just didn't feel ready. I was mad. No. I was hurt. Sora had spoken to me on so many occasions about the virus, about what had happened, and I had confided in her my feelings and my desires, but during every one of those conversations she had been lying to me. I understood _why_ she had thought she needed to lie, I could follow that simple path from point A to point B. What I could _not_ understand is why she _had_ done it. Thinking it is one thing, lying and keeping things from the one person who had always been open to hearing everything she had to say—she...

I took a deep breath. I knew I shouldn't have been so worked up about something like that, something that I could have been over by now, but I just wasn't. It had nothing to do with Sora being involved in the virus being sent out—I was _furious_ at Arnold about that, even more now that I knew he had forced Sora into being part of it. I was hurt because I had thought we trusted each other, and that we could tell each other everything. Even if we weren't dating, she was the only person who I had ever _spoken_ to about my personal feelings. I wasn't an open person, and everyone knew that. Sora knew that, which was why she would never tell anyone, and I trusted her to keep what I had told her to herself. But why didn't she trust _me_?

Trust was _everything_.

And she didn't trust me.

"So how is your dad doing?" I jumped at the sound of Patamon's voice contrasting against the ominous silence. I looked down to where he sat on the floor next to Melga, both of whom looked entirely exhausted. Patamon was looking up to me though with his big eyes, trying to understand why I might be upset, but it didn't matter, now wasn't the time to talk about that.

"He's fine," I promised, holing my arm out for Patamon to fly onto like a parrot or something. "How's Mom?"

"Dunno," Patamon admitted, "I was in Primary Village."

We both looked over to Kurayami who didn't notice. She was still looking down the passage, with messy hair and ripped shorts as though we had just been chased down the tunnel by some crazed monsters. Oh yeah, we _had_. Spring elbowed her to catch her attention and when she looked up she realized we were waiting for some news, "Oh," she said, shrugging her shoulders, "I guess everyone's fine. I was in Primary Village too most of the time. No one's died since Noriko." She hesitated and shook her head, "No, not really true."

The virus. She meant the virus, of course she did. Anger filled me again and I was ready to go finally, ready to find and kill Arnold. He was not going to get away with his, I just wouldn't let him. I mean, he'd already done it—but he wouldn't get _away_ with it. He was going to suffer, just like the others had. Just like everyone he had taken the life from.

"Come on," I said bitterly, moving away from the wall as Patamon fluttered up to my head to keep comfortable. I never understood how Takeru managed to walk around all the time with him up there, because it was definitely not comfortable, but I wasn't about to ask him to go away. If I couldn't have Gabumon, Patamon was a close second. Third, really. Takeru was definitely up there too. I bit the inside of my cheeks to keep from showing any anger or sadness. They were there for sure, but I didn't need anyone to notice them.

I looked back and saw that Kurayami was walking hand in hand with Melga who was looking sad too, probably from being separated from Warg, and I felt bad for him, really, it just didn't feel like comforting anyone just then. I had some serious things to take care of, like find Taichi and the others and find a way back to Earth, or the Digital World, or wherever we were going to go. I wasn't okay with being here anymore—even if we'd only been here half an hour.

Spring was humming suddenly and I whipped my head around to look at her, annoyed that she would be so open to giving away our position. We hadn't been able to defeat any of the monsters with only Patamon and Melga because Spring refused to attack any of them, which would have been _fine_ if she'd helped us escape. I mean, she _had_ , but she hadn't been very determined, and she was throwing her powers around like a crazy person, and I just really wanted to _stop_ running. She eventually did melt a hole in a wall, then seal it back up when we were all through, so I was thankful to her, but humming now was just going to draw the attention of the monsters we'd shook off. But still, there she was, bouncing up and down as her obscene amount of ringlets bounced with each step she took in her bare feet. She was weird, Spring, and I didn't think I wanted her around—not to be totally rude.

But she just felt like a hindrance more than anything else.

"So what is this place?" Kurayami asked, turning to Spring. When I glanced back to her she had hardly made notice that Kurayami had spoken at all, and was now running her fingers along the wall. When Spring finished the chorus of whatever she was humming she decided to pay more attention to the rest of us.

"Oh I haven't got any idea," she finally said, disappointing all of us, I was sure. "It's a new world."

"Yeah, so you said," Kurayami said bitterly.

More silence enveloped us as we walked and I found that my mind focused on Sora again, which wasn't particularly unusual, but this time it was from a different perspective. I was no longer looking as Sora from the eyes of Yamato Ishida, the man who had been devoted and in love with her for so long, but rather from the eyes of my other half. The half that I had always kept in a closet, too obsessed with Sora to be bothered to get to know. But this other side of me had some interesting points of view. Spending all of this time caught up on Sora, while possibly romantic, had only proven to be a horrible decision for my own personal well being.

I had lost the devoted fans of my music, the music I had been passionate about, and now had an entirely new fan base, mostly consisting of teenage girls; I had been living alone for more than three years because I just couldn't be bothered to meet anyone new; I had not dated a single person in three years, and not been serious about anyone before that aside from Sora; I had lost touch with most of my friends, and although we still hung out every now and then even Taichi and I had stopped really doing things together. I was a mess, a pathetic grovelling mess that had been obsessed and needy and now I had nothing to show for it at all. Not only were all of my friends _dead_ or being chased by insane, flesh hungry monsters, I hadn't had them for a long time.

I was _alone_.

I shook my head, not enjoying where the thoughts in my head were leading me so I turned sharply to Kurayami, hoping to change the subject, "So you used darkness?"

She looked shocked that I had spoken, but nodded, "I guess so," she decided, "It was weird. I hadn't meant to, but I just thought of my mom, and how she always used it out of fear and out of desperation. I guess I came from the same place, I was desperate too. I was desperate to save Daisuke and all of you. I was _afraid_ that if I didn't embrace who I was and use my powers, that it would be too late, and they would come out of me in all of the wrong ways."

"So you embraced your fear," I noted, "that's really brave."

"No," Kurayami said, turning her head away, embarrassed.

"No, it's true," I said, nodding as a smile grew on my face, "You're one of the bravest people I'd ever met. I don't know even _half_ of what you went through in your life, but I knew enough to know that I would have collapsed and given in."

"You wouldn't have," she said, shaking her head, still embarrassed. She reached up and tried to play with her hair inconspicuously to hide her reddening cheeks. "If you had gone through what I had gone through, you would be conditioned just the same way I was to deal with it. You would have done the same thing."

I could tell she wasn't in the mood to take a compliment, so I gave in, "All I'm saying is that you've come a long way from that scared thirteen year old girl who used Apocalymon's spell to try to scare us all."

Kurayami dropped her hand and her face was nearly blank. I turned my head from her, wincing. I was such an idiot, why would I bring that up? It was just rude. "I _did_ scare you all. And I'm so sorry about that."

"I know you're sorry," I insisted, "Otherwise you wouldn't have felt bad while it was happening."

"I—wait, what?" she seemed genuinely confused.

"Don't you remember?" I asked her, and she shook her head. I was thankful she didn't remember honestly, because had she been conscious then, she would have been fully aware just what my biggest fear was, and honestly I wasn't sure I'd ever be sharing deeply personal information ever again. "You told me that I was fine, that there was no one around. You helped me solve the problem, I snapped out of it and I saved Sora. If you hadn't been there I may have snapped—gone insane." Kurayami stared at me blankly for a moment and then turned her head to look ahead of us, saying nothing. "So, thanks."

"If you have any lingering doubts about being bad," Patamon said from on top of my head, "you're not. Trust me, I live with you, I would know. You're not bad Kura, and you never were."

"I agree," Melga nodded, "I don't really know you though. But I'll agree anyway." Kurayami laughed but seemed uncomfortable from all the attention, and her face was reddening again.

There was silence again, but it didn't last nearly as long as the last one, thank god. Spring let out a shout of surprise when we came to an intersection and I looked sharply down the hallway that she was staring. There, bounding toward us in a horribly intimidating way as it wormed its body back and forth like a snake was one of the monsters that had been chasing us when we veered away from Sora and the others.

"Boom Bubble!" Patamon did not waste a single second in firing off toward the enemy, hitting it square on the nose. The beast yelped in surprise and fell, tripping over its feet.

"Go!" I insisted, pulling Spring along with us as we ran down the opposite hallway. Spring hit my hand sharply and ran down a different path but when I tried to follow the fox snake snapped at my arm. I jumped back in surprise and turned after Kurayami and Melga. I pushed my legs to stretch further and to move faster, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other until I heard Kurayami scream. I looked up to see a massive black and purple striped bee with a stinger as long as my whole body as sharp as a sword. Kurayami backed up a couple paces and shot off down a hallway I would never have noticed otherwise. I veered that way, following her as fast as my legs would take me. I was glad Patamon had tightened his grip on my head, otherwise I would have been worrying if I'd lost him.

Kurayami turned left faster than I was able to follow and I ran past the opening. I slowed to a stop and looked back only to see the bee creature shoot toward me at top speeds. I fell flat to the floor as it flew straight over my head and, heart beating hard enough to jump from my chest, I kept running, following after Kurayami. I ran straight to the end of the hallway where there was a weirdly dark room. For everything being so white and bright, this room's dimmer lighting really seemed off. Kura had Melga still clinging to her for safety and she looked around the room, curious. There were lines and images carved into the wall, I thought for a moment it might be words, but it didn't matter because something else had caught my attention.

Sitting on an ivory pedestal sat a redwood box with silver and gold swirling patterns making up each side. I stared for a moment, entranced until I caught sight of Kurayami staring too.

"What is it?" Patamon asked, and I knew we wouldn't have much time to stand around and wait, so I moved forward ready to take it, "be careful!" Patamon warned, afraid it might be some kind of trap. It certainly felt odd because it was one of the only coloured things I'd seen in this world, and it _was_ the only coloured thing that wasn't trying to kill us. When I placed my hand over the box I felt a sharp shock, like something had stabbed my hand. I retracted my arm in surprise and Kura moved to my side grabbing my hand. She looked it over and then up to me, confused. I shrugged and reached for it again, this time I was ready. The pain shot through my hand again but I pushed myself and placed my hand flat on the surface of the box. It felt like something was knocking on the inside, trying to escape, and I could feel it course through my body as my pulse tried to keep in time with it. "Is that a..." Patamon's voice trailed off, confused, "never mind."

It didn't matter anyway because we didn't have time to worry about it. The bee creature had returned, slamming into the room, stabbing its long blade like stinger into the wall between Kurayami and my heads. We both ducked under the large bulbous form of the bee and kept running, back the way we had come. We'd found a dead end with a weird box, which would have been interesting if we didn't have a crazed bee chasing us.

When we reached the end of the hallway I let Kurayami lead the way, too nervous to make the wrong decision.

"Blue Blaster!" Melga shouted, firing a blast of flame behind us at random.

"Is it coming?" I asked him as we pushed further, turning left sharply upon Kurayami's request.

"Is he ever!" Melga shrieked.

That wasn't the response I had been hoping for, but it gave me enough motivation to keep moving, and to push my legs harder. I simply let Kurayami lead me whichever way she felt was the best until finally she turned one last time and we ran straight into Spring, colliding and falling to the hard floor.

I groaned as my head smashed against the wall and Patamon fell off with a small cry. I turned and scooped him back up, not willing to wait another second. I got to my feet and helped Spring with the assistance of Kurayami and then noticed the fox-snake that had been chasing her. Spring panicked and turned to her left so we all followed and found a short hallway that opened up into a large beautiful room.

Spring turned back sharply and extended her hands, sending a wave of pinkish glitter through the air. It exploded in the opening and a massive tree appeared in the way with both the bee and the fox-snake trapped inside as if it had grown around them. I felt relief wash over me as the bee buzzed in attempt to escape. The fox howled and Spring looked sad, like she wanted to free them.

"Wait until we're safe at _least_ ," I pleaded. Spring looked up to me and nodded, smiling. Her smile did not last long though. It fell as though she had been stabbed right through the chest and her eyes widened with a fear I could not fathom. "What's wrong?" I asked, panic washing over me quickly.

Spring rushed toward the tree, extending her arms, clawing at the bark as she began to whimper, desperate to escape. Without hesitation tears began to pour down her cheeks as her whimpering became screams and pleading. Kurayami and I looked to each other with wide eyes before rushing to her side to pull her from the angry monsters trapped in the tree.

She screamed, slapping my hand away and pushing Kurayami to the ground. "No!" Her voice came loud and high through the tears. She was looking around frantically, trying to find the nearest exit and her massive mound of hair flung around, whipping her in the face. "I-I don't w-want to be here anym-more!" she sobbed, "I-I-I w-want to go home!"

"What is _wrong_?" Patamon asked, flying toward her for comfort, but she turned away from him hitting him with her hair. Kurayami snatched Patamon from the air, having gotten to her feet already, and Melga was backed up to the wall, nervous. "Spring, talk to us."

"N-no!" she screamed, "Take me h-h-home! I'm af-fraid! I don't want to s-see—" her words melted into a scream, loud and filled with horror. Both Kurayami and I spun to see what she had spotted and my heart jumped in fright when a woman appeared before us, standing at the other end of the room.

The woman was beautiful, with brown, shimmering hair that sparkled and fell like it was floating in the wind that didn't exist, and it fell down to her waist. She was standing in bare feet, like Spring, and was wearing a deep green skirt and a top that looked like it could be made of burlap. The interesting thing about her is how majestically she stood, like she knew she were important and should be treated as such. It was possible that the gold ring around her head was a crown.

Spring was running now, trying to get to a nearby door, but suddenly her feet zoomed together, like her legs had become magnets and she fell, face first.

"Spring!" I called, rushing toward her, and sliding along on my knees until I came to a stop next to her. I helped her to her feet and she tried to escape, but I wouldn't let her. She was crying too hard to even see, and her face was puffed now. What was it about this woman that scared her so much? I turned to the woman who was smiling. I awkwardly smiled back, "Hey," I said.

"Hello young man!" the woman's voice was cheery and low, it reminded me of my mother somehow. "My name is Terra, who are you?"

"Yamato," I said, feeling like Spring must have overreacted, this woman didn't seem terrifying at all.

"Wonderful," Terra said brightly, her beautiful brown eyes looked toward Spring and she pouted, "I see you're busy, I should be on my way." Spring whimpered and dug her fingers into my arm. I looked to her with narrow eyes and realized that there was no way someone could be _this_ upset if it weren't serious. I glanced around and saw that there was an exit nearby, and Kurayami saw what I was looking for and nodded.

"Bye," Kurayami said flatly. Terra looked offended and put her hands on her hips.

"How rude."

Kurayami shrugged.

I looked back to Spring and saw that she was pulling again, trying to get away from my grip and the one that had tied her legs. Why had Terra tied her legs together if she was intending to leave on her own? Was she just not okay with Spring leaving? There was definitely something between the two of them. "Spring," I whispered, "who is she?"

"Not Terra," Spring said softly.

I turned back and screamed seeing Not-Terra coming close, and before I had a chance to move, everything went black.

 _ **Ken Ichijouji:**_

There was only one thing that mattered to me now: finding Miyako. I'd spent so long trying to hold onto the hope that she would be able to find me, or that I could find her, that it felt like a large weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Takeru had been right. I never should have doubted him. I knew that Miyako wouldn't have. I _did_ doubt him some days. But that didn't matter anymore.

She was _here_.

And I was going to find her. I would be united with her, and I could look at her, and hold her, and talk to her. I just wanted to be near her. I wanted to see the progress our baby had made. There was still a niggling fear in the back of my mind that warned me not to be too hopeful. I didn't know what she'd been through in the last two months. I didn't know what dangers she'd faced. I still couldn't know if the baby was safe.

But Winter knew. She was the one that brought her here. She also brought Michael and Iori. I could easily ask them. It wouldn't take much effort. The fear was what stopped me from doing just that though. I was too scared to know the answer that I craved.

"How are you enjoying being queen?" Summer asked Winter, when the silence had dragged on for too long. Winter reached up to touch her tiara again. Her shoulders straightened at the reminder of her new royal status—well, she'd always been royal, but she'd never actually been a queen before apparently. It was confusing to me, since we'd called all three of the fairies queens.

"I would say it was no different, but I would be lying," Winter said with a cocky smile. "I feel so much more powerful. Granted, I've only been queen for an hour or so. It's not been terribly long."

"I was almost king," Michael threw in there. "She saved me from having to do that."

I'd nearly forgotten that Michael was a part of their family. His mother was their youngest sister—if I remembered correctly. I tried to imagine Michael as a king, and couldn't picture it. He was goofy sometimes, and he held great strength and loyalty, but he wasn't a king. He was an actor. That's where he found true joy—the same way I'd felt so happy being a police officer before my team became a corrupt extension of the DWD. He wouldn't have been happy with the political power. Would he have needed to give up his place in the digidestined in addition to his acting? What would've happened to Betamon? And would Tatum have chosen to go along with that decision?

I couldn't see a lot of ways that this could have turned out well for him.

"You would have been a kind king," Summer assured him, though I could tell she was very pleased and proud that it was her sister, and not Michael, that got to take the throne. Summer was walking next to Iori, with her arm locked around his. It almost looked like a scene out of an old movie, except the blood and dirt and scruffiness that Iori was sporting. Summer didn't seem to mind that his clothes were covered in sand and dirt and dried blood. They were leaving an unwelcome residue on her long gown, but she didn't even bat an eye at it.

Iori was holding Hikari's hand with his free one. They were sharing secret looks. They'd experienced something that had freaked Michael out. He'd mentioned dual seizures, but they refused to explain themselves.

I didn't actually care enough at that point in time to worry about it. I was too busy looking into the distance, hoping that I'd catch sight of Miyako any minute. "Are we going the right way?" I demanded. I was being rude, and I knew it. I just couldn't bring myself to care. I wanted to see my wife.

"Miyako is fine," Winter told me, having closed her eyes to check with her magic. I didn't want an explanation of how her magic worked, but I couldn't help but be curious. I'd always been a little curious about the abilities of the four sisters. Summer had been able to literally substitute the memories of the entire population of Earth, so that they didn't remember what digimon were at all. After that moment, I couldn't help but want to know. Did they have limitations, did they have _morals_? Some days, they were gentle and kind—Winter being an exception—but other days, when someone they care about is threatened—like Yume for Summer, or any of the Holy Three—they take their claws out. They could be horrifyingly powerful if they ever chose to use their powers for evil.

"And we're going the right way?" I asked again, just to make sure she answered the question I'd asked, instead of supplying me with alternative information, hoping that I would forget. I was trained to catch on to things like this. I couldn't let a suspect talk me out of suspecting them.

"She is in this direction, yes," Winter said with a sigh. "Unfortunately, the walls keep moving. We may not be able to get to her, until such a time that the walls open to let us through. I can't say I'm in much of a hurry to be back. The _lawyer_ is still there."

"I wish he wasn't," Iori concurred. It occurred to me that he and Winter were acting rather familiarly. I made the assumption then and there that Iori had spent the last two months with her—which explained the state of his clothing. She lived in the Dark Ocean, so he'd obviously had a tough time of things. That was very unfortunate. I hated the Dark Ocean more than I hated just about anything else. It had distorted and tainted my life for longer than I'd have liked to admit to.

"He and Miyako get along," Winter continued. "She would be angry if we'd left him behind."

"Don't I know it," Iori said. "She's too sympathetic to him. Did she _not_ see what he did to my face?"

"It's rather hard to miss," Winter drawled.

"We'll get you cleaned up, my forgiving knight," Summer murmured. "And we'll get that nose set properly. It's not smart to leave it too long. It's rather crooked."

"It's been broken already," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Shadows tortured me to use me as a means to get out of the Dark Ocean. Miyako had to set it that time. She's been fretting about the state of my nose ever since. She said it healed wrong. I can breathe just fine, so I don't really care."

"Hold on," I said, realization sinking in. "Miyako set your nose _in_ the Dark Ocean?"

"Yeah," Iori said slowly. "She was the only option I had, aside from the Armadillomon—who don't have thumbs—that stupid lawyer, or the queen over here. I wouldn't touch her with a ten foot pole."

"Woe is me, however will I go on," Winter said rolling her eyes.

"Now, now," Summer said, as though she were scolding children. It was obvious, even to her, that these two had formed some sort of bond. I didn't understand it, and I didn't try to. I was still caught up on something else. "Things will move along much smoother if we all could just get along."

"Are you telling me that Miyako was in the Dark Ocean?" I said, reiterating my question, hoping for a different answer, but knowing all the same that I wouldn't be getting one.

"For two months," Winter confirmed. My heart dropped like it was made of lead. Miyako had been taken there once before by Daemon. She'd been miserable for even that short of time. This was longer, a _lot_ longer. She'd been pregnant this time too. "She stayed in my palace," Winter continued, as if I wasn't just forced to swallow a bitter pill. "We were very careful that she did not drink the water."

Good.

I'd drunk the water before. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. I'd been forced to relive my worst decisions, my darkest moments, time and time again. I could not imagine my sweet wife needing to endure that. I couldn't handle the thought. What sort of ramifications would that have had for the baby?

I was feeling sick.

I had to stop walking. I leaned my head against the wall, trying to centre myself, and ease my churning stomach. I didn't have time to vomit all over the place. Miyako needed me. Once I saw her, once I saw that she was truly okay, this sickness would pass. I would see that Winter was speaking the truth. Everything would be okay again. The world would be set right once I set eyes on my wife.

"Good," Hikari murmured, echoing my opinion on the matter. She had been tortured relentlessly by the Dark Ocean for longer than I had been. She'd been tortured by her own emotions for longer though. I'd finally seen how dark a place she was emotionally while in the Land of Dreams. It was truly terrifying to know that behind her soft and cheerful smiles, and her bright eyes, was a sea of angst and depression that vast.

"Did _anyone_ have a good vacation?" Iori asked dryly. I couldn't understand how he could be so blasé about his stay in the worst world in existence. He didn't seem overly fussed, now that I thought about it. He _looked_ a little worse for wear, but he didn't act it. He was angry—I could see it in the tenseness of his shoulders, the way his lips were pressed, in the storms in his eyes. But he was not upset.

"Mine was actually alright," Michael offered. I was insanely jealous of him in that moment. I knew I wouldn't have been able to be _happy_ if I wasn't with Miyako, but she'd evidently gone to the world Michael was staying in. I would have seen her sooner if only I'd been with him instead of in the Land of Dreams. "I learned a lot about my family history, a lot about my mom. It was pretty nice."

"In between the near death experiences, I'm sure," Iori commented. "You know, Hideto never did explain why he didn't want me near that gingerbread house."

"You don't want to know," Michael said, shuddering at the thought.

"You nearly _died_?" Summer gasped, looking from Michael to her sister. She was demanding an explanation from Winter, but Winter shook her head, closing her eyes again. Hikari kept moving forward, but since Summer stopped, Iori stopped too—and Hikari didn't want to let go of him. She needed the proof that he was okay in the same way I needed to keep moving to find Miyako. She was drowning in her negative emotions and her fears and her regrets. She needed to know that not everyone was dead. Iori and Michael were proof of that. Miyako would be too.

"Plenty of times," Michael offered, looking at his aunt warily. Winter's eyelids were flickering as she did…whatever it was that she was doing. "Tatum was always saving me. Hideto was too busy saving Mimi from the wolf, and hunting Lopmon down in the forest. She was known for taking unplanned naps."

"Lopmon's okay?" Hikari asked desperately. She and Lopmon had formed an intensely strong bond when Hikari and Willis were dating. The bond hadn't diminished even a little since their break-up. "Hideto, Mimi and Tatum too?"

"Yup," Michael said happily. "I think I'll miss our goose most of all."

"I don't know if I even want to talk to you anymore," Iori said bluntly, confused by the last addition. I couldn't even begin to understand any of what Michael had been talking about. It seemed too outlandish for my exhausted brain. I was tired, I'd already fought against nightmares, and been forced to abandon Yume, Cyberdramon and Ryou. I'd had a long day, and I had a sinking feeling it was _far_ from over.

"Iori," Hikari and Summer scolded at the same time. Iori didn't react. I'd expected him to blush, ashamed of his behaviour, like he always did in the past. But he didn't. He just rolled his eyes, the way Winter always did. I wondered if he picked up her habit, or if it was a result of the time he'd spent in the Dark Ocean. I doubted he'd willingly give me an answer.

"We're close," Winter announced, opening her eyes again.

"I know," Hikari told her. "I can feel it."

"We're not going to Miyako at all," I realized, torn between rage and heartbreak.

"We are," Winter corrected. "There's just someone I want to greet along the way. We must hurry. Spring is in trouble."

"Spring is here?" Summer asked, sounding excited.

"She's being confronted by the darkness while we stand and gab about," Winter said with a glint in her eye. She started walking again, and Summer hurried to keep up, dragging a perfectly willing Iori and Hikari with her. Michael and I were at the back. I couldn't find it in myself to get excited. There was very little I would be able to do if it came to a fight. Michael was holding a metal pipe that I just _knew_ was Iori's weapon. I could use that, if it came down to it, but I didn't care about the fight. I couldn't care. That might've made me a bad person, but I wanted nothing but my wife at this moment. I had noticed the distinct lack of baby news from Winter and Iori. If the baby was alright, I would've thought they'd like to share that news, and ease my worries.

My only hopes now lied in the idea that the Dark Ocean had dulled their emotions, and that they couldn't see how important it was for me, and _not_ being intentionally cruel.

"We found trust," I told Michael, to get my mind off of it.

"Really?" he asked, shocked.

"Yeah, he's just a kid," I said. "On Earth he's like two or something. But in the Land of Dreams he's fourteen. He was twelve in ninety-nine, when he had his first big adventure—with me."

"Are you _trying_ to out-crazy my stories?" Michael asked with a laugh.

I tried to laugh too, but it didn't come out sounding happy at all. He gave me a sympathetic look, and we silently decided to just run after the others. It was definitely better than crying over nothing—probably nothing, but possibly _everything_.

We raced through the white halls, trying to catch up to our friends. They slowed to a stop when they reached a doorway, and we nearly crashed into them, because we didn't expect it. I hadn't even _seen_ the doorway until they stopped. I looked over Hikari's shoulder to see what was going on inside.

Yamato was on the ground, eyes closed. I could see his chest rising and falling, but he wasn't moving other than that. Patamon was next to him, suspended in midair. He was wrapped up in what looked like vines, and was struggling against them. His struggling was only making them tighter. A Gabumon was being held upside down in the air as well. I couldn't see enough of him to know whether it was Melga or Gabumon, because he was covered in vines, the same as Patamon. The vines holding him were dangling down from a tree. Attached to the tree's trunk, was Kurayami. She was struggling against the vines holding her, reaching out with pure darkness, trying to reach a woman. Said woman was looming over Spring, who was curled up on the ground, hands pressed over her ears as she screamed and cried. She was rocking back and forth, and the woman was just standing there. She wasn't saying a word.

Yet somehow, she was absolutely terrifying to Spring.

"Kurayami!" Iori shouted, running forward, after untangling himself from Hikari and Summer. His exclamation was enough to spur everyone else into action. Hikari ran for Patamon, while Michael raced towards Yamato. I decided that meant the Gabumon was my responsibility. I'd let the fairies take care of their sister. I didn't even understand what was going on anyway.

"Hold on," I told the Gabumon when I reached him. "I'll get you down."

"C'mon, Yamato," Michael said. He was being careful, not wanting to risk any head or spine injuries. We didn't know _why_ Yamato was unconscious. He poked him a couple of times, but he was smart, and didn't just shake him. "Wake up."

"Patamon," Hikari cried. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again." Patamon responded with something, but he was tied up pretty good so it just sounded like gibberish.

"Kurayami," Iori called. "You've got to rein it in. I can't get you down if you won't let me close."

"I've got to help her," Kurayami insisted. "She hurt Yamato."

"He's fine," Michael corrected. "He's even waking up. The most damage she did was to his ego. Look at that face. He's totally embarrassed."

"Shaddup," Yamato said, his voice slurring the words together. His face _was_ bright red. He didn't really appreciate the audience to what I was sure he considered a weakness.

While Hikari, Iori and I were busy trying to untie our friends, and while Michael was trying to get Yamato to his feet, Summer and Winter starred stormily towards the woman scaring their sister. Their faces were more frightening than I'd ever seen them. I honestly couldn't remember a time when Summer had looked scary at all. But the sight of this woman and the screams of their sister were enough to change that. The air around them began to crackle. Summer was creating a warm front that matched Winter's cold one. Between the pair, they were creating a lightning storm. Rain was splattering down from the ceiling—which was now covered in thick, angry, black clouds. The raindrops couldn't make up their minds. Some were freezing cold, others were boiling hot. The sisters were furious, and it showed. I lifted my arms to protect both _my_ face and the Gabumon's.

"Mother," the two fairies said in unison, with cold, hard voices.

"Oh," the woman said, pretending to be surprised. She seemed so gentle and innocent. I couldn't fathom Spring's fear. But I wasn't going to question it. None of the sisters liked her. She was probably very bad news. "A family reunion, how quaint. It looks like your sister couldn't make it. That's too bad."

"Don't talk about her," Michael snapped. He was glaring at the woman. He knew who she was. I was hit with the realization that _of course_ he knew. He'd _just_ said that he learned about his family history, and his aunts had just called her 'mother'. That made this woman his grandmother. He didn't seem too fond of the idea.

"Did I touch a nerve?" the woman said. "I didn't mean to. I do miss my children. You've done so wonderfully at taking over the worlds. It's really too bad your father couldn't live to see it. He might've changed his mind about how large his kingdom should be."

"Don't pretend to care about him," Winter ordered. "You tried to kill him."

"From what I hear, you _succeeded_ ," their mother said, patronizingly. "Don't scold me about right and wrong, when you commit the same deeds as I. It's hypocritical, and frankly, not your concern. I believe _I_ am the parent in this relationship. That task ought to fall to me."

"Spring, get away from her," Summer told her sister. Spring tried to get to her feet, but her feet wouldn't move. Spring fell to the ground again, sobbing even more than before.

"She doesn't _want_ to go," their mother said, looking at Spring with a happy expression, even though Spring was so clearly miserable. "She has not forsaken her mother."

"You're _not_ fit to be our mother any longer," Winter snapped.

"I am your queen," their mother responded, regally.

"Wrong," Michael told her. "Winter's the queen."

"This has nothing to do with you," the woman told him, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

"He has more sway in Sidhendor now than you ever will," Winter told her. I could barely see anymore, with the strength of their anger. The rain was pelting down on us. I finally managed to free the Gabumon, who turned out to be Melga, and shuffled him under the branches of the tree Kurayami was still attached to. Melga used his claws to break through the vines trapping her there. She rushed out into the rain, after that, positioning herself in front of Hikari and Patamon, keeping her darkness at her fingertips, _just in case_.

Hikari was entranced by the fairies' mother. She hadn't looked away from her since the moment she started speaking. She was blindly trying to untie Patamon, but couldn't bring herself to look at the vines for even just a second. Iori moved out into the rain to help her. I stayed under the tree with Melga. It wasn't dry—not by a long shot—but the rain wasn't quite as hard under the branches. Melga leaned against me. I tried to draw comfort from him. He was a digimon that was in the Digital World when we left. If _he_ was safe, Wormmon was probably safe too.

"Where's Wormmon?" I asked, not expecting a favourable answer.

"Don't know," Melga said. "We got separated when the monsters attacked. I don't know where anyone is. I don't know where _Warg_ is."

"That's not good," I sighed. "On the other hand, Hideto's here, so that's gotta brighten your day."

"It kind of does," Melga admitted, smiling happily to himself. I squeezed his shoulder as he leaned against me, and tried to figure out what was going on out there.

"You stole my crown?" the woman shouted, angrily, now that Michael's implications had sunk in. "I get banished for my attempts, and you get rewarded for the same offense? That's not fair."

"It's more than fair," Summer argued. "Don't try to compare our actions with yours. Our intent was noble, yours was simply greed."

"Look at it from _my_ point of view," her mother tried, regaining her gentle voice. It was hard to hear her over the splattering of rain against the ground. Hikari I noticed was moving forward now. Kurayami was moving with her, eyeing her cautiously. She didn't understand what Hikari was up to—and I didn't think _any_ of us did—but she wasn't going to let her go alone. "My husband was cruel, and relentless. He wanted so much from you. I had to send you away where you could be safe. I couldn't let him destroy what you had the potential to be. But you didn't want to go, I had no other choice. I had to get rid of _him_ if I wanted you girls safe."

"You wanted us gone so we couldn't usurp you," Winter snapped. "Don't try to get all noble on us. And you only killed father because he was in your way. You wanted Maugrim on the throne. Don't deny it."

"How could you fault me for that?" their mother wanted to know. "Maugrim was gentle and everything _good_ in the world. He would have been a better king. You would be safe in your own worlds, and I could do as I pleased in my own. No one lost in that situation."

"Except for father," Summer pointed out indignantly.

"What's one life for the good of many?" their mother wanted to know. " _You_ killed him, not me. I don't know what you're so upset about. I was a good queen, the people loved me. I only wanted to share that love with the other worlds."

"You're crazy," Hikari announced, wide eyed. She and Kurayami were dangerously close to the woman now. If she wanted to, she could hurt them without taking a step. Their mother's eyes turned to Hikari sharply.

"Mind your own business," she ordered.

"You're pure darkness," Hikari told her. "That _makes_ it my business."

"She's not," Kurayami protested. "She's pure _evil_ , not darkness. I know the difference now."

"I am not _evil_ ," the woman shouted, stomping her feet like she was having a tantrum. "I am not the villain in this scenario. I was banished for trying to do what was _right_ for the land. I was the victim!"

"You're pathetic," Winter sneered towards her mother. Her mother stepped forward in a rage, and reached out to grab Hikari. Kurayami let her darkness seep out, and Hikari—the moment the woman's fingers touched her—started glowing so brightly, that I could finally see clearly through the storm.

"Oh," the woman said, looking to Hikari. She turned to Kurayami, and said it again. "Oh." Her lips curled into a natural, beautiful smile, and her anger evaporated. I wasn't the only one confused. Melga looked up to me with curious eyes and I could only shrug my shoulders. I couldn't begin to understand. Iori was standing with his hand stretched towards Michael, who was passing him his metal pipe. Yamato was still a little disoriented, and this confusing confrontation wasn't helping any. Patamon was flying as best he could, now that Iori had freed him, but was finding it difficult with the heavy rains.

"I believe I've outstayed my welcome," the woman said with a smile. "I'll just be going now. It was so nice to meet you."

"You're not going anywhere," Winter and Summer chorused, raising their hands towards their mother. Their mother waved her hand in Spring's direction, freeing her feet, before throwing some magic towards the collected forces of Winter and Summer. They exploded, knocking us all off our feet. I threw myself over Melga, and had a moment of panic when I heard the tree crack. Thankfully, it didn't fall on us. It was cracked straight down the middle, and looked like it had been peeled to the side, like a banana skin.

"Fire!" Michael yelled.

"Get back!" Winter shouted.

Hikari and Kurayami backed towards us, and Summer raced to collect Spring. She pulled her off of the ground and half-carried her over to us. Patamon flew towards the fire, spitting his Boom Bubble at it, trying to blow out the flames. Michael and Iori were lugging Yamato towards the door—Iori only using one hand, because he was still carrying the pipe. We all backed our way into the hallway, watching as Winter used her ice magic on the fire, freezing the flames in place. Patamon watched them, waiting for them to break free of their ice prison. Winter was moving quickly though. Her mother had escaped them by breaking through the far wall, and if what Winter had said earlier was true, then her mother was heading towards my wife. Winter looked worried, which didn't ease the fear that was building up inside of me.

She stormed passed us, and I raced to follow her. I knew the others were coming behind me, but Hikari let out a strangled cry, and I couldn't help but look back. There was a wall directly behind her. She'd nearly been crushed by it. She was on the floor, looking back at it in horror.

"Are you okay?" I asked cautiously.

"Patamon was back there," she choked out. "He's trapped."

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Miyako and Takeru are in separate parts of this mystery world and both are confronted with what it means for someone to be truly, undeniably _Mean_.


	45. Mean

**Y/N:** Yolei is not having any fun being in a new world. She wants to go home and find Ken, but really, when have we ever gone easy on characters? Not often. We kind of torture them a bit every time—particularly Yolei. I don't know why.

 **U/N:** I wrote Tk's second chapter here. Dunno reaaaally what it was about because it was a while ago (not that long unfortunately, the story is catching up to us now!) I'm not a great writer of action sequences, so this whole arc was kind of hard (and nothing compared to what happens later, ugh) but I'd like to think I'm not HORRIBLE, so there's that at least.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 45: Mean**

 _ **Miyako Ichijouji:**_

My feet still hurt.

And my back hurt.

And I was so tired.

I continued to look toward the doors. Someone was bound to come back sooner or later. They'd promised they'd be back. They weren't supposed to take so long. I was so scared that something had happened to them. Winter had left to seek out some foe. I didn't want to have to fight anyone else today. The last fight was more than I could handle.

"Does it move yet?" Hideto asked. I looked to him, startled. He nodded towards my stomach. I realized only then that I was rubbing my pregnant belly. I dropped my hands awkwardly. "I don't know how babies work. They move sometimes, right?"

"They're _supposed_ to," I said, bursting into tears. I shocked myself with my sudden emotional outburst. Hideto looked to Bengoshi, and then to Athos, Aramis and Porthos. They all just shook their heads or shrugged their shoulders. Hideto sighed, and straddled the bench I was sitting on, patting me on the shoulder. I toppled over into his chest, and he sighed again, before wrapping his one arm around me. He reached out with the other hand to lean his axe against the fountain, before holding me tighter.

"I don't know what I said wrong," he admitted.

"It's not _your_ fault," I sobbed. "It's mine. I did something wrong. I _killed_ it."

"No," he protested quickly, but he didn't sound convinced. He couldn't. He didn't know anything about babies or my situation. He wasn't going to lie to me. I _wanted_ him to lie to me. I wanted him to tell me I wasn't a failure, and that my baby was just waiting for the right moment to make its move. I wanted to be able to cling to that false hope in order to create some genuine hope of my own.

I let out a desperate, loud wail, and Bengoshi startled. Aramis and Porthos jumped into the fountain. They started swimming underwater, and I wondered if they were just playing, or if they were trying to block out the heart wrenching sobs that were pouring out of me. Athos came over and rubbed his head against my leg though, trying to comfort me, which was very sweet of him. Bengoshi just backed away a bit, trying to find something else, _anything else_ to focus on.

"Why aren't the others back yet?" Hideto asked impatiently. He didn't know what to say to me, and it struck me as ridiculous, and a bubble of laughter exploded out of me. It was disgusting. I choked on my own spit. Tears and snot were all over my face. I wasn't feeling very put together. Hideto took his cloak from around my shoulders, and wiped my face gently with it, getting rid of the disgusting, unwanted gunk. "Everything will be fine."

"Will it?" I asked, not believing it for a second. "I don't have any idea where Ken is. I don't know if he's alive, or stranded in some other world. Hawkmon's probably dead, because Iori was with him right before going to the Dark Ocean, and won't tell me what happened. My baby is probably dead, because I'm already a failure at being a mother. I just want to go home and curl up and cry, but I can't because Winter brought us to this stupid world instead of just bringing us to Earth."

"I'm sure she would've brought us home if she could," Hideto protested half-heartedly. He didn't believe it either. She's managed to bring us to Sidhendor because Bengoshi was being infected by the shadows. Theoretically she should have been able to bring us _anywhere_. I secretly thought she brought us to Sidhendor _just_ because it was her home, and she missed it. She also waited two months before bringing us anywhere, only bringing us to Sidhendor when it was under duress.

I was pretty much positive she didn't care about me at this point.

"This world is creepy," Athos said, changing the subject of our conversation. "I don't like it."

"Didn't you live in the Dark Ocean?" Hideto questioned, raising an eyebrow at the yellow digimon.

"Yes," Athos agreed. "And it was scary too. But this is different. It isn't _obvious_."

"It's eerie," I agreed. "There's something in the air here that feels dangerous. I don't like it either. It's stressing me out. I just want Winter to come back, and Iori and Michael, and Lopmon, Tatum and Mimi too. I don't like how long it's taking them. I feel vulnerable, like something's going to jump out at us at any moment."

"Well," Hideto said, lifting his wrist so he could look at the digivice that was strapped there. I blushed, realizing I could have done that too, and not have been panicking so badly. I had my own digivice as well as Morestuna's. I pulled them out, and nearly dropped Morestuna's. It was glowing. How could it possibly be glowing? The glow only lasted a short while, just long enough for a digimon to digivolve. I was very confused. "There are a _lot_ of people here."

"What do you mean?" I asked, looking into my own digivice, and banishing my thoughts about Morestuna from my mind. He was right. There were more than a dozen little glowing dots on the screen—far more than the six that represented Mimi, Michael, Iori, Tatum, Hideto and I. "There are others here," I realized.

"Yeah," Hideto said flashing me a hesitant smile. "Do you think Ki… _Ken_ , is here?"

"I hope they're _both_ here," I told him. I'd caught the switch. He wanted Kiyoko, but he was thoughtful enough to want what _I_ wanted, even though he didn't realize I would be happy with either. I wanted to have _all_ of our friends together again. I missed having so many friends to talk to. I missed our weekly meetings about nothing in particular. I just wanted it all to go back to the way it was before.

It was all terribly exciting to see so many dots. Each dots represented a person. I wondered if there were any digimon out there with any of them. I needed to find out. I hopped to my feet and left the room without a second thought. There were several dots in this general direction. Winter had left this way, and so had Iori and Michael. I wondered if these dots were them. If they were among them, then they had found four of our friends. I couldn't wait to see who it was.

The ground shook and a loud explosion ripped through the air. The wall of the hallway I was walking down crumbled and a woman stepped through it. I'd never seen her before. I glanced to my digivice, and found that she didn't have one of her own. She wasn't one of the dots. I wondered momentarily if she lived here, but there was something wild in her eyes, and the too sweet smile that looked fake. The eeriness that Athos and I had talked about was stronger now. It was coming from _her_.

But she didn't _look_ scary. She looked beautiful and natural. Her dark skin was flawless, and her long hair glowed in the light of this place. She had a circlet on her head that caught the light and glinted. Her feet were bare and dainty. Her clothes weren't overly fabulous; they were more down to earth. But they suited her incredibly well.

She looked directly into my eyes, just watching me.

It was unnerving. I didn't really want to talk to her. I couldn't trust her. I could _feel_ that. I didn't want to be near her anymore. I wanted to escape. There was something in the way she was looking at me that made me afraid.

And then her eyes broke away from my own, and started travelling down towards my stomach.

I covered up my baby with my hands, not wanting her to look at it. The first time a stranger looked at my baby with that glint in their eye, I got kidnapped and locked in a tower, where I was expected to spin straw into gold. I wasn't going to risk finding out what she wanted.

But at the same time, I was too petrified to move.

The woman came close to me, holding a hand out in front of her. She grabbed my arm, ripping it away from where it was cradling my baby, and looked at it. Her other hand came up and pulled my glove downwards, revealing my ugly scars. In the effervescent lighting of this world, they looked even more prominent than they usually did. My stomach churned at the sight of them, and memories flitted across my vision. I pulled away from her, bending over and heaving out the minimal contents of my stomach. It was too much. I didn't want to think about it anymore.

My throat was burning.

Why wouldn't she let go of me?

She was still clinging to my wrist. She was still looking over the scars. She traced them with her free hand, sending chills down my spine. I heaved again. Nothing came out. There wasn't anything left. I needed to eat something. If my baby _was_ alright, then it needed to be fed. I needed to get out of here, I needed to protect the baby.

"It hasn't moved," she murmured. She waved her hand absentmindedly next to her, and a tree grew from the floor. Just the trunk came first, spiraling out of the tiles, until it reached up and spread out some branches. The leaves came next, and once it was full of leaves and life, fruit started growing. I stared in awe and amazement as I watched the life sprout from nowhere specifically. The tree was heavy with fruit, and she plucked one off, handing it to me. "This will help," she told me.

I didn't believe her. I _couldn't_ believe her.

"Eat it," she commanded and her peaceful voice was suddenly dripping with anger. She grabbed my face with one hand and used her other hand to dig her fingers into the scars on my wrists. My mouth opened as I screamed in pain, and she stuffed the fruit inside. I tried to spit it out, but she closed her hand over my mouth. I had no choice but to swallow it. I could tell from the look in her eyes that she was determined. She would have waited forever if she had to.

I couldn't understand why she was trying to "help" the baby if she was the source of the eeriness. It didn't add up. My stomach started squirming. I was afraid I was going to throw up again, but the nausea never came. I touched my stomach with my free hand—she was _still_ holding onto my scars—and was surprised to feel a gentle movement in my stomach. It was sort of a fluttering feeling. I looked down in shock.

"It moved!" I exclaimed.

"Yes," the woman told me. She traced a finger down my stomach, and I recoiled from her touch. "I do so like it when there's at least a _chance_. It's never much fun when there isn't a gamble."

"What?" I asked, confused. My baby started kicking again, and my muscles all tightened up. I wasn't going to panic about it though. I knew that there were often signs of false labor during a pregnancy. I was only twenty-five weeks along. It wasn't going to be anything serious.

But it was disturbing that this false labor followed her cryptic message.

I didn't want to stick around any longer. She was putting me on edge. I reached over and pried her hand off of my own. She allowed it. I had no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have been able to get rid of her if she hadn't allowed it. My heart was racing, and my muscles were still tightening. I stepped away from her. I couldn't panic. I _couldn't_. I had to think of the baby.

The baby that was now _finally_ able to move.

The baby that I had inadvertently fed a magical fruit that I didn't know anything about.

I was such a bad mother.

There was a shifting noise behind me, and I turned and nearly lost control. There was a wall growing from the side of the hallway. It was going to block me off from Hideto and the others. It was going to trap me with _her_.

I couldn't let that happen, so I ran as fast as I could. I managed to slip through the gap before it trapped me and I wanted to sigh with relief, but I couldn't. She was freaking me out and I didn't know what to do. I just knew I needed to get away from her. I ran until I ran directly into Hideto's chest. I screamed the moment I hit him, thinking that somehow that woman had gotten in front of me. Hideto grabbed onto my shoulders, and looked me straight in the eye.

"Calm down," he said soothingly. "I get that you're excited, but we should really stick together, yeah?"

"There's a woman," I gasped, looking over my shoulder, panicking despite my best efforts. "She's waiting there. We have to leave."

"There's just a wall there," Bengoshi pointed out, being entirely unhelpful.

"She's there," I insisted. As if to prove my point, the wall started crumbling, gracefully opening so that the woman could look out through a hole at me. She quirked her head at me, and looked to my stomach before smiling.

"Tick, tock," she said with a creepy smile.

I screamed—long, loud and terrified.

"Let's get out of here," Aramis suggested. I couldn't have come up with a better suggestion, and Hideto swung me around behind him, urging me to run ahead of him. He had an axe to protect himself, but I had a baby to protect. It was logical, even if I didn't like the idea of him being in danger. People always needed to protect me. Unfortunately, I wasn't in a position to protest. I had a baby to think about, and my baby came first, above myself, above Ken and above my friends. I didn't have to _like_ that they were risking their lives for me. But I could handle it, if it meant they were risking themselves for the baby. For the baby, anything was okay.

My stomach was killing me. It was like the baby was trying to make up for lost time. I was being kicked like nobody's business, and the muscles would only stay relaxed for short stretches of time. I didn't like it. I would need to get used to it for sure.

But the baby was _moving_! I'd waited so long for this moment. I couldn't wait to tell Iori. He'd been right. He told me it would be a dramatic moment, and I couldn't think of something more dramatic than a stranger force-feeding me a magical fruit after exploding a wall with her magic. I actually wished the baby had chosen something a little _less_ spectacular. What was wrong with taking it easy, you know?

I was well aware of the fact that I was still screaming my fool head off. I wasn't sure I was ever going to be able to stop. That woman was terrifying. Her very presence had made my skin crawl. And then she wanted to give me a chance? Or was it the _baby_ she was giving the chance to? And with her "tick tock" comment, I was sure whatever that chance was, it was coming up fast. I just wished I knew what that chance could be.

"Is she coming after us?" Porthos asked, gasping for breath. We were running very fast, too fast, in my opinion. The Armadillomon only had tiny legs. As it was, they were curling up into a ball and rolling every so often just to keep up with Hideto's long legs. Bengoshi was wheezing, because he was so winded.

"I'm too afraid to look," I admitted, holding my stomach with one hand. I wanted to stop moving, but I couldn't. Hideto looked over his shoulder, and that made _me_ tempted to look. So I did, and promptly crashed into a living being.

I started screaming, yet again.

"Miayko?" the person asked. It was male, and familiar. I tried to rein in my screams, but it wasn't working. He put his hand over my mouth, which just made me scream _more_ , because that's what _she_ did. "Be quiet. They could be after us."

"What are you talking about?" Hideto wanted to know.

"Hideto!" a female cried, running into his arms and promptly starting to cry.

"Mimi, shut up," another female hissed. At the sound of that name, my screaming faded into a soft whimper. The hand was removed and I was able to look up.

"Mimi?" I asked. I saw that it had been Taichi that I'd run into. Tatum was hissing at Mimi, who was wrapped around Hideto. She was crying into his chest.

"I don't like it here," she cried. "It's so scary."

"You're fine," Hideto told her. He was looking at the others that were gathered here. He'd already seen Mimi today, he knew she was safe. His eyes were stuck on Mari. Mine were stuck on the purple fluffy ball with a beak at Mimi's feet. I was definitely confused by the sight of it. Mari was holding Neo up with Jou's help. I let out a short squeal of horror. His shirt was soaked in blood. It wasn't like Iori's, which was already dried. This was fresh blood.

"Armadillomon?" Jou asked, looking at Athos, Aramis and Porthos.

"None are Iori's," Hideto said, shaking his head.

" _You_ ," Bengoshi hissed, flinching away from the sight of Mari like she was a clove of garlic, and he was a vampire. He actually looked the part, which would be funnier if it wasn't so sad. Mari flinched too, having recognized him right off. "You sent me to hell!"

"I'm sorry," she said softly.

"I got turned into a puppet," he whined.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but if it's my fault, I'm sorry about that too," Mari commented.

"We were attacked by gargoyles and a troll, and the rabbit became a dragon," he complained.

"I don't see how that's my fault," Mari admitted.

"It _is_ ," Bengoshi insisted in a whiny childlike voice.

"Then I'm sorry about that too," she said, though she didn't seem convinced it was really her fault, she definitely _was_ sorry. She looked very guilty about what she had done to him, and I already forgave her for her actions—it was too exciting to see my friends again to be bitter about anything, except perhaps that horrifying woman who had touched me. I glanced down to my glove to make sure it was pulled up again and covering my scars.

"Thank you," Bengoshi said, crossing his arms and tilting his head up.

"HIDETO!" Warg cheered, pushing Mimi out of the way. She fell to the ground with a squeak. She glared at Warg, but it was only half-hearted. She didn't want to get in the way of two partners reuniting. I could see the longing in her eyes too. I wondered if Palmon was here. Warg snuggled into Hideto, who was laughing very happily—despite not knowing where his second digimon was—and tickling Warg's sides.

While the two got reacquainted, I looked over who all was here. Taichi was still holding me, and Mari and Bengoshi were awkwardly standing next to one another, while she continued to help Jou hold Neo up. Athos, Aramis and Porthos were hanging around me. Behind Taichi, I could see VictoryGreymon, Coremon and Antylamon. I wondered just what it was they were fighting that required so much power. Tatum was standing near the fallen Mimi—who was snuggling with the purple fuzzy ball. And there were four other digimon. I saw Gatomon looking at us all curiously, but being disappointed that none of us were Hikari. I saw Labramon give us a happy wag of his tail, and I saw Tapirmon hovering, wanting to go and greet Hideto, but wanting to wait his turn. It was nice to see all of them, but once I saw the fourth, none of them mattered to me anymore.

"Hawkmon," I cried. He flew at me and tried to hug me around my middle. He couldn't reach around anymore, thanks to the baby.

"I was wondering when you'd notice me," he commented dryly. His falsified indignation was ruined when he let out a sniffle though. "You're so big," he observed. I rolled my eyes. He hadn't learned not to tell pregnant women that yet. "It kicked me!" he squeaked happily. "Am I the first?"

"You are," I told him, crying at the thought. It was so special that my partner had been the first besides me to feel the baby. I didn't count that creepy woman. She didn't matter. Hawkmon did though. He was so happy by the idea. And it made me the happiest I'd been in ages. "I love you so much, Hawkmon. I thought the worst had happened to you."

"You had so little faith in me?" he asked, sounding wounded.

"Iori lost track of you," I tried to explain. "He made it seem like you'd got caught. I couldn't bear the thought, Hawkmon. Don't you ever leave me again! I need you. The _baby_ needs you now too."

"Your baby's not the only one," Jou commented. "He's got a Poromon of his own to look after now, don't you papa bird?"

"You cheeky bird," I told him, laughing. "You had to beat me to the punch."

"We're partners," he said, as though it explained everything. And in a way, it kind of made sense. "We do everything together. We'll be parents together too."

"I think I'm going to like that," I admitted.

"Is that an _axe_?" Mari asked Hideto incredulously.

"Yeah," Hideto said like it was no big deal. "I needed it for cutting wood, beanstalks and gargoyles—and that's not even mentioning that pesky wolf."

"You fought gargoyles?" Tapirmon asked in awe.

"You bet I did," he said with a cocky grin. "Until Mimi turned me to stone anyway, then I didn't do much of anything except stand there."

"I didn't _mean_ to," Mimi insisted. Mari and Warg started laughing at the thought, but Tapirmon looked positively scandalized. Hideto held an arm out, inviting him in, and Tapirmon flew at him, nestling in against his chest.

"H—d—to—" Neo murmured. Hideto narrowed his eyes at his best friend. I didn't know how he could possibly be so angry with him. He'd only _just_ been reunited. I was happy to see Neo, even though we weren't close at all. "S—ry"

"You should be," Hideto said, glaring at him.

"Oh grow up," Mari said. "He wasn't a bad guy."

"He picked my family over me," Hideto insisted.

"He was playing a double agent," Mari told him. "He really helped the people on Earth. They're here now too. I mean, he brought the monsters with him, but….he got _shot_ Hideto."

"Is he going to be okay?" Hideto asked, trying not to sound desperate for the answer, and failing entirely at it. He coughed and looked at the wall, disinterested.

"If we can get him to a hospital," Jou assured him. Hideto relaxed a bit, but neither he nor I were particularly comforted by the diagnosis.

"We need to keep moving," I said, looking back over my shoulder.

"Is there a monster?" Tatum wanted to know.

"No," I said, shaking my head, sending my hair flying into Hawkmon's face. "It was a woman. But she's terrifying. She wanted something with the baby. I don't want her to catch us. We need to move. Please move."

"A woman?" Mari asked, sounding confused.

"I thought it was just Arnold here," Taichi muttered. "Are you _sure_ you saw someone?"

"She's sure," Hideto agreed.

"Then let's get going," Mimi decided. "I don't like it here. The longer we stay, the less appeal I find in it. I just want to find Palmon and go home."

"Home," I agreed. I wanted it so badly. My stomach muscles tightened up again, and I winced, uncomfortable. I was so ridiculously happy that it was moving, but hopefully, the baby would settle down by the time we got to go home.

 _ **Takeru Takaishi:**_

I hid my face every time Kabuterimon smashed one of the walls out his way. The pieces of the solid, glassy material that made up the walls scattered throughout the air and nearly hit us every time. Instead though, they flew over our heads and crashed into the wild beast that was chasing us, leaping through the holes that Kabuterimon made.

I had my eyes peeled, keeping them open in search of Hikari who I feared had gotten herself lost in the maze of hallways that apparently changed whenever the walls decided it was time to move—at least according to Betamon. It was weird that the walls could move, but mostly because it felt like they were thinking, and in a way, it seemed they were alive. Which just made me feel guilty about smashing our way through, but really, what other option was there? It was either walk around aimlessly and get lost in the maze, or break our way to the place we wanted to be.

I for one was surprised that Koushiro had chosen the latter of the two options. Glad, sure, but still surprised.

"...The virus is really gross," Palmon was explaining, "It's thick and heavy."

"It's a cloud," Gomamon said, rolling his eyes, "how can it be heavy?"

"It just _feels_ heavy," she corrected, "and it's horrible. It feels so negative and dark."

"Well it did kill a bunch of digimon," Gomamon said sadly. Palmon didn't respond, instead choosing to lean into Koushiro and close her eyes, paying respect to the fallen digimon that the virus had taken. "Earth was no picnic either," Gomamon admitted after a long silence, "Everyone is against the digimon—well, at least the people in the enemy camp. Puraido isn't so bad though. Neo helped me escape."

"Neo is alright then?" Koushiro asked rhetorically, he was striking off the people who we knew were alive in his head the same as I was. I was too worried to ask any questions though. I didn't want to find out who _wasn't_ okay. But I still held hope that we would all make it through this.

Gomamon slowly shook his head though and Koushiro and I exchanged worried looks. "He's alive, I think," Gomamon's eyes were shifting, like he was nervous, "I didn't get a good look at the wound. Jou's with him though. I think he'll be... well he's in good hands."

"What happened?" I asked sharply.

"He was shot," Gomamon said bluntly. A chill rolled down my whole body as my heart tensed up. Neo had been _shot_? By one of those horrible deleting guns? A normal gun? Neither was particularly desirable, but at least the virus was able to be cancelled by whatever Jou had found for Jun. If Neo was being deleted we knew of a great doctor who could help him out. But if he had been _shot-_ shot...

I couldn't find the right words to form a sentence so I was glad when Koushiro spoke in my place, "Who shot him?"

Gomamon looked up to him and shuddered, "It was Arnold."

"Who, sorry?" I asked, not following. Even Koushiro looked confused now. Perhaps we had been too busy at the Temple and the Coliseum to really learn anything about him, but when Koushiro's face lit up in realization I found myself alone in that regard.

"Willis' boss?" Koushiro asked, "Director Arnold?" Gomamon nodded and shuddered again, "Why in the _Worlds_ was Neo hanging around Director Arnold?"

Gomamon shook his head dramatically, but we all prepared ourselves again as Kabuterimon smashed down another wall after having flown us down a hallway, seeing an opening for us without having to break down any walls, but that stretch was now over. Palmon grabbed onto my wrist as she braced herself and I heard Armadillomon and Wormmon's nervous yelling from below, in Kabuterimon's arms. I knew Betamon was down there somewhere too and I felt bad for them, having to be so close to the walls as they broke down. "He wasn't," Gomamon said as Kabuterimon made his way through the new hole, "Well I mean he _was_ , but not really."

"That hardly makes any sense," Palmon said, confused.

"Well Neo went to Arnold because he was trying to stop him," Gomamon explained, "but for the most part he spent his time with Maugrim."

"Who?" I asked.

"He's some big creepy guy," Gomamon explained, "He's mean and bossy and yells a lot. I've never seen him though, I just know he's big because Puraido is really scared of him." That made sense, some creepy guy hanging around Neo, but why did Neo feel the need to do that? "He's not really on their side though, Neo. He's double crossing them."

"By double crossing us?" Palmon asked scratching her head. "What if he's actually double crossing us by double crossing them by double crossing us?" she looked up to the ceiling to think for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders, "I'm confused."

"You mean to say, that we can't trust Neo if he never makes his intentions clear," Koushiro noted, and Palmon nodded, "I do agree."

"I'm pretty sure stepping in front of Yamato and Sora and taking a bullet for them is enough to prove his loyalty," Gomamon said bitterly. "Sure he's angry all the time and he's—"

"Wait," I butted in as the realization dawned on me, "Y-you said Yamato?" Gomamon nodded, "So he's alive?" Again Gomamon nodded. Relief had never felt so relaxing before. I had hope, really I did, but if there was one person who that hope was weaker for, it had been Yamato. I hadn't even known where he had been _before_ the virus, so there was no way to convince myself of some story that could have saved his life. But he was okay... or at least he was alive. That was something.

Koushiro seemed pleased to know this as well, but did not hesitate to ask further questions. "What does Director Arnold have to do with any of this?"

Gomamon seemed to know the answer, and was not happy about it. He waited to answer though, because Kabuterimon had turned sharply down the hall and his wings were flapping even faster as he headed for another doorway. I risked a look back and nearly fell off of Kabuterimon's back. The gorilla-moose was bounding toward us, running quicker than should be able, and it had its jaw dropped as a horrible bellow escaped it in its fit of rage. I swallowed thickly and turned back to the others. "He's the jerk-wad who sent the virus to the Digital World," Gomamon explained, "I heard him and Maugrim talking more than once. Maugrim didn't care about the virus for a second, but Arnold _did_ , it was all his idea. Arnold wants the Digital World for himself, and Maugrim promised him he could have it."

"As if it were _his_ to give away!" Palmon growled, "I don't like either of them."

"I wouldn't advise you to," Koushiro agreed.

I couldn't help but feel a burning anger, as all of my pent up and loose emotions came together to be channelled toward one specific person. It had just been a general hatred for a long time, not knowing who to be mad at, but now that I had a _name_ at the very least, it was something I could use to get out my anger. I felt my fists ball up and Gomamon noticed them, looking up to me worried. He said nothing though, but it wouldn't have helped if he had. I was angry and I wanted to find Arnold.

Kabuterimon was still heading straight down a _very_ long hallway, and I could hear the bellowing and screaming from the monster whose pace was only quickening. But as Kabuterimon turned sharply around the corner when we finally reached the end I saw something move in a room ahead.

My mind immediately jumped to Hikari, and I just _knew_ it had to be her. We would have to save her from the creature we were bringing along, but it was possible that Summer, who was surely still with Hikari and Ken, would be able to help us with some of her fairy magic, whatever that was. I hadn't a clue what kinds of things she could do. I was eager to find out though.

When we shot into the wide open room, my first glance was oddly toward the beautiful fountain in the center of the room, but then my eyes quickly flicked around to all of the moving colourful shapes. There were so many things to look at that my eyes were moving too fast for my brain, but no matter how slow my mind wanted to work, it was clear to me that Hikari was not present. With that disappointment slowly settling in I became more aware of what I was seeing.

UlforceVeedramon was swinging a sword toward a horrendously large centipede that was trying to clamp its enormous pincers straight through UlforceVeedramon's torso. Behind him was a black scaled lizard with a thin jaw that held a series of razor sharp teeth. I spotted Rapidmon firing away toward a crab with many tentacles sticking from its underside to accompany its large violet claws. In the air above Rapidmon there was a very hungry looking vulture, ready to swoop down and attack, and it was clear that Rapidmon was ready which made me think it wouldn't be the vulture's first attempt at snacking. There was also a disturbing combination of a two headed emu and a velociraptor who was sliding its feet against the shiny tiled floor, barking toward Rapidmon who was holding his own against his three opponents. Then I saw Garurumon and a cautiously optimistic feeling rose inside me. Was this _Yamato's_ Gabumon, or Hideto's? Either way, it wasn't time for a reunion necessarily because he was fighting a massive bear with a long, alligator nose, snapping its powerful jaw toward him.

And then I spotted Sora, swinging her fist toward a small but fiery little rodent creature that leapt from the fountain in the center of the room, attempting to bite at her neck where it connected with her shoulder. Her punch missed, but Daisuke was quick to help out, leaping into the air and tackling the rodent to the ground.

There was no time for any more watching because I heard a sharp yell of surprise and turned to face ahead of us where a man with dark hair and pale skin stood behind a wolf-like creature with thick, muscular back legs. The wolf creature was shining and black with smooth tufts of violet hair near the top of its narrow head. The man with dark hair had been the one to shout in astonishment.

"Hold on!" Kabuterimon shouted suddenly and I did as I was told, but Gomamon let out a small shout of panic so I released one hand to hold onto him as well. Kabuterimon turned even more sharply than before and we were suddenly flying through the air toward the battle. Kabuterimon used his free hand to grab onto the vulture as it swooped savagely toward Rapidmon, and slam him into the wall we had crashed into in our attempt to not hit that man.

Kabuterimon let out a groan as the rest of us tried to get used to the shock of the crash. I looked back to the fight before I had even found a comfortable place to recuperate, worried that someone had come after us. I spotted Phoenixmon who seemed to be the one fighting against the wolf-like creature we had nearly run into, but behind her, around that wolf there was a shimmering barrier of violet light and the gorilla-moose had crashed right into it.

"Oh no!" Palmon shouted in confusion and surprise when the massive creature that had been stalking us burst into pieces of seemingly data that immediately fluttered through the air to dance around the wolf who glowed softly in a harsh violet light before absorbing his prey. "Wh-what just happened?"

"He absorbed him," I explained, taking this opportunity to slide off of Kabuterimon's back. Holding Gomamon tightly, I pressed my side into Kabuterimon and slid slowly down his back, landing on his foot, and kicking off sharply, leaping into the air and landing near Garurumon. I looked to the bear he was fighting and patted his back, "You've got this."

"Good to see you, Takeru," Garurumon growled, confirming my suspicions that it was in fact Gabumon rather than Melga. I smiled to him, but thought better than to distract him any further from his battle. I held Gomamon tighter as I ran through the battle, passing UlforceVeedramon and Rapidmon fighting their multitude of opponents, and when I reached the center of the room I leapt up to stand on the fountain, rushing around its edge to stand near Sora. She looked up at me and grinned foolishly, wrapping her arms around my legs. "Hey there."

"Hey yourself," she said, not letting go, "I was so worried. Yamato too. He... he's going to be so relieved." She decided she was done hugging me suddenly and slowly pulled her arms away, looking sad. I wanted to comfort her, but now wasn't really the time. I spotted the wolf creature lunge at Phoenixmon who was surprised at his new strength and immediately fell to the ground as he bit at her throat. "Get _off_ of her, you horrible creature!" Sora was running toward her partner, and I hesitated too long, wondering if I should stop her or not. I didn't get the chance though because she was gone already. I caught sight of her torn shirt and the blood all over her back and shoulder and I winced. I'd missed Sora so much, that was not the thing I wanted to see when I first found her again.

Sora was leaping through the air toward the wolf to save Phoenixmon when it turned sharply and pushed off of the bird it had chosen as its new prey to pin Sora to the ground. The panic didn't hesitate to fill me with adrenaline as I watched Sora smash to the ground, crying in pain as the powerful creature stood on top of her, releasing its narrow, slimy tongue out, preparing to feast.

I dropped Gomamon, and felt guilty, but didn't have the time to apologize, because I had to save Sora. I found that my fists were still balled up and angry and the release felt _amazing_ when I got to hit the wolf in the side of the head. It turned its sights on me quickly in surprise and anger and barked a horrible sound before swiping at me with its quick and sharp claws.

"Mega Electro Shocker!" I ducked, knowing full well what was coming and waited as a blast of energy struck the wolf directly, toppling it over under the force. I popped back up, and looked back with wide eyes to see HerculesKabuterimon standing tall and majestic among the crowd, "Sorry Takeru," his voice was low and buzzing, and I hadn't expected an apology, especially from someone like that, but I nodded and was ready to get Sora back to safety, but I had been hit from the side.

I panicked at first, trying to free myself but it was soon clear to me that it was in fact Daisuke who was hugging me tightly, "Takeru! I missed you, man!"

"Missed you too, Daisuke," I smirked, prying him away from me, "How's Haruki?"

"He laughed," Daisuke said brightly.

"Adorable," I decided. Daisuke nodded and smiled, patting me roughly on the back and we turned to see Sora standing with Koushiro's hand in her own and they were both holding their digivices to the sky.

" **HerculesKabuterimon digivolve to...** "

" **Phoenixmon digivolve to...** "

" **Eaglemon!** "

I watched as the two digimon shone and collided together in mid air becoming Eaglemon in an instant, standing tall and menacing and looking over the wolf-like creature who was still snarling, ready to continue its fight. It was small, but clearly powerful and that kind of freaked me out. My eyes found the man with dark hair again and now I had more time to look him over. He was wearing a grey suit that looked particularly expensive and his hair was shining and completely in place. His eyes were narrow and sly and dark. This was Director Arnold. I just knew it.

"Kaiser Phoenix!" Eaglemon declared, setting its entire body on fire before slamming itself directly into the wolf. Daisuke let out a triumphant cheer but the small rodent was back, biting at his leg. He shouted in surprise and kicked his leg frantically trying to shake the creature off.

"Poison Ivy!" Palmon had come to the rescue, catching the rodent in her grip and pulling it away from Daisuke and tossing it into the air. I turned to her and saw that the Vulture was looming over her and the other digimon. She seemed to see where I was looking and turned, clenching her eyes shut tight like she was focusing hard, and then "Stench Attack!" a cloud of putrid gasses escaped the flower on her head and wafted around the digimon. The vulture flew in a circle above them but decided against flying into the gas.

Betamon and Gomamon both dived into the fountain, desperate to escape the stench, but Armadillomon and Palmon seemed ready to wait it out. Wormmon however started crawling away from them, coughing up a storm, and the vulture took advantage of that.

Daisuke was running a second later, and soared through the air, landing over top of Wormmon. He spun onto his back and kicked sharply toward the angry creature, "The early bird gets the worm!" Daisuke grinned foolishly as the bird bit and nipped at his feet.

"Silk Thread!" Wormmon nervously called out firing sharp threads of his sticky substance straight toward the birds face, angering the creature into shrieking loudly. It fluttered away for a moment and let its eyes scan the area until it found the rodent that was scampering around foolishly, trying to find its next victim. Apparently it would never get the chance because the vulture had bent down and snatched it up, directly into its mouth. The rodent burst into data and entered the bird's system.

"Don't _do_ that!" Palmon roared, sending another burst of her stench attack toward him.

"Water tower!" Betamon shouted. The entire contents of the fountain rose high into the air and then came crashing down on the vulture who was already caught off guard by the stench.

"Diamond shell!" Armadillomon called, balling himself up and slamming directly into the bird, knocking him off his feet.

Wormmon struggled to free himself from Daisuke's grip and turned his sights on their opponent, and triumphantly screamed out his attack. "Sticky Net!" a wave of webbing shot from Wormmon and wrapped the vulture up, keeping it completely immobile, laying on the ground.

I felt kind of bad for the annoying beady eyed rodent, but these guys _were_ the enemies. I had to keep that in mind. And even though the gorilla-moose had been chasing us and intending to kill us, it wasn't its fault—it had been following Director Arnold's orders. I gritted my teeth and turned back to him, careful not to slip on the puddles of water that were draining back into the creases on the floor. The fountain itself was filling back up now as well, probably taking the water from some underground source.

Eaglemon was swooping elegantly through the air, avoiding all of the attacks that the strong wolf beast was firing his way, whether it be simple swipes with its sharp claws, or a spark of electricity firing from its long, disgusting tongue. Eaglemon seemed to be happy to be existing again, having had no way to do so without Koushiro and Sora, who were equally excited to be back together.

I let my eyes fall to Arnold and the anger flared up again. He was standing, rooting for his horrible creature—no, that wasn't fair. His creature was completely normal, completely fine. If I told Patamon to fight he would, no questions asked. This creature did not know better. But an adult human _should_ have known better. I did not like Arnold one bit. It gave me pleasure to see his face fall when Eaglemon grabbed the wolf in its claw before throwing him toward the wall near UlforceVeedramon who was wrangling the massive centipede in his free hand while swinging his sword toward the angry lizard.

"What's going _on_?" Arnold shouted, furious. "I—I don't understand! How are you winning? Behemoth absorbed that beast—he has two just the same as you!"

Behemoth. That was its name. The black wolf.

Eaglemon landed gracefully and did not remove its eyes from Behemoth who snarled and looked angry, ready to kill, "Well," Eaglemon said gently in a split voice that made up Phoenixmon and HerculesKabuterimon, "working together is different than forcing someone to do as you wish. The difference lies in a certain level of trust and understanding. You are forcing yourself to grow stronger, whereas we are working together. Our relationship together is stable."

Director Arnold's nostrils flared up and his eyes narrowed, "That's nonsense!" he shouted, "I just need to grow _stronger_." His eyes flicked over to the Behemoth and then toward the centipede that UlforceVeedramon was in the process of throwing across the room. As the beast was thrown into the air the Behemoth seemed to know what to do. It bounded across the floor to stand in its path and the barrier of soft violet light came up again, and the centipede was devoured in seconds.

My heart beat quicker now, feeling sadness for the fallen creatures, knowing that they were trying to kill us was really my only sense of relief, because at least they were bad... but it wasn't enough. Palmon seemed to agree, because she let out a soft cry when the centipede vanished. UlforceVeedramon was standing, staring toward the Behemoth in shock that his opponent had gone. He hadn't intended for it to happen, but it had gone too quickly for him to stop it.

"Now let's try again, shall we?" Director Arnold's voice snarled from behind me. It was as the Behemoth leapt toward Eaglemon that I realized none of the monsters were near their master any longer, and I needed to take this chance to show him a thing or two about peace. Yggdrasil wanted peace—he had become corrupt, but peace was not something to be taken lightly, and we could fight for the peace that he once wanted.

As I was turning I caught sight of a long, wormy tentacle that wrapped itself around Palmon and pulled her sharply from the fountain where she stood. "Palmon!" Koushiro was quicker than anyone, strangely enough, and was dashing across the floor to help Rapidmon rescue her. I turned away knowing she was in good hands and saw that Sora had the same idea as I had.

She was storming toward Director Arnold, her arms at her side and her fists ready to go. I shot off toward her, not willing to let her do this alone, partially for protective reasons and partly because I desperately wanted a turn too.

"You're a _horrible_ man," Sora was saying when I caught up. She caught Director Arnold's attention and he smirked, looking to her with just his eyes, but not giving her enough of his attention to show that he cared at all that she was coming for him. He did not fear her. "You are pitting these creatures against each other—do you care for _nothing_?"

"I care for myself," Director Arnold said snidely, "Is that really so bad?"

"Don't you dare," Sora shot, "Don't try to seem all self-empowering when you _know_ you're doing this for selfish reasons. There is a massive difference between caring about yourself, and caring _only_ for yourself. You are selfish, and you're mean."

"I'm _'mean'_ am I?" Arnold laughed coldly, "No one ever climbed to the top of the hill by playing nicely, my dear. I have big dreams, and have I had to push some people out of my way to see them come to fruition? Yes, of course, but that does not make me _evil_ , simply ambitious. I had a goal, and I will see it through."

"I won't let you," I snapped, startling Sora who hadn't noticed me.

Again, Arnold laughed, "Do you think you are the first to try to stand in my way?" he finally looked toward us, but only for a moment before turning back to watch his precious Behemoth fight. "The creatures you love so much, they are not the first that I had been forced to wipe from existence."

" _What_!?" Sora was in complete shock, and a pang of sorrow shot through me, thinking about who all Arnold had been threatened by. "What did you _do_?"

"It is _none_ of your concern," Arnold scoffed, folding his arms across his chest, wrinkling the perfect fabric that made up his attire, "Nor would you understand. You can't see my vision through the delusional fog you have in your mind."

"The fog _you_ put there," I snapped, "Wasn't it you who sent the virus?"

"Actually," Arnold said with a cold smirk, looking toward Sora again, his eyebrows rose threateningly and Sora deflated slightly, but no words were spoken. I was confused, seeing Sora so ashamed was something I hadn't seen in a while.

"We're not like the others who stood in your way," I said, ignoring whatever that awkward exchange had been, "We're not going to give up."

"That's what they all say," Arnold said, rolling his eyes as he turned back to his battle again, "Can't people just understand that I'm not foolish enough to give you a _choice_? The closest anyone came to stopping me was by alerting the Digital World to the glitch I sent their way. It was because of him that my initial plan had not worked."

I furrowed my brow, thinking hard, trying to find that in the history of the Digital World. How old was this guy? Could it have been before we arrived? No, he was ten years older than me at most—an eighteen year old surely couldn't have known about the Digital World and had a diabolical plan to destroy it, and certainly no one younger... a glitch?

"Arkadimon?" I asked suddenly remembering the horrible monster that had killed Patamon, and killed Agumon and tried to kill Gabumon and Hikari. "You made Arkadimon."

"Of course I did," Arnold said, pointing out to the sea of monsters, "Can't you tell?"

I moved so quickly that even _I_ hadn't seen it coming. I struck Director Arnold in the side of his face, my knuckles smashing against his square jaw. He gasped and staggered backwards, away from me, throwing his hand up to his face to check for blood. " _What_ was that for?" He asked in a horribly strangled voice.

"You killed Sora!" I shouted, rage coursing through me.

Director Arnold looked over to where Sora stood and looked confused, "But—"

"I came back from the grave for revenge, you see," Sora said, stepping toward him, a very angry look on her face. "And I'll get it."

Arnold finally looked afraid, seeing the dangerous flare in both Sora's eyes and my own. He looked behind him to the doorway he had clearly come through and then back to the crowd of monsters. "Behemoth!" he demanded without hesitation, "Fall back. We make our leave now." Arnold did not wait a second longer, and had immediately begun running out the exit to the room. I was quick to follow but something big and powerful slammed into my side, knocking me directly to the ground where I smashed against the nearby wall. I spotted the Behemoth bounding down the hallway toward its master.

Several of the monsters seemed ready to follow Arnold but he turned toward them and shouted over his shoulder, "Not _you_!" he spat, "Go back! You stay!" The creatures paused and looked confused but continued their respective fights.

"Eaglemon!" Sora requested, "Follow him!"

A second later Eaglemon was flying over my head with Koushiro already holding on tight to its left leg. Sora grabbed the right on the way by and the three of them were gone without a goodbye. I wanted to follow, and I was ready to do so too, but I heard a cry for help and saw the two headed velociraptor snapping its teeth toward Gomamon.

I was rushing toward him a moment later, and knew that I would have to trust Sora and Koushiro to deal with Director Arnold. I would get my anger out here, and it would be just as satisfying I was sure.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** There's some more trouble in paradise back with Sora and Koushiro as they have to face what scares them and become Fearless.


	46. Fearless

**Y/N:** Sora and Izzy get to share a chapter. They're kind of my favourites to do things like this random side quest. They're an awesome pair and they're kind of our power house pair, since Matt and Tai can just become super powerful on their own. I love how these two work together.

 **U/N:** Sora's final chapter of the story! Sora likes to take plot after plot, and you'll see how we had to manage that in the next part of the trilogy to keep her tied down for everyone else to get a turn in the sun, but she's very easy to give plots to and it's fair because Tri barely used her and she had probably the least screen time in Adventure and 02, so I don't even feel bad. I feel pretty good at getting her to the place she's at now though. A pretty good place to stop her story –well not here, but we'll get there I think.

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 46: Fearless**

 _ **Sora Takenouchi:**_

"The Behemoth is powerful," Eaglemon admitted as his wings carried us down the tight passages of the world. It was a very relaxing feeling to be so close to her again, to Biyomon I mean. Koushiro and Tentomon's presence was wonderful too, and I was so glad to see both of them, but it just wasn't the same as Biyomon. My heart was in a constant state of yearning for her, and now she was back, and I was with her. It just sucked that our reunion had to be messed with by all of this fighting that was ultimately unnecessary. If we could just stop Director Arnold I was sure the fighting would _have_ to stop.

If only we could catch him. Eaglemon could barely fit down the hallways, and every time he built up enough speed he slammed into a wall and lost all of his momentum. We hadn't lost sight of Arnold and Behemoth just yet, but it was clear that it was inevitable unless we changed something.

"But you're stronger," Koushiro conceded, missing Eaglemon's point.

Eaglemon was worried that we wouldn't win even if we caught up, but we couldn't let that behaviour stick. It wasn't right. "You can do it," I assured him, "You'll win, and we'll be here to help you if need be." Eaglemon nodded and flapped his wings again, shooting off faster down the hallway until we smashed into the wall at the end. I gasped as my side slammed against the hard, now cracked, surface. Koushiro reached out to me but I shook my head, "I'm fine."

Eaglemon set off once more and I could see Arnold and the Behemoth rounding another corner. My chest tightened, fearing that we'd lose sight of them and Eaglemon seemed to agree because he was off again, moving quicker this time, desperate to catch up. We couldn't lose them—we couldn't let them get away with what they were doing. Director Arnold had sent the virus. He had created Arkadimon, and now he was creating a whole series of monsters that could devour each other to grow in strength. He was going to populate the world and likely use these creatures as his patrol men. He was constantly proving to be a threat and that was too much. We couldn't let him get away with this.

I _wouldn't_ let him get away with this.

Not after everything he had put me and my friends through. Not just my friends though—the entire population of the Digital World. But even if I was as selfish as he was, I had enough reason to fight him. He had nearly killed me, and my closest friends, he had locked me in prison, forced me to press that damned button, locked me in a cage with the very monster we were currently chasing, aimed his gun at me, unfortunately hitting Neo instead—I wondered if he was okay—then chased me through three different worlds and threatened my partner. Not to mention he was the reason Arkadimon had been sent out and actually _did_ kill me. Sort of. It didn't happen, but it _still_ did. I wasn't okay with this guy, and I didn't think anyone should be.

He would soon understand the consequences of his actions.

When we reached the end of the hallway I cursed loudly, startling Koushiro. "We lost him!" I growled, slamming my fist into my leg. I looked once more and scanned the empty hallway. "Where did he go!?" Koushiro didn't have the answers for me and he seemed apologetic, reaching out to comfort me. "No, I'm fine," I lied again, suppressing the anger that was slowly building up inside of me. "We have to find him, _now_."

"Okay," Koushiro agreed, nodding his head, "We won't let him get away." I was about to fire back that he already _had_ gotten away, but Koushiro turned to look up to Eaglemon, "You know what to do."

Eaglemon nodded in understanding and lowered to the ground. "Get on my back," Eaglemon instructed. I looked to Koushiro confused, but he was holding his hands together to boost me up. I obeyed his request and flung myself up and over Eaglemon's back before reaching down and pulling Koushiro up as well. He positioned himself behind me and grabbed my waist. "Get ready, and I apologize for any injuries."

"What?" I gasped, but there was no time for answers because Eaglemon was already flying at top speeds toward the wall at the end of the hallway. It became clear to me that he was not about to stop and I understood the plan, ducking my head quickly. I felt Koushiro do the same behind me as we blasted through the wall dead ahead. A scream escaped my mouth as we bashed a hole directly where we needed to go.

Eaglemon paused and listened closely for any signs of the two monsters who had escaped our pursuits. When he seemed to have a general idea of where to go he blasted off again, flying at top speeds toward the walls again, breaking more holes through them. It seemed a little excessive, but I was sure now that we would eventually reach our goal. And this time, we wouldn't let them escape.

I looked over my shoulder and smiled, seeing Koushiro there, looking as determined as ever. It felt like old times now, as if those two months of near solitude had never happened at all. In all seriousness, two months really wasn't that long, but spending all of that time with the delusion that everyone you loved had died at your hands—well, every day seemed to be an eternity. "I'm really glad you're okay!" I called to Koushiro over the winds that were whipping past us at top speeds.

"As am I," Koushiro said, "for you I mean. Well, myself as well. I won't be ever returning to the Land of Dreams."

"That bad?" I asked, feeling bad for him. I'd got to spend all of my time in a familiar place, even if I was wanted by the police and locked in Mimi's restaurant.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Koushiro decided, but then he paused and looked back to me, seeming to realize who it was that was sitting in front of him, "Later," he decided. I'd hold him to that too. I wanted to know _everything_.

But he was right, now wasn't really the time. I turned back to what was ahead and screamed again, not expecting another wall to be so close. I turned my head and shielded myself to the best of my ability, and as we crept through the hole I looked down the hall to the right.

Eaglemon shot forward but I was shouting a second later for him to stop, "Don't!" I yelled, "They're this way!" I pointed to the right and Eaglemon backed up until he was level with the path, turning his head to see. He stared for a moment, curious, because they were both gone from the path, but I had seen them. I had watched as they ran, Arnold was following closely on the tail of the Behemoth. I could not have made up something so vivid and realistic. I knew they were there.

Eaglemon seemed to either sense their presence or be willing to trust me, either way we had gone quickly down the path toward the place I was sure they would be. When we reached the end of the hall we came across a large hole, halfway down the wall, as if someone had had the same idea as us. I noticed that on the other side of the hall, directly across from it there was another hole.

"That was us," Koushiro explained, apparently reading my mind. That made sense, he and Kabuterimon had been smashing walls earlier, which was why Eaglemon knew what Koushiro had meant. Unfortunately, it meant that Arnold and the Behemoth could have gone any of three directions. Eaglemon moved slowly forward, walking this time, along the smooth tiled floor, thinking with his eyes closed.

There was a soft hum coming from Eaglemon as he thought and listened, and then finally he decided to go right, heading through the hole quickly, following along the trail of holes that Koushiro and Kabuterimon had left earlier.

And then finally, Eaglemon came to an abrupt and complete halt. Slowly I looked to my left and saw Director Arnold, furious as ever, standing behind his guard dog. The Behemoth was snarling and barking toward Eaglemon who looked down to him, ready to fight. Apparently he hadn't been ready _enough_ though, because when the Behemoth's powerful hind legs kicked from the ground and he shot through the air, Eaglemon had been caught off guard and let out a loud shriek, flapping his wings angrily.

I felt Koushiro slip from behind me and his grip tightened as Eaglemon stood completely upright, snapping his golden beak to the foe at hand. My hands were slipping from the metal ridges by his neck now and I looked down to Koushiro who was holding tightly, hanging from my waist. "I'm sorry!" I shouted as my final fingers gave out and the two of us fell and slid down Eaglemon's body and straight down his metal tail feathers until we slammed against the ground beneath him.

"Move!" Koushiro shouted, grabbing for my wrist. He held me and pulled sharply, dragging me from underneath the brawl above our heads. We stumbled to our feet and hurried away from the danger. Eaglemon had the Behemoth trapped inside his claws, holding tightly. The Behemoth was struggling to escape, but his limbs were held tight.

I grinned, and realized it was my chance to get Arnold. My heart jumped into action before my body did when I spotted Arnold fleeing the scene. I pulled my hand from Koushiro's grip and ran, pushing my legs as hard as I could taking strides longer than I thought possible. I wouldn't allow him to escape. Not this time.

I was gaining on him easily and when I leapt through the air my arms wrapped around his middle, taking him to the ground with me. The two of us stumbled and rolled, and the adrenaline sort of cleared away enough for the realization of how stupid I had been to chase him on my own.

With that realization I found myself pinned underneath the man with my head pressed against the smooth floor. The pain in my back increased as my cuts found pressure under his weight and my wrists were being pinched by his tight grip. I started kicking, trying to get him off of me, but he wouldn't budge.

His face twisted and a vein popped out on his forehead as his skin reddened and he bit his bottom lip tight. When my squirming and fighting proved to be no use, Arnold's mouth relaxed and he formed a horrible grin. "You are petulant and foolish." He practically barked at me as spit flew from his mouth. I closed my eyes in disgust, turning from him and feeling even more pressure now, this time it was not physical though. I had to keep fighting. I had to stop him from hurting anyone else. "You've escaped me _three_ times, my dear, and I granted you a fourth. You were foolish enough to follow me, and now I will not give you another chance."

I caught sight of his gun resting in its holster at his waist from underneath his open jacket and fear shot through me again. Then, just as he released me to reach for his gun, and when I prepared to push him off of me, Koushiro had propelled himself through the air, tackling Arnold away from me. I gasped in shock, but used this time to pull myself to my feet and race after the two of them.

Koushiro was losing their battle, just as I had, but this time Arnold was reaching for his gun in advance, and I wouldn't let that happen.

Just as I reached for his arm to stop him a loud bark sounded behind us, followed by a cry of pain. I noticed that both Koushiro and Arnold froze, looking to the battle, so I took a quick glance myself. It seemed that the Behemoth had bitten Eaglemon and escaped from his tight hold, landing roughly on the ground before hopping back to its feet and looking down toward the three of us and letting its disgusting tongue fall once again from its mouth.

As the creature began bounding toward us, I reached for the gun in Arnold's distraction, but he caught on too quickly and grabbed my wrist and twisted sharply.

The pain shot straight up my arm as he pulled and twisted harder, grabbing my waist so I couldn't turn or escape. I caught sight of the Behemoth and how close he was and in a panic I kicked back sharply and hit Arnold in the shin. He released me with a gasp of pain and I jumped aside toward Koushiro as the Behemoth leapt through the air and just barely missed biting my head off.

A nervous scream escaped me as it rounded on us again and I began dragging Koushiro, running toward Eaglemon who was flying as fast as he could toward us. I dropped to the ground the second Eaglemon was overhead and waited for him to stop the Behemoth again.

Koushiro pulled me up and we stood together, watching the scene from behind Eaglemon who obstructed most of our view. I was too nervous and anxious to not know what was going on and Koushiro seemed to feel the same because he started dragging me toward our partner. We were moving slowly at first, but then the anticipation became too much and we were running. It seemed that Arnold had his gun out now, ready to strike, but it wouldn't matter. Eaglemon was a giant metal bird-bug thing, there was no way a normal bullet was going to pierce through his armour—and I knew it to be a normal gun too, as I had seen him use it on Neo.

But now that we could see Arnold, he too could see us, and his gun was immediately aimed toward us. I screamed, pulling Koushiro along with me as I darted behind Eaglemon who was firing his Mystic Beak attack, only to find that the Behemoth was actually very quick and was easily dodging the attacks.

"I've had just about enough of this," Arnold declared suddenly, lowering his gun slightly, "Behemoth, use Dot Matrix."

My mind was spinning immediately. Arkadimon had used that attack. He'd used it on WarGreymon right in front of my eyes, and he reduced him to nothing but a digi-egg, giving him the ability to transform into a form higher than mega. He had used that attack on _me_ and had the future versions of my friends not arrived to save my life, I would have died because of it. And then on me again, but not just me that time, I had been joined by Neo, Mimi, Dracomon, Palmon and Biyomon. If Zeedgarurumon, again, given his ability by the Dot Matrix, hadn't defeated Arkadimon when he had, we would all be dead right now.

Eaglemon was standing in the middle of the narrow hallway, and there was no way for him to dodge the attack.

Behemoth prepared himself, lowering the front half of his body to the ground as he growled and snarled, and then with three barks, he had shot three nearly invisible orbs of energy that were heading straight for Eaglemon's chest.

"Go up!" I screamed, "Dodge! _Move_!"

Eaglemon shot straight into the sky to avoid the attacks and I pinned Koushiro to the wall to ensure that the orbs that were barely visible did not take his life from him. I waited in fear, unsure when it would be safe to continue moving.

Then there was a loud bang.

"He's shooting!" Koushiro gasped, pushing me away from him. I was more scared that I had been before suddenly and I didn't know where to go, or how to avoid this. When I turned toward Arnold, not only did I see that his gun was aimed toward us but I saw that the Behemoth was taking this moment of our vulnerability to his advantage and was coming straight for us. "Sora, get out of the way!"

I didn't know _how_ to get out of the way. There wasn't anywhere to hide! We were in a straight, narrow, useless hallway that led nowhere at all.

And then Eaglemon had landed again, grabbing the Behemoth with his talons like it was a typical morning activity. The Behemoth struggled against his hold, but Eaglemon was quick to think of a solution and he threw the beast directly toward Arnold who fell through the air, releasing his gun. I was running again before I knew what had really happened. I just knew that I wanted that gun and I _needed_ to ensure that Arnold himself did not get it.

I could hear Koushiro yelling at me to stop, but I wouldn't—I couldn't. I didn't want to risk Arnold getting a hold of that stupid machine again—it had hurt Neo, and he'd been lucky enough to not die on impact, so he had a chance to survive, but that didn't mean that every blow would be so easily remedied. I didn't want to die and I certainly didn't want to lose Koushiro, I couldn't let Arnold beat me to the gun that was still sliding along the perfectly smooth ground.

Arnold spotted me coming and realized his gun had been misplaced. He looked around frantically until he spotted it and he clambered to his feet before racing after it. I was faster though. I could beat him if I tried hard enough.

At once we had reached out and grabbed the gun. My hand had wrapped around the barrel of the weapon while his was around the handle, and then we were pulling, struggling with the dangerous piece of metal. My heart was _pounding_ in my chest as I violently pulled, desperate to have the gun in my possession. Arnold's face was tightening again and I became aware that the Behemoth was nearby, luckily distracted by Eaglemon.

And then the gun went off and I screamed. The bullet had smashed into the floor nearby, and the barrel had heated up, but I didn't release it for a second. I looked back up to Arnold and found that he was staring directly toward me.

"You killed Arkadimon," he said, his voice stifled and angry as he spoke through his gritted teeth. "You killed my baby!"

"Your _baby_ was trying to destroy the world!" I argued, pulling harder on the gun now, "You were stupid enough to create something—trying to play God."

"I never tried to play God!" Arnold argued, nearly ripping the gun from my grip, "I certainly tried! If Arkadimon had lived longer, he may have been able to destroy Yggdrasil and take his place. I would have been in charge of _everything_."

The shock at hearing him speak of Yggdrasil nearly made me lose my grip entirely. Knowing his name was one thing, as Katsue had released her documentary, and everyone in the world knew of the robot invasion. But knowing what role Yggdrasil played in the worlds and how to take his place, well that was a different thing all together. If that was what Arnold wanted though, to rule all the worlds, he was even more selfish and greedy than I had thought. "I'm sorry for killing your partner," I said honestly, "But it had to be done! Not all love is healthy!" Arnold pulled even harder now for the gun, hard enough to pull me into a standing position where he pulled, trying to get the gun out of my reach.

"I'll kill _your_ partner now," Arnold snarled, "I'll do it. I _hate_ your stupid bird!"

"My 'stupid bird' hates you too!" I snapped back, "Well, she would if she were capable of hate. And she isn't stupid! She's intelligent and thoughtful and _kind_." I pulled sharply and decided to play dirty, taking another swing toward Arnold's shins. He gasped, releasing the gun. I finally had it in my hand and now I didn't know what to do with it. I stared at it stupidly, and looked around for some sort of instruction.

"Dot Matrix!" Arnold bellowed.

My heart stopped as I turned to Behemoth, fearing he might be facing me. Instead I found him looking directly to Eaglemon who was too close to dodge now.

And then he was glowing and I found myself screaming in shock, calling their names. They couldn't go. But there were two lights now. One purple and one red. And then there were two digimon.

They had separated to avoid the blast.

I was rushing to Biyomon a moment later, watching her fall to the ground, worried that she might not ever get back up. I didn't think I could live knowing that she died. Not again. I had barely done it once—and I was so thankful that she had returned, but she couldn't go now, not this time.

Then there was a hand around my arm and a fist colliding with my face. I fell backwards in shock and landed against the cool floor, my back to the Behemoth. Arnold looked triumphant finally and I realized that the gun was in his hands. He wasted no time now and held the gun up, aiming it toward me.

"Don't you dare!" Biyomon shrieked, "Spiral Twister!" familiar spiralling green flame dropped from the skies and landed near Arnold's feet and he jumped back in shock, aiming his gun up to Biyomon who swooped down and began chirping loudly while she used her claws against Arnold's arm that was up for protection, "Violin Attack!" she sang out as Arnold grew more angry.

He then reached up and grabbed Biyomon's nearest wing and dragged her from the sky and into his arms, aiming his gun directly to her head. Fear and panic had never filled me so instantaneously before as I watched Biyomon struggling against his grip.

"I will be making my leave now," Arnold decided, holding Biyomon tightly, "but don't worry, I won't kill her."

"Give her back _now_!" I snapped.

"No," Arnold declared, "This isn't a debate. I will be taking your squawking bird and I will experiment with her. She is able to combine herself so effortlessly with that other one, and return to her previous form. She is able to speak, she can grow and shrink. She is perfect. I need her abilities."

"You are simply describing every digimon," Koushiro explained gently, stepping forward cautiously, not wanting to alarm Arnold into doing something he might regret. "If you remove your virus from the digital world you are sure to find that each digimon is the same as this one in terms of abilities. You are destroying a race simply to put your own of the same attributes back in its place. That is not only heartless but entirely meaningless."

"Put Biyomon down!" I ordered stupidly. Koushiro was attempting to reason with him and all I could manage to do was panic. I couldn't move either, I couldn't make him think I was going to stop him because he would pull the trigger. He'd shoot her.

"S-Sora," Biyomon said nervously, looking up to Arnold with her worry filled eyes, "It's okay! Just go, be safe. Promise me you won't get yourself hurt. Don't do anything stupid."

"Listen to the bird," Arnold declared, before glancing over his shoulder as the ground began to rumble. "Ah, perfect timing." He looked back to Behemoth, "Come my darling. We shall be leaving now." I saw movement behind him and when I looked I saw that the wall was closing in. Arnold began moving toward it quickly and I screamed out my protests but stopped abruptly when Behemoth passed by me, looking to me with a face of anger and disgust. He wanted to keep fighting, to _'feed'_ as Arnold had promised him.

"K-Koushiro," I stuttered, grabbing at his leg.

"I know," he said weakly.

"What do we d-do?"

"I don't know."

Arnold grinned and waved his gun as the walls came closer together with him now on the other side. "Sora, I love you!" Biyomon called.

My heart stung as I leaned forward, "I love you t-too Biyomon!" I screamed, "I—I'll come for you!"

"I know you will!" and it was the last thing I heard Biyomon say before the walls had closed entirely.

I sat still and shaking for a moment before looking up to Koushiro and then over to Tentomon who seemed just as shocked as Koushiro and I did. "We have to go," he decided in his electronic voice. "We have to save her."

"Damn right we do," Koushiro decided, reaching for my hand. "Let's go," he said.

"Right," I nodded weakly, "Let's save Biyomon."

 _ **Koushiro Izumi:**_

To think, I'd thought today had held any sort of promise. I'd started this day with no inkling whatsoever that I would be running through endless white halls in search of Biyomon. I'd started this day full heartedly believing Biyomon was dead. I'd believed _everyone_ was dead—with the exception of Sora. Now, Sora was here with me and _Tentomon_ , while we chased after a homicidal megalomaniac and his manmade wolf.

I knew I could spend _hours_ worrying about the "what if" situations that were flitting through my mind. What if I'd been braver? What if Tentomon had acted sooner? What if Sora had kept hold of the gun, instead of losing it to Arnold? I could come up with endless variations, but I didn't have time to worry about them. I could ponder them later, when we'd found Biyomon and put a stop to Arnold's schemes. For now, my focus was entirely on putting one foot in front of the other.

We were running through the holes Kabuterimon had busted into the walls. We needed to keep up our speed, and try and find a way around. Arnold, Biyomon and Behemoth had disappeared behind a wall that had decided to show itself, solely to ruin our day.

And my day had really started to turn around.

Mimi was alive, even if she wasn't _here_. Palmon and Tentomon _were_ here. Sora was here too. I didn't have a full roster, but there were _several_ friends here that I'd thought for certain were dead. Seeing them again was _just_ the pick-me-up I needed after shattering my perspective of my crest with the help of Takeru, and the clash with the nightmares, Akumu and the Reaper. I'd been enjoying the coolness of this place, and the lack of sudden rainstorms caused by Hikari's internal distress.

Was I enjoying my time here?

Not particularly. The only other bright point in my day, was the fact that I'd found such a detailed history of not only Yggdrasil's life, but two of his three children as well. I longed to find them again, and to pour over them further. There was very little chance that I would ever find my way to this world again, but there was so much left to learn.

That wasn't enough though, to outweigh all the bad. Behemoth was a newer edition of Arkadimon—no longer considered a digimon in Arnold's eyes, if the name was any indication—and was gathering strength by absorbing its fellow monsters. There were _plenty_ of fellow monsters that were _also_ trying to kill us. Arnold had a gun, that we had no hope of fighting against. Several of our friends were _here_ , but we hadn't seen hide nor tail of them, and perhaps we never would. This maze was alive, and evidently enjoyed separating us at inopportune moments.

"Hurry up," Sora gasped, climbing over a particularly messy pile of debris. "We'll never catch her at this speed." I was worried that we'd never catch her at all. The maze was constantly moving and changing. Not one room or hallway we'd passed through looked familiar to me in the slightest.

"I'm moving as fast as I can," I hissed, trying not to waste my breath. I was actually in fairly good shape for once in my life. I'd been searching day in and day out for Ryo for the last two months. I had built up a rather impressive cardiovascular endurance—impressive to _me_ anyway. It was far more impressive, however, when I hadn't been running and fighting all day. I was tired, but that wasn't going to stop me from finding Biyomon. The way my muscles were protesting might stop me though. I could feel them burning and going slack under my skin. I was slowing Tentomon and Sora down.

The way my mind refused to stay focused on the task in front of me wasn't helping either.

I caught sight of Sora's back yet again. Her shirt was tattered, sliced by whatever glass she had managed to come in contact with. The glass had thoughtfully also tore at her back, which was clearly visible through the tattered fabric of her shirt. There was a lot more blood than I was comfortable with, and I wondered if we would run into Jou. He would be able to ensure that she didn't develop an infection. Of course there was no way in hell she was going to stop for a check up while Biyomon was in danger, but _after_ we'd found her, she'd probably appreciate it.

Damn it.

I was doing it again. I needed to focus. Focus was the key. I couldn't think about the way my legs had decided to turn to jelly. I had to lift my feet and push forward. But I couldn't help but think Sora and Tentomon resented my inability to keep up. They were chasing after their best friend, and I was only hindering their mission.

My foot slipped on the rubble and I had to catch myself with my hands before I smashed my face against the floor. Sora and Tentomon stopped impatiently. Sora was literally tapping her foot, waiting for me to struggle to my feet. I wanted to glare at her, but I understood where she was coming from. I would be doing the same in her situation. I _wanted_ to be doing the same now. But I couldn't. I was holding her back.

"Come _on_ , Koushiro," Tentomon called. He flew to me and buzzed around my head, as if it would make me move any faster. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to will away the muscle exhaustion. Biyomon was in danger, and every second counted. On the plus side, Arnold had said he wasn't going to kill her. Unfortunately, he followed that up with a promise to torture and experiment on her, so it wasn't much of a point in our favour.

"Koushiro, keep to the walls," Sora instructed, already walking through an open doorway. Finally, we were passing through an entrance that _wasn't_ created by Kabuterimon. I hurried to keep up, trying not to gasp for breath. I was in shape! I shouldn't be this tired. I wondered briefly if _everything_ that had happened in the Land of Dreams was an illusion. Was I really in shape, or had I simply _wished_ to be without thinking about it? I hoped not, but the evidence was not particularly promising. "There's a hole in the floor here. Don't fall down it. We don't have time to fish you out."

"A hole in the floor?" I pondered to myself. I knew where we were. I'd finally found something I recognized. Walking through the door at last, I saw the familiar writings on the wall. "We found it!"

"Found what?" Tentomon inquired.

"Yggdrasil's history," I said. "Takeru and I were reading it earlier. We got chased off by a panther before I finished."

"Then stay and read it," Sora offered. I looked to her in surprise. "We're not going to catch her at the rate we're going. I'd _love_ it if you could come with me, but I know it's not the best option. This is going to make you happy, and while you're reading, you can catch your breath. Catch up to us when you're ready to. It'll be safer."

"She's right," Tentomon agreed.

"I'm slowing you down," I concurred. "You need speed. But you also need power. Tentomon and I can offer _that_ at the very least." I nodded to Tentomon, and he understood what I was implying instantly. He always seemed to.

" **Tentomon digivolve to…. Kabuterimon!** "

" **Kabuterimon digivovle to…. MegaKabuterimon!** "

" **MegaKabuterimon digivolve to… HerculesKabuterimon!** "

" **HerculesKabuterimon digivolve to… TyrantKabuterimon!** "

I grinned at TyrantKabuterimon, knowing that just this morning I never would have imagined ever seeing him again. I was so happy that Takeru had been right. Looking back at his actions, I still found him annoying, but in a fonder sort of way, rather than simply being irritating. He'd tried so hard, and I'd shut him out on every occasion. I shouldn't have. Logically, now, I knew I shouldn't have. Azulongmon, I thought, said it best. Hope is what it means to not lose your light, even in the darkest of times. I hadn't heeded that advice. I'd fallen prey to the same darkness that had eaten away at Hikari. I had allowed my cynical nature to get the best of me.

But TyrantKabuterimon was here now, and Sora was here, and they would go and save Biyomon. They'd do it better without me, and I'd have a new tale to share with them when we met up again. Biyomon really liked stories.

"Be safe," I ordered them, even though I knew they would do anything at all if it meant getting Biyomon to safety. "I just got you back. Don't make me lose you again."

"You're never going to lose us," TyrantKabuterimon promised me.

"You'll see so much of us, that you'll be sick of us," Sora joked. Her eyes kept flickering to the exit, and I nodded my head. They took it as all the permission they needed, and they left. Sora hitched a ride on TyrantKabuterimon. He flew so quickly, it wasn't long before even the echoes of his buzzing wings were a distant memory.

"Bye," I whispered, trying not to let fear take control of me. I wasn't winning that battle, but I knew exactly what would be able to distract me. I ran my eyes over the words on the wall, drinking them in. My eyes raced over the story of Yggdrasil, and his wife, Theta. I read over the information about Sigma, and shuddered at some of what was written there. I hadn't known everything—not by a long shot really, which was rather disappointing—but I'd known _some_ about the both of them. There wasn't much worth reading in the final section, which I assumed belonged to Norn. I'd read it all already.

The thing that caught my attention the most, however, had to do with Yggdrasil's second child: Zeta. Zeta was cast out of the core of the world when Earth was created. She was sent to stay there, where she lived a cursed life, before passing on. She had a family, but it wasn't a happy story. She passed the curse she'd lived with on to her children, and they passed in on to theirs, and so on and so forth. Their lives were riddled with curses and darkness. It was chilling and dreadful. I couldn't help but wonder though, if Zeta's descendents were still alive today. Michael and his sister Jenna were Sigma's descendants, and Norn didn't have any yet. But according to these texts, Zeta had a long string that moved along the generations in a single strand. No matter how many children any one descendent had, only one would survive to continue the family legacy. It was absolutely horrifying.

I wanted to find her descendents, to _help_ them, but I didn't know how to help, let alone how to locate them. Even these documented accounts did not stretch towards present day. The family was lost to Yggdrasil long ago, and he'd never had a chance to rediscover it, before his demise.

I memorized everything I could translate from the Digital Language Gennai had created—which was pretty much everything, to be honest—and was ready to try and catch up with the others, even though my legs weren't particularly thrilled with the idea, when I caught sight of something on the opposite wall. It was the collection of pictures that Ken had been looking over.

Not wanting to miss whatever secrets _this_ wall could share with me, I looked over the pictures, trying to make sense of things. There was Yggdrasil, who was easy to spot. There was a large circle with a tiny figure of a woman standing on top of it. I took that to symbolize Theta. Not too far from those images, was an outline of a man standing next to Yggdrasil. The words underneath referred to this man as his partner. I knew that Theta was his wife, so this partnership as different. Peering closer, trying to decipher the thin lines in the white wall, I noticed a small device between Yggdrasil's form and the man's. I was certain it was a digivice.

But it didn't make sense.

Yggdrasil hadn't been a digimon. But he still had a partner? My mind immediately reminded me of the several humanoid digimon, and I wondered for a moment if _Yggdrasil_ was the one with a partner, rather than the other way around.

I shook the thought from my mind, not wanting to worry about the consequences that might bring. We had our hands full already with the DWD, we could focus on any potential revenge plots Yggdrasil's partner—human or digimon—could be concocting _later_. For now, I just wanted to read what else was on that wall, and then find Sora, TyrantKabuterimon and Biyomon—who they'd hopefully found by now—and then make our way to the others, so we could simply get out of this world. I would take _any_ other world at that point—except the Land of Dreams, that world was not on my list of vacation destinations.

A picture caught my attention, effectively distracting me from _that_ train of thought. It was odd, and looked like a monster with many heads. I'd never seen anything like it before. It wasn't a digimon that I was aware of existing. I didn't claim to know _all_ digimon species, but this one felt oddly ominous to me. There were words under it, and I murmured them to myself.

" _Pieces of a broken man, strung together were brought to this world to protect Theta_."

Interesting.

I couldn't decide where to focus first. Should I worry how this monster had once been a man, or should I focus on the fact that Theta was here somewhere? I chose to dwell on Theta. Yggdrasil's wife had been the _world_. She had created a mortal form for herself, but her life force had remained concealed in the world's core. When the worlds were split, she was damaged beyond repair. Evidently, Yggdrasil decided that this world—this secret world that hadn't, to my knowledge, been documented at all-was the best place to keep what remained of her.

An involuntary wince came when I realized that Theta was _the world_ , and therefore this world was most likely comprised entirely by her.

And I'd told Kabuterimon to destroy whatever got in our way.

We'd broken what was already broken. I felt horrid, but I couldn't have known until I'd read this passage. It wasn't mentioned anywhere else. This was the only piece of writing on these walls that referenced this world as anything other than Yggdrasil's longing for peace.

It was just about the least peaceful place I'd ever been to.

A shudder ran down my spine, and I was afraid to turn around. There was someone behind me. The hair on the back of my neck had risen. I could _feel_ their eyes on me. I didn't want it to be Arnold, and I didn't want it to be any of his creatures either. I squeezed my eyes shut, and tried not to think about it, tried to convince myself it was just my imagination getting away from me.

But the feeling wouldn't go away.

Deciding that I would rather _look_ at my doom at least once before it came to kill me, I turned around and let out a startled yelp. It wasn't Arnold, and it wasn't any of his purple and black monsters either. It was a young looking man that I'd spent so much time with in my life. I gasped and tried to come up with words to say, but I always came up empty.

It was _Gennai_.

What was he doing here? He'd died. I'd spent the last couple of months mourning him, because it had _finally_ hit me that he wasn't coming back. He'd given his life so that Iori could live. He'd been my idol, and I'd missed having him around to help me get to the bottom of things. If he was still alive, if he was _here_ , why hadn't he tried to contact us before? Why hadn't he tried to talk to _me_?

"H-h-how?" I stammered.

Gennai didn't say a word. I didn't know that he even could. It occurred to me that it had been a very long day. And, if my earlier hypothesis about the Land of Dreams being entirely illusions was true, then those long sleepless nights that I thought were brilliant were probably catching up with me. There was no way Gennai was _actually_ standing there, staring at me. And, as if to prove my point, he turned on his heel and started walking away.

He wasn't disappearing though, which struck me as odd, so I shifted my laptop to a more comfortable position, and started racing after him.

He was faster than I expected a hallucination to be. He led me through the maze with ease, and not a single wall jutted out to cut me off while he brought me wherever it was he wanted me to be. I contemplated asking him if he could lead me to any of the others, but knew that was a ridiculous idea. He was a figment of my own imagination. I shouldn't have even started following him, but I had, and now I'd followed him long enough that I was curious if I was ever going to be led anywhere in particular.

I was.

He brought me to a room that was far different from all of the other's I'd seen in this world. This room was an island. There was an ornate bridge that brought me over the moat that circled the vegetation that was growing in the centre. The room was so full of greens and browns and light. It was beautiful, and it was so different than the blank whiteness that this world had been made of. There was a semi-circle of trees—large, strong and full of life—along the far side of the island with thin vines draping down from their branches. There were fully bloomed blossoms on the vines in varying shades of soft pink. There was lush grass covering the entire floor except for the narrow path made entirely of warm sand. The grass was littered with flowers, big, beautiful blooms spread across the floor in mostly soft pinks, but there were some white ones among them. I couldn't name the flowers. There were some, such as the lilies that I found easily recognizable, but the majority of them might not have even existed on Earth. I couldn't be sure. Unlike Sora, I hadn't grown up learning to tell the difference. In the centre of the room, though, I could see a ring of pink rose bushes that surrounded a woman.

I looked over to where Gennai was, and saw that he'd vanished.

Of course he had.

He was a hallucination.

He wouldn't have answered my questions regardless. I moved across the ornate bridge to get a closer look at her. She was surrounded in a bright, white light, and appeared to be asleep, even though she was upright. Her feet, I noticed, were bare, and were hovering _just_ above the grass. Everything about her face screamed _ordinary_ , but she was anything but. There was this calm, welcoming aura around her that drew me in. It felt like home, love, happiness. It was so warm. I couldn't get enough of it. I'd missed so much about home, but been afraid to even _think_ about it. It felt like this woman, this unconscious, _floating_ woman was erasing all the damage and fears I'd caused to my psyche. She was repairing my tired heart and broken spirit. No matter her features, this woman was _far_ from ordinary. Her slightly uneven lips were drawn in a slight grimace of pain, and her eyes were tight. She wasn't relaxing.

She was hurt.

And it was my fault. I'd been the one to decide that smashing through the walls was a good idea. There was no doubt in my mind that this was what remained of Theta. She was tucked away in this world to enjoy what little peace Yggdrasil had managed to create for her specifically, and we'd come in and ruined what he'd built. I felt like a trespasser, like a violent interloper. We'd come here hoping to find peace of our own, but instead, we'd been met with monsters, and fear. The happiness we'd felt upon reuniting with our friends wasn't enough to balance out the bad that we'd brought with us and created here with our fighting.

 _We_ were hurting her.

She was the land itself, and she was here in a human form. She was so familiar to me now, having read her and Yggdrasil's story. She was familiar, because she _was_ home. Earth had once been a part of the main world—a part of _her_. It had been separated violently, and it tore her apart—literally. But she'd survived, even after most of her lands had been separated into completely different worlds. She was still alive. She was strong. And I could understand in that moment why Yggdrasil would create such a confusing, maze of a world simply to keep her safe.

I would do anything within my power to protect my home, to keep it safe. Yggdrasil even had the added motivation that he _loved_ her in a far more intimate, personal way than most people love their worlds. And she loved him in return.

"Go away!"

My brow furrowed, wondering who was telling me to leave. I knew I _should_. I knew that I had no right to be here, watching over Theta as she slept, trying to keep a hold on her life. She was broken, and damaged beyond repair, and I didn't deserve to watch her while she slept. It was actually rather creepy when I thought about it.

"Stop chasing me!"

Behind the trees, I saw an orange _something_ flying at full speed, trying to escape an unknown enemy. It was Patamon, and after another moment, I saw that he was escaping what looked to be a frog-shark. The monster was swimming as fast as he could after Patamon, trying to catch him. Fear and panic struck me, completely overpowering my senses. I wasn't worried for Patamon though. He was flying above the frog-shark and there were no signs whatsoever that the creature would ever catch him. I was afraid for Theta—and more specifically, the creature Yggdrasil had created from his partner to protect her. I wasn't in the mood to fight off a multi-headed monster if Theta got hurt.

I probably _wouldn't_ fight it off.

She was home, she was happiness and warmth and togetherness. I couldn't let anything happen to her. Only second, did I think of the repercussions that could result in the remains of _The World_ —the mother world that had created all others aside from the lands of darkness and light—being hurt or destroyed. All life as we knew it would probably cease to exist. She was fueling all her pieces, all the worlds she'd become after being torn apart. Without her, none of that would matter.

We wouldn't _have_ a home anymore.

I hurried to the edge of the water, and grabbed the dorsal fin of the shark, and tried to yank it out of the water with all of my might. I hadn't really though this through. Its head was roughly the right size to be a silky shark. It was nearly the size of my body. The oversized frog body was fairly large too—not as large as a silky shark's, but large enough. I wasn't armed, and I wouldn't have known what to do if I _was_.

But I'd caught the frog-shark's attention, and it was climbing out of the water while it stared at me. It appeared to have the breathing capabilities of both the frog and the shark that it resembled. I might've cursed when it demonstrated that ability.

"Koushiro?" Patamon asked, confused by my presence.

"I'm going to make a suggestion," I told him.

"Run?" he guessed.

"Exactly that, yes," I told him.

And while the shark was eyeing me like I would be his next meal, I raced back across the bridge and out of the room. I could hear it following me, and was pleased at the sound. I didn't want to leave him with Theta. She was safe now, and Yggdrasil's partner wouldn't need to show up and go on a rampage. It would've been a win-win situation, if I didn't have this freaking frog-shark breathing down my neck as it hopped great distances to keep up with us.

I wasn't _that_ well rested. I wouldn't be able to outrun this thing forever. Patamon looked exhausted too. I didn't know how long this frog-shark had been following him. I didn't know how long Patamon had been here. I knew theoretically that he must've come with Sora, Biyomon, Tentomon and the others. I had simply not asked _when_ that had been. They could've been running from these monsters all day for all I knew.

"Have you seen Hikari?" Patamon gasped. "We got split up."

"Not _recently_ ," I told him. I was pleased to hear that she was okay—or that she had been. I didn't like to think of _why_ they had gotten split up though.

I cast my eyes around us, looking for something, _anything_ , that could provide a plan. I saw one of Kabuterimon's holes coming up towards us. I acted quickly, diving through it, rolling on the ground until I got myself oriented again, before jumping to my feet. Patamon had followed after me at a slower pace. I'd forgotten to inform him of the plan. I was hoping that the top heavy nature of the frog-shark would slow him down. He wouldn't be able to stop as suddenly, or to turn as sharply as a typical shark could. I was using that against him. I knew he'd catch up eventually, but I could outsmart him until then.

We started moving again, quickly. I raced out of one doorway and down a hallway until I found another. There was nowhere in particular that I was headed. Patamon kept up a stream of conversation that I was too winded to participate in. He was telling me who he'd been with, and what was happening before he got separated from them. I added Iori and Michael to my list of confirmed living friends. I was trying not to dwell on the mysterious woman that Patamon had described. I had to keep most of my focus on running from the shark. It had fallen behind us, but that didn't mean it had given up. I could still hear the echoes of its leaps as it bounded toward us.

Patamon led us down a stretch of hallway, passed a door to a room. I didn't plan on stopping for sight-seeing, but Patamon was flying faster than I was, and I tripped over a cat digimon that leapt from the doorway at the sight of him. I crashed to the ground in a heap.

"Watch where you're goin'," Gatomon complained, rubbing her head.

"Hey, Patamon!" Taichi called, down the hallway as I shook my head, and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to stop the world from spinning before I got back to my feet.

"There's a frog-shark hybrid after us," I said, looking to Patamon who was hesitating. I could see he wanted to come back and stay with our friends, but at the same time, he was perfectly happy staying far away from the monster that was chasing us.

"Maybe it just needs a friend?" Miyako suggested.

I started at the sound of her voice, and finally looked towards the group that had gathered in the doorway. VictoryGreymon was standing beside the door, looking down the hallway towards the sounds of the frog-shark, holding his sword over his shoulder. Hawkmon was glaring at him, as was Tatum. Obviously they were more than willing to believe Miyako's suggestion could prove to be true. I had no proof to the contrary, so I had to concede that perhaps it _was_ true. The Land of Dreams had taught me about finding alternative solutions, and Takeru had really driven that idea into my mind. I couldn't be so closed minded. I needed to keep all possibilities open and not draw hasty conclusions—no matter _how_ unlikely I thought them to be.

My eyes were drawn to Miyako's hand, which was caressing her large stomach. Mari rubbed Miyako's shoulder, and smiled at her when Miyako turned to her. Labramon was seated at Miyako's feet, rubbing his head against her leg. Neo was nestled between Taichi and Jou, and I tried to assess the damage Gomamon had told me about without making it obvious what I was doing. It didn't work. Coredramon shifted uncomfortably behind his partner. Tapirmon was floating beside Hideto—who was holding an axe over his shoulder, mimicking VictoryGreymon's position exactly—and Warg was glued to Hideto's side.

A man I didn't know was standing with Antylamon and three Armadillomon behind my friends, and next to him, was Mimi playing with an oversized ball of fluff with a beak. It was one of the monsters. Suddenly, Miyako's suggestion was less farfetched.

I moved more or less on autopilot, making my way through my friends, without really looking at them anymore. My mouth was dry and I tried to make noise, but I couldn't do it. The most beautiful girl in all the worlds was sitting right in front of me, and I just couldn't make my brain believe what my eyes were seeing.

She'd cut her hair, and was wearing some sort of period clothing. I didn't know what time period they came from, but I assumed it was a strange assortment of decades or centuries. Nothing quite _matched_. Around her neck was an angry red mark that was starting to bruise. Something had gotten tied around there and cut off her airflow. It worried me.

"I'm sorry," I choked out. She looked startled and looked up to me. Her eyes were wide and she looked me over with a critical eye. She must've deemed me safe enough, because she got to her feet quickly and wrapped herself around me. She dug her fingers into the back of my shirt, trying to pull me closer, but we were already as close as it was possible to be.

"What are you talking about?" she asked into my neck. I could feel her tears, warm and wet on my skin. I turned my face towards hers, and the side of my nose got pressed against the top of her head. I ran my fingers through her hair, marvelling at the feel of it, and wondering how I could have remembered it so _wrong_. I thought my memory was excellent, but the touch of her skin, her hair, her voice, her _smell—_ which actually wasn't the _greatest_ at that moment—was so much more vivid and beautiful than I'd remembered. And I'd thought _Takeru's_ pictures of her had been inadequate.

"I'm sorry I didn't know your middle name," I explained. She snorted and her shoulders shook as she laughed at me. I didn't think it was all that funny. She'd been _really_ angry with me the last time I'd seen her. I'd spent months knowing that she was mad at me when she died. Only she wasn't dead, and apparently, she wasn't even mad anymore. I was very much confused.

"It doesn't matter," she said shaking her head and pulling away so that she could see my face. She laughed again at the confusion that was written there. "You're _alive_ , Palmon's alive, Tentomon's alive. _Everyone_ is alive." Her smile was so bright and her eyes were shining with her happiness. I couldn't keep from kissing her once, gently, on the mouth.

"Do we know that?" I asked eagerly. "Is that confirmed?"

"No," Hideto said bitterly. I tried to come up with a list of people I didn't know were safe. I repeatedly came up with two names: Willis and Kiyoko. I could understand why he was so upset by this news. But I was trying to stay hopeful. It was difficult, especially once I realized my cousin was one of the _two_ left.

"They'll be here," I told him. "Willis and Kiyoko. They _have_ to be."

"You've seen Ken?" Miyako asked, desperately.

"And Takeru?" Patamon wanted to know.

"Where's my sister?" Taichi demanded.

"I don't know," I said quickly, dropping my arms from around Mimi, but taking her hand in mine. "They're here _somewhere_. I came with them. They were mostly fine when I saw them last as well. But we need to keep going. Arnold has Biyomon, there's a frog-shark that's going to get us within a minute if we don't start moving, and there's some strange woman that tried to threaten the three fairies, if Patamon is to be believed."

"And why _shouldn't_ I?" Patamon wanted to know.

"He's right," Taichi said. "We've got to keep going. We'll find them when we find them."

"We'd better find them," Mari said, her voice sounding a tad desperate. I realized then the importance of our two missing friends to her. I wished too, that we would find them. They had to be here. They _had_ to be.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Daisuke and Hikari join together to narrate the second to last chapter where they make sure this world is Clean.


	47. Clean

**Y/N:** This was the most fun to write I think, because it's pretty much all action. I love writing action, which is something my brother cannot say, because he kind of hates it. I think it's fantastic though, and so much more fun than just character development. I hope there's enough action here to satisfy you!

 **U/N:** I distinctly remember having a LOT of trouble writing for Kari (again) so that was stressful, but it was good to finally get some closure on some of the depression that she (and everyone else) has been feeling for the past two stories. Hopefully we're leaving enough space for everyone to find a good solid happy place so that everyone feels content with where the characters end up...

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 47: Clean**

 _ **Daisuke Motomiya:**_

This world was nothing at all like I'd thought it would be. I hoped it would be a temporary stepping stone on our journey back to Earth. I hoped we would be on Earth right about now, getting more supplies for the Coliseum while we worked out a way to get rid of the virus that was trapping the Digital World's population. I hoped we'd be well on our way to finishing this horrible nightmare that had become our lives.

Instead, what we got was _worse_.

We were now fighting for our lives in a world we didn't know or understand. We were fighting monsters that we didn't know or understand, that were working for a man that we didn't know or understand. I was sensing a pattern there. I was missing far too much information to truly make informed decisions, but I wasn't about to let these monsters kill me. I had a baby to get back to. Jun would bring me back from the dead just to kill me herself if I died on Haruki. I had a family to fight for, and I wasn't the only one.

Our friends had _become_ our family over the years. We'd gone through far too much together to consider them anything else. There were only so many times that you could trust someone with your life, or your sister's life, or you son's life, before they stopped just being friends. We'd passed that quota years ago.

I was fighting for Armadillomon just as much as I was fighting for Hikari, and Biyomon, and Mimi, and Emiko, and Willis. We were all one big family that were connected through experience and determination. And these monsters were trying to take that away from us. We _had_ to fight them. We had to keep them from destroying our friends.

But we couldn't destroy ourselves in the process.

Killing for the sake of getting them out of the way wasn't right. We'd learned that, but when did we cross the line too far in the other direction? We used to kill whatever our enemy was, no questions asked. Now that we were asking those questions, when would we know if it was _necessary_ or not? Did we have to wait until the bad guys killed one of our own before we got our act together?

I didn't _want_ to kill these monsters. They weren't really in control of themselves. They were following orders that their creator gave them as he ran away with his tail between his legs. He'd taken _one_ monster, his prized creation, and left his others to their doom. I knew that he couldn't actually expect that they would be able to defeat us. We'd been lasting just fine when the centipede, rat and Behemoth were all here too. We were now only fighting five enemies. He'd left his velociraptor-ostrich, his octopus-crab, his alligator-bear, his vulture and his dragon-wannabe to fight us. He'd most likely left them for dead.

That was something I couldn't begin to understand.

He'd _created_ these guys. He'd made them out of nothing, and he left them behind, without even a second thought? Haruki was my greatest creation. I couldn't imagine leaving Haruki behind. Hell, I couldn't even abandon a noodle recipe if I made it. How could he create these creatures—living beings with the capabilities of movement and thought—and just leave them for us to kill? It didn't make sense.

And because he'd done that to them, I was seeing them with a more sympathetic eye than I probably should have. I wanted to help them, rather than hurt them. Unfortunately, Arnold's creations didn't seem to share that sentiment. They wanted to kill us, because Arnold had told them to. Perhaps they thought that doing Arnold's bidding would win his affections. But from what I'd seen, nothing was going to achieve that fruitless mission. Arnold cared only about himself and Behemoth. The others, as far as I could tell, were simply test runs for the real thing.

Arnold hadn't even batted an eye when the vulture absorbed the rat, or when Behemoth absorbed the centipede. He didn't _care_ about them at all. And that was heartbreaking, because they were so loyal to him, so desperate for his approval. I didn't want any of them to get hurt.

But if they didn't stop trying to bash my friends into the ground, they were going to get that way.

"Watch out!" Palmon called, and I dropped to the ground. The vulture flew over my head. It was swooping down to try and get me. I'd narrowly missed being its lunch.

"Thanks for the save," I yelled to Palmon, but she was busy. She was extending her poison ivy so that she could lift Betamon into the air, over the heads of the velociraptor-ostrich. Both sets of sharp teeth snapped at our little aquatic buddy as it jumped up to get him. He wanted his sushi, and thankfully he wasn't going to get it. Wormmon was climbing up the walls, spitting out his Sticky Net at all the enemies. He figured that if we could blind them, we wouldn't have to hurt them. It was working alright. He took shot after shot at the two headed beast. The heads got disoriented as the sticky substance wrapped around them, and they bumped into each other. The creature started swaying, and soon fell over. Wormmon shot him again, tying him up as though he were a steer at a rodeo. Then, Wormmon moved on to his next target: the vulture.

It was a dangerous choice. The vulture had already absorbed another creature. Sure, it was just the rat, and it wasn't all that powerful, but it was still _two_ monsters. I didn't want to tell him he _couldn't_ though. He was his own person, he could make his own decisions. I would just keep an eye on the little guy, and make sure he didn't end up as that bird's lunch.

He shot his sticky shot towards the vulture and it coated its left wing. The bird faltered in the air, but righted itself quickly enough, trying to shake the strands of webbing off, and failing. Wormmon shot again, this time getting the back of its head. It let out an indignant squawk, and turned in the air, searching for its assailant. Wormmon scuttled higher up on the wall, hoping to escape notice. He was safe, for a few moments. But then he dared to shoot one more time, missing everything but the tail. The vulture flew at him, darting through the air, eyes narrowed, squawking loudly.

"Oh dear," I heard Wormmon say in his distinctive way. He looked both left and right, trying to find somewhere worth hiding, but there was nothing on the wall to hide behind. He raced upwards, until he was crawling across the ceiling. The vulture wasn't hindered by his new location. It had wings, and was determined to get rid of Wormmon. Wormmon let out a short scream before he let go of the ceiling.

He fell down through the air, catching the vulture by surprise. The bird slammed into the ceiling, while it was distracted, and Wormmon continued his descent towards the ground. He was screaming. I was on the move, but I wouldn't make it in time. I pushed myself harder. I wasn't going to lose Wormmon because of a stupid bird. He was close to the ground now, and my feet pounded against the floor tiles. I jumped through the air, trying to catch him with a dive, and I _did_ catch him. I just never fell to the ground.

The octopus-crab wrapped one of his five remaining tentacles around me. I wiggled as best I could, but I was tied up. I dropped Wormmon to the ground, making sure he'd land on his feet, before I started to really give it my all. I'd already done this once before. I wasn't in the mood to get crushed by tentacles again. The octopus-crab didn't take my preferences into consideration though, and started tightening his hold on me. I swear he was squeezing my stomach up into my chest cavity. I felt a rib crack, and my vision started swimming. My fighting his grip was only causing him to kill me faster. I tried to gasp some air back into my lungs, but there wasn't a whole lot of room for air since my stomach was visiting my lungs. I could feel the veins in my neck popping, and my eyes were bulging. I knew my face was bright red, and I tried to call for help, but no words were coming out—all I could manage was a strange constipated grunting that wasn't all that loud.

Wormmon was trying his sticky net, but all it was doing was getting me _more_ stuck. I was coated in the stuff, and it was holding his tentacle securely around me. One of the octopus-crab's giant claws was coming closer to me now. It was snapping, giving me a taste of what was coming my way. It was closing in on me, getting far too close to my neck for comfort. It was right in front of me, and my vision was going black around the edges. I wasn't going to last much longer.

And then Takeru dived at the claw, pushing it out of the way. It got me in the forehead, and it sliced through my skin like butter. The pain was intense, but it dulled a bit when the blood started flowing. Takeru was thrown off of the claw, but he was on his feet in an instant, and slammed his fist into the octopus-crab's head. He let out a strangled scream right after. The crab shell was too strong of a defense.

"I think it broke my hand," Takeru gasped. "Like, _literally_ , broke my hand."

I couldn't exactly share my opinion with him at the time, since I was taking in a total of no air whatsoever. I couldn't even make my pathetic constipated noises anymore. The black was spreading from the edges of my vision towards the centre.

"Let him go!" Wormmon was ordering the octopus-crab, but it had no intentions of listening to a little worm. It had its prize, and it was going to make Arnold proud—or so it probably thought.

"Let him go," UlforceVeedramon instructed. "Or you'll regret it." The octopus-crab didn't pay him any attention. If anything, it felt like he was squeezing _harder_. My ribs cracked again, and I was afraid they were going to break if this went on any longer—though I doubted I would care when I died, which would be like seven seconds after the ribs broke, so it wouldn't be _too_ bad. "Ulforce Sabor!" UlforceVeedramon called, but my ears were too full of the sound of rushing blood for me to be able to focus on what he was doing. I felt kind of like I was floating, and then I was on the floor. The tentacle that was surrounding me was wiggling on the ground, and Takeru was working with Wormmon to untangle me from both it and the netting Wormmon had shot at me. _Finally_ , the tentacle was away from me, and I gasped in deep breaths, choking on the air when I tried to take too much too fast. I didn't have room for it. My ears were still full of the pounding blood, and my heart was working double-time, trying to get fresh oxygen to my body now that I was capable of drawing it in.

"Dragon Impulse X," UlforceVeedramon growled, charging up his energy. The flames were surrounding him, and I forced myself to my feet, wobbling over to stand between the hybrid monster and my partner.

"Don't," I told him with a raspy voice. "You already took off another arm. Don't hurt him anymore."

"But he almost killed you," UlforceVeedramon argued. I shook my head. I didn't want them to die. Their hearts weren't really in this. They just wanted Arnold's affection. In order to get it, they believed they needed to hurt us. I could show them that it wasn't the only option. They could get affection without having to kill people to earn it. I could care about their wellbeing even if they didn't care one iota about mine. I wasn't going to have my partner kill these guys. They didn't deserve it. Arnold on the other hand, I could be swayed on, if someone tried hard enough—or maybe even just suggested it.

My head was spinning, and I was ready to topple over, but I wasn't going to give up my stance. UlforceVeedramon growled at me, and stayed his ground as well.

"Sticky Shot!" Wormmon shouted, blasting the octopus-crab with some more netting before he could get me again. Takeru was investigating his hand, which was already swelling an impressive amount. I was sure he was right. He couldn't even _move_ his fingers, they were so swollen. His hand was definitely broken. At least he had a cool story to tell Hikari whenever we found her again. He'd managed to slay a dragon for her, but he broke his hand on a crab, trying to save me.

I figured I wasn't as big of a motivation as Hikari was. I was cool with that. It was _hilarious_ —except for the part that he was in pain. At least we were both alive. And so was the octopus-crab. That's all that mattered to me at that point—that we were all alive.

Palmon and Betamon were screaming, and I looked for them, deciding that UlforceVeedramon would _probably_ respect my wishes and keep the octopus-crab alive. Takeru and Wormmon were still there, to make sure he did. I spotted the two green rookies running from the velociraptor-ostrich. The monster was incredibly fast, and Betamon was _not._ Palmon wasn't all that fast either, to be honest.

Rapidmon abandoned his fight with the lizard that made play he was a dragon, to get to the rookies. He let out a loud "Homing Blast!" and missiles launched from the guns on his back, flying at the two headed bird with incredible speeds. The bird was distracted from Palmon and Betamon, as it was now busy trying to outrun Rapidmon's homing missiles.

"Ice Wall!" Garurumon growled, blasting ice from his mouth that formed into ice walls surrounding the alligator-bear. The bear was trapped. There was only one exit, and Garurumon was already there. It wasn't daunted by the idea though, because it latched onto Garurumon's front leg, giving him a pair of matching bad legs. Blood started trickling from the alligator-bears mouth as it sunk its teeth further and further into Garurumon's flesh.

Betamon, now free from the two headed bird, decided to lend a hand. He ran at the alligator-bear at top speeds—which wasn't all that fast—and screamed out "Fin Cutter!" at the top of his lungs. He sliced into the alligator-bear's nose with his fin, distracting the beast. Garurumon held onto his form—thankfully. I was worried that the pain would be too intense, and he'd revert back to Gabumon. We didn't have that luxury right then. We had three strong digimon to help win this fight, and he was one of them—despite only being a champion. He'd made it to champion on his own, thanks to all of his hard work during knight training—both before and during our stay at the Coliseum.

Now that he was free, he scampered back, and Betamon was left to face the alligator-bear alone. He charged up his Electric Shock attack, and unleashed a blast of pure electricity at the creature. The creature screamed, and fell to the ground.

"Enough!" Palmon screamed, upset by the sound. Betamon stopped attacking at her request, looking horrified by the idea of torturing his enemies. He was shuddering, and Garurumon had to nudge him with his muzzle to get him to move away from the alligator-bear that was _bound_ to be angry when he got up.

"Not so fast!" Gomamon shouted, jumping at the lizard with far too many sharp teeth. "Claw Attack!" he called, extending his claws and slashing down at the lizard that was trying to attack Palmon while she was distraught. The lizard jumped out of the way, and snarled at Gomamon, slashing with his own set of incredibly sharp claws. Gomamon shrieked with pain when his attempt at dodging didn't quite cut it. Palmon screamed again, and Armadillomon rolled in front of Gomamon before the lizard could attempt a second blow.

"Rigid Block!" Armadillomon called, hardening his shell to rock just before the lizard's claws came slashing down. They bounced off of his shell, and then Palmon raced in, using her Plant Shock, to cast a shower of leaves upon the lizard. He was blinded by the leaves, and while he was distracted, the three rookies slipped away. Rapidmon was in Gomamon's place by the time the leaves cleared up, and the lizard was startled by the sight of him—a big, strong fighter—instead of the smaller seal.

"He's running away!" Armadillomon called, looking to the velociraptor-ostrich that was still trying to flee from the homing missiles. He was right. The bird was running out one of the doors. We had to act fast if we wanted to keep this contained. The vulture was following suit, flying through an alternative doorway.

"Pick a buddy!" Takeru shouted.

"And pick a baddie," Gomamon added.

"Follow your enemy," I agreed. "Don't let them out of your sight. And _don't_ kill them."

"Never," Palmon said solemnly.

"Betamon," I called, because he was nearest to me, now that Wormmon was climbing the walls again. "You're with me."

"On it," Betamon called, and we raced towards the door the vulture had gone though. The two birds' escape seemed to spur the other three into action. The alligator-bear got to its feet and headed towards the door that Rapidmon was already flying through. He'd grabbed Wormmon off the wall on his way to chase down the velociraptor-ostrich. Garurumon limped as fast as he could—pretty fast, because of his long legs, and sheer determination—after the alligator-bear, taking Armadillomon with him both for protection and assistance. Armadillomon was pretty formidable when he wanted to be. Usually he was all about keeping the peace, but when one of his friends is threatened, he pulls out his claws. He was the perfect partner for the injured wolf.

"Palmon!" Takeru called. "We got the octopus-crab."

"Okay," Palmon said, not sounding very sure at all, but she was willing to help in whatever way Takeru could come up with. The octopus-crab was dragging itself through the third and final door, still wrapped up in Wormmon's netting, and off balance from losing half of his eight tentacles.

I knew that left UlforceVeedramon and Gomamon with the lizard. I also knew that Gomamon was going to make sure that UlforceVeedramon didn't get too violent. He didn't really appreciate it when his friends got hurt—and I didn't blame him, but he could get a little vengeful, and that wasn't what we wanted at this point in time.

Running with Betamon beside me, we passed through the door that the vulture had taken, and it struck me as sheer stupidity that I'd volunteered us to go after the powerful bird. It had already absorbed the rat. It was stronger than the others. And I was pretty useless in this fight. It would all be on Betamon. I was still dizzy from lack of oxygen. My ribs were hurting pretty badly too. Betamon was a pretty strong dude, but he was so small, and the vulture was just _so_ big. I didn't want him to get hurt while fighting him. That was only an issue, of course, if we managed to catch up with him.

"I thought they were supposed to stay and kill us," Betamon huffed, trying to talk and run at the same time, and finding it to be a difficult task.

"I think they got scared," I told him.

"Because we were winning," he surmised.

"Because they didn't understand, maybe," I pointed out. "I mean, that one guy, he was totally scared. He was being chased by heat seeking missiles, but the others just didn't know what they were doing. They're just puppets to Arnold, and they don't know it."

"I'd say we can help, but I don't think they'll stay still long enough without trying to kill us," Betamon said, sounding saddened by his revelation. I was saddened by it too. I wanted to help them. They could be great additions to the Digital World's population if only they'd tone down their homicidal tendencies. At the same time, there are _several_ digimon out there that have actively tried to take over the world—and several that were probably _planning_ on it before the virus came.

I gave it like a month once we finished dealing with the DWD before the next digimon has a go at it.

"We're never catching up," I groaned.

"Sorry," Betamon said.

"Not your fault," I told him. Yeah, he wasn't very fast, but I wasn't moving too quickly either. We hadn't run much longer before I heard the echoing noises of a scuffle. I didn't know what was going on, but a large part of me hoped that maybe some of our friends were facing off against the vulture.

That hoped proved false. We didn't get to see our friends facing off in an epic battle against the vulture—that they wouldn't kill, because we're not the DWD (even if these guys _technically_ weren't digimon)—but we did come across a fight. There was a panther facing off against the vulture. It was anyone's game. The panther was injured, that much was certain, but the vulture hadn't really gotten over that bump to the head it got when it flew into the ceiling. There were claws and talons clashing, and snarls and growls and squawks filling the air. At some point, the vulture seemed to realize that it had absorbed the strength of the rat as well, because it gained the upper hand, and was soon surrounded by a translucent, purple shield, just as Behemoth had been, and then the panther became data, flying to the vulture and settling into its DNA.

Betamon and I shared a brief look and started running before the vulture had regained the ability to move. Once that data had settled, I was sure we would be toast, so we raced through the halls. It took approximately eight seconds before the vulture was swooping down on us. We darted around a corner, and picked up our pace. Betamon wouldn't be able to move much faster, even if his life was literally on the line. I didn't know if I'd be able to survive stopping to pick him up though. Stopping would make us sitting ducks, and the vulture was bound to take advantage of that.

We raced around another corner. We were basically employing the zigzag method of evading capture. It was working for now, but eventually, we'd find a dead end, or a long stretch of hallway that would offer the vulture a chance to catch up to us.

Narrowly escaping capture by running around yet another corner, we found ourselves face to face with Behemoth. He growled at us, but caught sight of the vulture before he had a chance to act. He raced at us, and leaped in the air. I ducked to the ground, picking Betamon up as I did so, now that I had the chance, and he soared over our heads. He was surrounded by that same translucent shield that we'd just seen with the vulture, and I knew I had to move. I couldn't risk waiting around to see what would happen.

I already knew what was going to happen anyway. Behemoth was going to absorb the vulture—which had already absorbed the panther and the rat.

So, instead of waiting around to be lunch for the new and improved—yet again—Behemoth, I raced down the halls, literally running into Arnold on my way. He had Biyomon in his grip, and she wasn't struggling. I wondered what he did to her, checking to see if she was conscious. That's when I noticed the gun.

"You let her go," I told him firmly. He laughed, as I knew he would. The villains _always_ laugh when I try to give them orders. They just don't take me seriously. It was getting old, pretty fast.

"Don't presume to have control over me," Arnold told me with a sneer. He turned the gun away from Biyomon and pointed it to me. "I can put you out of your misery you know. You don't seem to think I'm kind, _generous_. You're bleeding, you know. I can give you a swifter death. That's _very_ kind, is it not?"

"It's a flesh wound," I snapped at him, upset that I hadn't remembered being injured. What if the smell of my blood made Behemoth crazy? He seemed sadistic enough without legitimately calling him to me with a siren song of blood. I wiped my forehead with my sleeve. My stomach churned when I saw just how much blood had covered it. It occurred to me just then that I'd thought I was sweating while I was running. Turns out, I wasn't. I tried to remember anything about head wounds that Jou might've mentioned to me at some point, and realized I'd never paid much attention to health care advice unless it had something to do with Haruki. How fast could you bleed out with a head wound?

"You're turning down my offer?" Arnold asked with mock sadness. "Pity, I suppose I'll just let Behemoth have his way with you. Do as you like darling. I simply _must_ get this annoying bird back to base. I can't wait to see what secrets she can provide us with."

"Biyomon, run!" Betamon told her.

"I can't," she said. She was afraid of the gun. But she wasn't without hope. Sora, Koushiro and Tentomon had been with her when she'd gone after Arnold in the first place. I figured that maybe they weren't too far behind. That was fantastic news. I didn't think I could actually hold Behemoth off for a second.

"Behemoth, I'm _waiting_ ," Arnold snapped. Behemoth came as his master beckoned, though I thought I saw a bit of rebellious in his eyes. It seemed the more power he gained, the more his mind began to think for itself.

Unfortunately, it seemed his limited free will wasn't strong enough to fight Arnold's orders—or maybe it was, and he was inherently violent by nature. That was a possibility too.

He turned to us and walked closer, licking his lips with his slippery, electric tongue. I was actually debating the pros and cons of being eaten versus being electrocuted when he leapt at us. He didn't make it though. I had kept my eyes open and everything, wanting to watch my demise coming for me. I wasn't going to let Arnold have the satisfaction of knowing my fear.

But Behemoth never came for me.

VictoryGreymon appeared out of nowhere, tackling the beast to the ground. Taichi came running after him, and launched himself at Arnold, who refused to drop Biyomon, even in the tussle. Behemoth noticed his master's distress, and bit VictoryGreymon hard, leaving deep teeth marks in the majority of his body. While VictoryGreymon was trying to centre himself—to see if he'd need to regress to Agumon or not—Behemoth shot towards Taichi, who Arnold had managed to kick away, even if just for a second. A second was all Behemoth needed. He spit his long, slippery tongue out, causing it to slam into Taichi, who went rigid upon the touch. Electricity shot through his body, and his fingers clenched into fists. His teeth ground together. He couldn't move, he could only let out a strangled grunting. VictoryGreymon was running toward Behemoth, and he was joined by Antylamon and Valkyrimon—who had arrived with the rest of the cavalry. Between the three digimon, they had more than enough force to shove Behemoth away from Taichi.

The second Behemoth's tongue detached from his skin, Taichi's eyes rolled up into his head and he fell to the ground in a heap.

I swallowed thickly, not able to believe what was right in front of me.

Taichi was down.

Taichi was out of the battle before it had really begun.

 _Taichi_ was out.

It was impossible, but it was true. Miyako was screaming at the sight of it, holding her very pregnant belly, trying to shield the baby from the sight—even if it couldn't actually see through her stomach. Tatum and Koushiro were holding Neo up, though he didn't seem to want to stay that way. None of them seemed able to process what had happened. Mimi was clutching Koushiro's laptop, and sticking right to his side. She was staring in horror, not able to react other than with pure shock at the sight of Taichi. Hideto and Mari were in varying stages of disbelief—Mari reacting far more obviously than Hideto—and Jou was obviously running through the list of supplies he was carrying, wondering if he had anything that could fix this mess.

Gatomon and VictoryGreymon reacted violently, both rushing towards Behemoth. Behemoth knocked Gatomon out of the way with just a flick of his tail. He was so much stronger after absorbing the vulture. With the centipede, and the beasts the vulture had already absorbed, he had five other beast's data within his own now. He was six times stronger—theoretically at least, because some of those beasts were the equivalent of ultimate level digimon, but that rat was definitely only a rookie—than he was when we first saw him. He was also a hell of a lot bigger now too.

"Excellent," Arnold purred to his monster. Behemoth didn't even spare him a glance. "I do wonder where you're all coming from. You seem to be multiplying. It amazes me how you feel it will help you in any way."

"It'll help plenty," Mari told him. "Warg, Hideto, power up."

"On it," they chorused, and Warg digivolved into a WarGreymon. He held his claws at the ready, waiting to join the fight. Coredramon moved to stand next to him, while Labramon went to see if Gatomon was alright. She seemed to be, thankfully. But Labramon used his Cure Liquor on her just in case. Gatomon groaned in disgust, pushing Labramon away, but hopped to her feet, reenergized and raring to go. Patamon was sitting on the back of an Armadillomon. There were _three_ of them, but I didn't recognize _our_ Armadillomon with them. I assumed he was still with Garurumon, trying to catch and distract the alligator-bear. There was also a man with them that I didn't recognize, but I didn't give him a whole lot of thought.

Because Taichi was on the ground at Arnold's feet, and Arnold still had Biyomon within his grasp, _and_ Arnold still had a gun.

"You think your measly power will daunt me?" Arnold taunted. "You're not the only one that can gain power on command." He pulled out a device. It wasn't a digivice exactly, but he seemed to be using it for the same functions. It looked more like the remote for a toy car, and even had an antenna sticking out the top.

"Don't you dare," Mimi gasped, falling back and wrapping herself around the large, purple ball of fluff. It pecked her gently, almost affectionately. Behemoth didn't care about the cute scene. He only cared about the potential of absorbing the data the little fluff-ball possessed. It didn't help matters that there was a frog-shark among them too. It wasn't overly friendly looking, and there was nothing particularly affectionate about the way it was chewing on Jou's medical bag, but it didn't deserve to become a part of this beast.

We also couldn't afford to have it become part of Behemoth. He was powerful enough as it was. We were going to have a hell of a time beating him without using lethal force.

"Keep them away," I said, running over to them and tackling the frog-shark—stupid thing to do, that thing had like fifteen rows of teeth on the top _and_ the bottom—and using my entire weight to roll him away. Mimi was trying to convince "Jezebel" to move away, but the ball of fluff wasn't listening. It—I suppose it was a _she_ —wanted to stay with Mimi. Mimi was getting frantic. Behemoth was forming his purple shield, and soon would be absorbing them, whether we fought against it or not.

Gatomon launched herself through the forming shield and scratched Behemoth in the face with a loud yowl. She wasn't happy with being tossed around earlier, and she was getting her revenge. Warg and VictoryGreymon teamed up to grab a hold of Behemoth's tail and swing him away. They threw him and he crashed into the wall.

"Don't!" Koushiro shouted, but no one paid him any mind. It was either throw the guy into the wall, or let him absorb more monsters and gain more power.

"I feel funny," Gatomon murmured, shaking herself, trying to get rid of the feeling the shield had given her. I wanted to ask if she was alright, but we had more pressing matters. Mainly: the octopus-crab that was walking through the door. Behemoth spotted it instantly, and bounded on it, creating his purple shield and absorbing it all in one fluid motion.

"Damn it!" Mari groaned, watching as Behemoth's fur grew shinier, harder. He had gained armor by absorbing that enemy. Takeru's hand could attest to how difficult it was to hurt something with that much armor. Speaking of Takeru, he and Palmon ran through the door, eyes wide as they watched Behemoth with caution. They'd seen what had happened to the octopus-crab and obviously didn't want to have to deal with being Behemoth's current target.

VictoryGreymon and Antylamon played the part of a distraction, and lunged at Behemoth. He didn't appreciate it. He shot his tongue out at VictoryGreymon, but it was dodged with ease. They didn't expect a second attempt so soon though, and Antylamon got the full force of his improved electrical power. She glowed and went down the ranks, becoming Turuiemon, and then Lopmon, before VictoryGreymon could slash at Behemoth with his sword.

Lopmon was discarded, and Mari ran to get her. Behemoth lunged at Mari, scaring her into miss-stepping, and her ankle twisted suddenly, and badly. She slid across the marble in her heels, ignoring her obvious pain, while Warg and Valkyrimon shoved Behemoth back towards VictoryGreymon. Coredramon shot his Blue Flare Breath, but it didn't have much of an effect.

Takeru and Palmon finally made it across the room, by the time Lopmon was in Mari's arms. Mari was still wearing her heels like a champion, and hurried as quickly as she could back to us. Jou looked over Lopmon, while Palmon flung herself into Mimi's arms. Mimi cried.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized with tears running down her face like little rivers.

"It's not your fault," Palmon assured her, crying just as hard as her partner.

"I _left_ you there," Mimi protested. "In the virus, you must've been terrified."

"It _was_ really scary," Palmon admitted.

"I'm the _worst_ ," Mimi sobbed.

"I think you're the best," Palmon countered. That just made Mimi sob harder though, and cling to Palmon tighter. I didn't want to interrupt their moment, but Palmon—now that she had Mimi—would be an excellent addition to our roster.

Patamon would've been too.

He and Takeru had finally been reunited. Takeru was holding Patamon close, and Patamon was nuzzling into him. "You're not Angemon anymore," Takeru observed, smiling so brightly that he seemed like the sun.

"I got tired," Patamon told him ruefully. "But I'm rested now."

"You wanna help out?" Takeru asked, just to clarify.

"If you need me to," Patamon said, with a small smile. Takeru nodded, and Patamon grinned. And he became Angemon in a flash of light. All this accomplished was ticking Arnold off.

"Enough of this!" he screamed. "Behemoth, get rid of them. I need to get this one out of here before I do something rash. I won't be able to study it, if I kill it."

Behemoth once again thought over this order, before deciding he really _did_ enjoy the idea of destroying us entirely. He was also still caught up on the idea of absorbing the frog-shark and Mimi's Jezebel. Arnold backed away slowly, keeping his gun pointed on Biyomon so that we wouldn't do anything stupid, for fear of getting her killed. Behemoth decided to leap towards the smaller monsters again.

Jezebel was the closest, so of _course_ he went for her first. Mimi screamed, and she and Palmon held Jezebel tightly. They weren't going to let anything happen to her. Seeing how dedicated Palmon was _already_ , even though she'd never been introduced to Jezebel was just a testament to how much love she held in her heart for all living things.

Koushiro wasn't about to let Behemoth take out all the girls in his family—because they were totally a family, and Jezebel was clearly a part of Mimi's now, so she was a part of his by default—in one swoop, and jumped in front of them, leaving Tatum to hold Neo all on her own. Behemoth didn't mind. He simply lifted his paw, extended his claws and slashed down at Koushiro, knocking him to the ground and ripping through his skin. His blood soaked through his shirt quickly, starting with the four gashes, before spreading to form a solid block of red.

Hideto had his axe in hand and swung hard at Behemoth's back leg. It caused some damage, but not a lot. Behemoth didn't like it though, and swung his head around so that he bit Hideto, and threw him through the air. Hideto didn't let go of his axe even for a second when he was flying through the air. He was bleeding too, and Warg caught him midair. Hideto moaned and cursed loudly, clamping his hand down on one of the large cuts caused by Behemoth's teeth.

"Koushiro," Mimi cried, pleading for him to say something. He mumbled a few words that weren't very coherent, and Jou was at his side quickly, trying to get his head cleared.

Four down: Taichi, Lopmon, Koushiro, Hideto—and that wasn't even counting Sora's glass wounds, the shot Neo took to the chest, Takeru's broken hand or Mari's twisted ankle. I supposed the cut on my forehead sort of counted, and Garurumon was injured _twice_ , and Melga once, if I wanted to have a proper catalogue of wounds.

How many more would we collect before we managed to win this thing?

"Where do you think you're going?" The sound of UlforceVeedramon's voice brought me a ray of hope. He and Gomamon were walking through the doorway, dragging the lizard they'd chased after behind them. He appeared unconscious, but alive. I winced. He'd brought Behemoth a snack that couldn't fight back even if it wanted to.

On the plus side, they had come through the door that Arnold had been trying to escape out of, and therefore were bringing Biyomon back to us. She was still Arnold's prisoner, but she was here where we could see her, and that counted for something in my books. Arnold also looked royally ticked off, so that was awesome too.

Unfortunately, Garurumon and Armadillomon chose that moment to run through the opposite door, being chased by the alligator-bear. Garurumon was still limping, and by the time he reached VictoryGreymon—who was trying to pick Taichi up without causing further damages—he reverted to Gabumon, and fell at VictoryGreymon's feet. Angemon hurried over to carry Gabumon while VictoryGreymon returned Taichi to us. Armadillomon rolled in a ball to us, and when he unrolled himself he spotted the three other Armadillomon and shouted in surprise. He seemed happy about it, but I wasn't paying too much attention to that.

UlforceVeedramon sent Gomamon to us, and Jou took a few seconds off of dealing with Koushiro's wounds to greet his partner. Gomamon noticed the seriousness of the matter and got to work being Jou's best nurse. I could tell right away how much Jou missed having Gomamon at his side. They made a really excellent team.

"Leave the small fries," Arnold shouted angrily. "Get the strong ones!"

Behemoth once again decided this was an order he could live with and thankfully left Jezebel alone. He created the purple shield and caught the alligator-bear while it was still trying to catch Armadillomon. Behemoth's once dull claws—that ripped rather than sliced through Koushiro's shoulder and chest—were now incredibly sharp. They looked like razors. UlforceVeedramon was the only one between Behemoth and _another_ power source. Coredramon ran forward to help, but the fight was over before it began. He tossed UlforceVeedramon aside like he was a rag doll. UlforceVeedramon and Coredramon both made it to Behemoth's side quickly, but it was too late. His already sharp teeth were now twice as long, and gleaming in the light of this world. He'd absorbed the lizard.

He was already so powerful, and there was nothing we could do to keep him from gaining more. Our heaviest hitter: VictoryGreymon was out of commission, because he was transporting Taichi to Jou. Warg was carrying Hideto, and Angemon had Gabumon. Lopmon couldn't digivovle anymore, because she was in too much pain, and was with Mari, waiting her turn for Jou to look at her too. Coredramon and UlforceVeedramon weren't enough to get rid of the threat, and Gatomon wasn't much by way of back-up. Not anymore. Champions, like Coredramon and Gatomon were great only a few minutes ago, but Behemoth had absorbed so many monsters already that I knew they weren't going to be much of a challenge for him.

Valkyrimon was ready to fight though, notching his Aurvandil's Arrow attack, and shooting three in quick succession. Behemoth was very much angered by this, but he didn't focus on Valkyrimon. No, his eyes were focussed on one of our allies in particular: Jou.

He knew that our doctor was, at this point, our most vital member. He was learning. He was getting smarter with every creature he absorbed. This was bad. This was very, _very_ bad.

"Get outta there, Jou!" I screamed, but it was no use. Behemoth was already charging up his dot matrix, intending on deleting our most valued player. The biggest issue with this—not that _Jou_ being a target wasn't a big enough issue—was that it wouldn't only be Jou. He was working on Koushiro at that moment—our biggest brain available—and Gomamon was at his side. Mari and Lopmon were seated near him, waiting their turn, Mimi, Palmon and Jezebel were right behind him, and so was Miyako. Labramon was trying to heal Lopmon with his Cure Liquor, but it wasn't strong enough to heal the damage that had been dealt. VictoryGreymon hadn't quite gotten Taichi there yet, and Warg still had Hideto, so they were safe, as were Angemon and Gabumon. Valkyrimon was safe, but Takeru was right in there with all four Armadillomon, Tapirmon and that guy I didn't know. Tatum still had Neo leaning on her.

Very few of us were out of Behemoth's range.

I was safe, and I was still holding Betamon, but that wasn't saying much. Coredramon and UlforceVeedramon wouldn't be able to defeat Behemoth with just our help. We needed _everybody._

Mari was on her feet, moving out of the way with Lopmon. The guy I didn't know was helping Tatum with Neo, and they were dragging him out of the way. Mimi and Palmon were taking Jezebel, watching Jou with worried eyes, wondering if they should've taken Koushiro too. The four Armadillomon and Takeru raced out of the way as well. Miyako was holding her stomach, and staring in fear. Gatomon had to take her hand and drag her out of the way, while Tapirmon pushed impatiently from behind.

But Jou couldn't move.

Behemoth was targeting _him_. If he moved he'd be bringing Behemoth's attack towards one of his friends. He got to his feet, and walked towards Behemoth, not wanting Gomamon or Koushiro to feel Behemoth's wrath. But he should have known better than that. Gomamon would _never_ let him sacrifice himself. So, while Behemoth was firing his attack, Gomamon raced around Jou and jumped into it, saving his partner, but scaring him to death in the process. Gomamon was starting to become pixilated, and Jou reached into the attack to drag him out. He flung him through the air, and Gatomon caught him with her body—the pair of them collapsed onto the floor.

The attack broke, and Behemoth was furious. He stomped his foot hard, coming down on Jou's leg. It hit Jou on an angle, and I could hear the crack from where I stood half-way across the room. Jou let out a loud howl of agony, and Behemoth was ready to stomp again, ready to beat Jou to death since his dot-matrix didn't work the way he'd planned. Tapirmon flew at him though and unleashed his Nightmare Syndrome. The nightmares flew at Behemoth and clouded his vision. Behemoth reacted violently to whatever nightmares he was experiencing.

"Don't mess about," Arnold snapped. "Get rid of them so I can leave. I am your master, do as I command!"

Behemoth couldn't shake the nightmares so quickly though, only snapping out of it when he smelled the velociraptor-ostrich that ran into the room, hot on the heels of Wormmon and Terriermon. I did a double-take, confused. He'd been Rapidmon when he left. He looked exhausted and pained though, and the pair of rookies weren't having any fun, trying to dodge the two heads. They nearly ran straight into Behemoth, because they were so busy watching _behind_ them. But, having an obstacle in their way, they split up, both taking a different direction around the ever growing canine monsters. The two heads tried to follow the two digimon, but the body couldn't split in two, and the monster fell to the ground.

Behemoth absorbed him without any preamble.

He grew even bigger.

"Yes!" Arnold screamed excitedly. "Now tear them apart."

Behemoth growled at the order, but was content to follow through with it, when a loud buzzing filled the air. It drowned out the touching reunion of Wormmon and Miyako, where Wormmon got to feel the baby move for the first time. There were tears shed, but I couldn't hear what was going on. Mari was tearing up too, seeing Terriermon coming towards her. He'd spotted Lopmon and he was going to get to her. He piled himself in Mari's lap, practically on top of his sister. He was crying, and kissing her, and she was crying too. They were closer to me than Miyako was, so I could hear them clear enough.

"You're back," Terriermon cried. "I hoped you'd come back."

"I was afraid I couldn't," Lopmon told him.

"Never run away from me again," Terriermon ordered.

"We'll go together," Lopmon promised.

"Always together," Terriermon agreed.

"From now until forever," Lopmon added.

"Where's Willis?" Terriermon wanted to know. "I can feel his digivice, I know he's here."

"He's not," Mari told him softly. "No one's seen him."

"But I _feel_ if," Terriermon insisted.

"Me too," Lopmon admitted.

Miyako looked like _she_ could hear their conversation too, because her eyes grew wide and she dug through her pocket, pulling out two digivices. Terriermon turned to her sharply and slumped when he saw that Miyako was the one that had Willis' digivice. I figured there was a story there, as to how it came to be in her possession, but there was no time to hear it. The buzzing was getting louder, and Behemoth was freaking out. It was too loud for his overly sensitive ears.

I was starting to worry about what it was, and then TyrantKabuterimon flew into the doorway, coming to a stop when he saw the mess of a battle we were fighting.

"What happened?" Sora shouted, when TyrantKabuterimon's wings stopped flooding the area with sound.

"What do you _think_ happened?" Tatum asked dryly.

"What do we do?" Takeru asked.

"We've got to get them out of here," Mari pointed out. "They're just a liability the way they are now."

"Don't presume you can change the tides of this battle," Arnold scoffed haughtily.

"Oh, stuff it," Sora snapped at him. "TyrantKabuterimon, you gotta get them out of here. Take however many you can carry."

"I have Hideto," Warg said, not wanting to let go of him. Sora nodded, and Coredramon headed to take Neo off of Tatum's hands. He wasn't much use in this fight without Neo, and he knew it. Valkyrimon wasn't a digimon we could really afford to lose, but since the other option was to lose the _stronger_ VictoryGreymon, Valkyrimon was left to handle Taichi. Mimi, Miyako, Koushiro and Jou were lifted onto TyrantKabuterimon, along with Terriermon, Lopmon and Gabumon. Tapirmon gathered up his nightmares, and resigned himself to floating alongside the large insect. TyrantKabuterimon was also tasked with carrying the frog-shark and Jezebel, so that Behemoth couldn't grow any stronger. Gomamon, Palmon, Wormmon and the four Armadillomon were set to walk, along with that guy I didn't know. If I managed to get out of this alive, I'd probably have to figure out who he was.

"Do you wanna go?" I asked Betamon. He did. I could _see_ that he did, he was shaking that badly.

"No," he said instead. "I'll stay with you."

"Thanks," I told him, because I was scared out of my mind, but there was no way in hell I was leaving UlforceVeedramon, VictoryGreymon, Gatomon and Angemon to fight alone. They needed moral support, and it looked like Sora, Mari, Tatum, Takeru and I would be providing it for them.

Behemoth had no intentions of letting so many escape, but VictoryGreymon and UlforceVeedramon tag-teamed him and in the end, he had no choice. He'd hurt so many of our friends. He'd have to pay for that. We didn't want to kill him, but he couldn't go without punishment. We didn't even know if all our friends would survive the damages he'd inflicted upon them.

Angemon and Gatomon formed a shield by standing in front of Takeru, Mari, Tatum and I. I held Betamon closely, and groaned when I realized Labramon hadn't left with the others. He sat next to me, supporting me and UlforceVeedramon through this, even though he knew his partner was out there somewhere. He was risking everything, staying here with me.

There was very little chance we'd manage to win this fight. We'd be leaving Kurayami to raise Haruki entirely alone. No. Not _alone_. She'd have our friends, but that wasn't enough. I should be there for Haruki, and for my wife. But I needed to do this. I couldn't abandon them. I wiped more blood from my forehead, and adjusted the goggles Taichi had made me wear. I was the leader, and I was meant to stay until the end.

UlforceVeedramon and VictoryGreymon fought with their swords, trying to cause damage to Behemoth, but not _kill_ him. It was giving Behemoth an edge, because he wasn't worried about killing anybody. Sora was hovering near Arnold, worried that he would try to escape with Biyomon, and that she wouldn't be able to stop him. UlforceVeedramon let out a loud shout, and I saw that Behemoth had bit him hard on the shoulder, and he flickered with light. Eventually, the light won out, and Veemon was standing out in the battlefield.

"Get outta there!" Labramon and I shouted as one, and Veemon tried. My heart was in my throat, and it was so fast. Behemoth was going to crush him, he was going to take my partner, and I was helpless to stop him. I couldn't fight against a monster like him. I wasn't strong, I didn't have any fighting skills. I could only _watch_ as his foot slammed towards the ground on top of Veemon. Veemon was being brave, but I just wanted to cry.

VictoryGreymon sliced at Behemoth's foot, and Behemoth changed trajectories, aiming at _him_ instead. VictoryGreymon flew across the room, slamming to the ground next to Arnold. Arnold let out a startled yelp, and while he was distracted, Sora ran forward and knocked the gun out of his hands. It fell to the ground and she picked it up—only _after_ taking Biyomon's wing and pulling her away from the mad scientist.

"You _dare_?" Arnold asked sounding completely scandalized.

"I do," Sora growled.

"Behemoth," Arnold yelled, as if he were a petulant child. "I want them destroyed, _NOW_!"

Behemoth growled, his patience finally snapping. He turned quickly and set his sights on his master—no, not his master anymore. He wanted to get rid of his creator, and there was no one to stop him. I couldn't imagine anyone really _wanted_ to stop him either. No one wanted Arnold around.

But _someone_ cared enough about his life to save him, even if she had no reason to.

"BIYOMON!" Sora yelled. Her digivice glowed brightly, and Biyomon flew towards Behemoth, shining just as bright. And then it wasn't just the two of them. Sora lit up like a light bulb and then everything was red, as the light emanating from her reflected off the walls of the room. It was blinding and it was bright and soon Biyomon was drowned out completely.

" **Biyomon digivolve to… Birdramon!** "

" **Birdramon digivolve to… Garudamon!** "

" **Garudamon digivolve to… Phoenixmon!** "

" **Phoenixmon digivolve to… Varodurumon!** "

She exploded from the shining light as a beautiful white bird. She had six large wings that glowed multiple colours, like a constant rainbow of warmth, and looked more majestic than just about anything I'd ever seen. There was so much light around her that I was nearly blinded by it.

"Aurora Undulation!" she sang—literally, her voice was like a beautiful song that melted all my worries and fears away. The purifying light that she emitted grew larger, and brighter still, and it was all thrown quickly—so fast I barely understood what was happening, it was like the speed of light, I swear—and it penetrated Behemoth's body just as he was leaning down to put an end to his creator. And then the light faded away, and Behemoth fell to the ground.

And finally, there was silence.

 _ **Hikari Yagami:**_

"So how exactly do your powers _work_?" Michael inquired as we walked. I was making sure I peered down every corridor before we made any decisions of where to go. I didn't want to miss reuniting with Patamon, I was worried he would be lost in the maze all alone for too long. I had yet to see any food or living creatures in this world and I didn't want him to meet his end all alone. Winter assured me that she could find him, but it didn't stop me from worrying.

"Well," Summer said softly from where she was walking with Iori, "The four of us were gifted different abilities at birth, the powers of the season."

"I know that," Michael nodded in his understanding, "But what I don't know is what qualifies as a 'summer' power?"

Summer made a face that said she understood what he meant finally and she smiled, "Well, I can use the powers of fire and heat, but the power my mother gifted me was that of memory. I am able to twist and pull at the memories inside any mind." Her eyes flicked toward Spring, her sister who still had tear stained cheeks from her sobbing earlier. "There are limitations to the powers we possess, but we can do many things."

"Like that," Winter said, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb to where she had crafted two perfectly round bubbles to envelope the two creatures that Spring had trapped inside her tree. Inside the nearest bubble, that Yamato was dodging with his head whenever it came too close was a large angry looking bee, and inside the other was a snake that kind of looked like a fox. It had legs in any case.

Michael seemed to be taking all of this in with much interest, "So you have the power of ice, obviously," He noted and Winter nodded, "but what was your gift at birth?"

"Clairvoyance," Winter said briskly, but when Michael seemed confused she added, "I am able to see through other's eyes. It is how I am making my way through this maze." That made sense. And it even put my worries to rest too. If she could see through Patamon's eyes, then she surely could find him and bring us to him. It was a relief to know he wouldn't be out there alone for too long. "And Spring had a very powerful empathetic link, as well as the ability to grant life."

Michael nodded and then something seemed to dawn on him, a realization of sorts, "So my mother—"

"No offense," Ken interrupted, "but can we move faster? Let's get Patamon and get to Miyako, or the other way around. I'd prefer that honestly."

Kurayami let out a soft breath next to me but said nothing. It was clear that everyone wanted to find Miyako as well, if not for the sole purpose of seeing her again after two months, then to get Ken to stop being so rude to everyone. I understood though. Or I could attempt to. Losing a pregnant wife and finally discovering that she was in fact not lost—in the literal sense, she was still lost inside the maze—it would be enough to make anyone go crazy. I just wished that we could find her before someone said something they might regret.

"We are near now," Winter assured him, "soon you will be reunited with your loved ones." Ken's face lit up and he began walking quicker now, hurrying past Yamato and Spring.

Yamato looked upset though, and he wasn't the only one. Iori seemed gruff and in dire need of a good shave. I smiled to him and he smiled back, but his expression fell soon after. I knew he wasn't in the best of moods and I felt _horrible_ for what he and Miyako had been forced to live through. The Dark Ocean was a place of only nightmares. At least in the Land of Dreams we had the opportunity to live a happy life if we could find it inside ourselves to do so. They never would have been able to.

But we were all here now. All okay. All of us had made it out of the hell we had been thrust into and were stronger because of it. We'd made it through one hundred percent of the mess we had been chosen by destiny to live through, and I was confident that we'd be able to do it again. Nothing could stop us now.

Winter stopped suddenly, throwing her hands out to the side, catching Ken and Spring, stopping them in their tracks. "Could we take a break _after_ we find Miyako?"

Winter hissed at him to be quiet and then she closed her eyes in thought, or perhaps her strange clairvoyance powers were being utilized. "Darkness is approaching," she said ominously. My mind immediately jumped to that horrible woman, these fairies' mother, Gaia. She had been the darkness both Winter and I had been desperate to locate before, but now, in my heart, I knew it to be something else. I did not feel the tugging or the desperation to move forward. Instead I felt panic as my mind begged my body to heed Winter's warning. We should be hiding.

Kurayami slipped her hand into mine and pulled Melga into her other arm and pulled me sharply down the nearest path. Iori caught sight of us and seemed to think Kurayami had the right idea because he soon took Summer by the hand and followed suit. Soon Yamato, Spring, Ken and Winter had joined us, and when the bubbles filled with enemies floated above our heads we all kept completely silent, waiting for Winter to tell us when the coast was clear.

But that never came. Instead footsteps accompanied by heavy breathing filled the air, and my body tensed up. The breathing was deep, and the footsteps were heavy, I could tell that this was not Gaia, just as I had believed. It was something else.

And Winter turned to us with her finger to her lips, everyone seemed to understand how important it was to stay _perfectly_ still. Until the blur of grey shot past us and Yamato gasped aloud. "Arnold!" he shouted, swatting the bubble containing the snake-fox out of the way and flying out into the hallway, "Don't let him get away!" Yamato shouted.

Winter clenched her fists and set off, flying through the air with Summer and Spring following close behind. The rest of us filed out into the hallway and watched as they flew quickly after the man, surrounding him.

"Get away you wretched women!" Arnold shouted in anger, swatting his hands in the air and then grabbing Springs gown. He pulled sharply and dragged her through the air and out of his way. Spring looked furious and then she threw her hand out, pointing toward Arnold and in an instant a long beautiful tree branch shot from the wall right in front of Arnold and he ran directly into it, flipping through the air and falling flat on his back.

A loud groan filled the air and Yamato pumped the air triumphantly. He apparently didn't like this man much. More footsteps echoed around us and my heart fluttered with fear until Ken whispered, "Miyako?"

I turned sharply, excitement rising through me but found that Ken was sure to be disappointed. Standing before us was _not_ Miyako. At first I had thought we had only found a beautiful bird glowing with light even purer than the light this world emitted, but upon closer inspection I found that Agumon, Veemon, Betamon, and Labramon were all following, right underneath.

"Betamon!" Michael gasped weakly, rushing forward. Betamon's eyes widened and he hurried forward, tears in his eyes, "I'm so _sorry_ I left you alone in the Coliseum!" Betamon couldn't seem to form words as his excited tears choked him off.

Ken smiled upon seeing Betamon and Michael find each other again. I found myself staring to Agumon and holding my arms out for him to hug me. He smiled brightly and rushed toward me and leapt into my arms. I held him close and kissed his head.

"We should keep moving," Iori suggested, looking to Ken warily. Ken nodded and we turned to wait for the fairies who had trapped Arnold in a bubble of his own. His nose was bleeding and he looked _very_ unhappy, but he was contained and that was what mattered.

When we continued moving Kurayami pet Labramon's head kindly and walked with him as we made our way to the room that the digimon had come from. The first thing I saw was Sora looking round in anticipation for Arnold to be found again, and she was shocked with what she saw. Michael grinned to Tatum and moved to meet up with her, and Kurayami and Daisuke seemed to be relieved to see one another, but it was nothing to what happened with Yamato and Takeru.

Yamato was literally speechless, seeing his brother. I felt guilty for never thinking of telling him that he was okay, but it didn't matter now. Yamato moved toward him and threw his arms around him, making Takeru grin foolishly. "I'm okay!" he said before biting his lip, then he actually laughed and pulled away from Yamato, "You need more hope than that."

"I just didn't see how it was possible," Yamato admitted, "I—I did hope. I did."

I looked around the group and gasped at the sight of a large disfigured wolf laying, unmoving, on the floor of this world. It was clearly dead, I could see no movement in the way of breathing and no one was looking near it, perhaps afraid that it might spring from its death. Suddenly I beamed toward the Angel standing near Mari. "Patamon!" I shouted, "Er—Angemon! You're here?"

"I found my way," Angemon said curtly, "Or rather, Koushiro showed me the way." It was good to know that he hadn't gotten himself _completely_ lost. It seemed that everyone had found their way to one another, like perhaps the world was not closing its walls sporadically at all, but rather guiding us towards one another.

"Hikari?" Iori said, tapping my shoulder. I turned to him and he was smiling again. I smiled back, confused, but then he pointed to the elegant fountain in the center of the room where a white cat was sitting, splashing her feet in the water, washing blood off of her. My body went numb as I rushed toward her, tears already in my eyes.

I had missed her so much.

I had seen her so often.

And I was wary now too, unsure if she was real. Too often had I caught sight of Gatomon in the Land of Dreams and just as often I would have to convince myself she was not real, facing heartbreak time and time again. But this was not that world. We were here now, in this land of light. Had this land ever granted me my wishes, the walls would not have separated me from Takeru.

This world was not tricking me.

This was Gatomon.

I stood behind her, which she seemed to notice because she looked round to see who it was and her eyes widened in shock suddenly as she leapt from her place in the fountain. Her feet were wet, but I didn't care. I had forgotten how soft her fur was, and how her tail felt as it brushed against my arms. It had not been long—but it had been _forever_.

"We should locate the others," Winter advised, "Many need immediate medical attention."

"Wait, what?" Ken asked sharply, rounding on Winter with a fire in his eyes. He had reunited with Daisuke and seemed happy, but it wasn't Miyako, and now he was worried.

Winter gestured to the doorway we would have to take and Ken was off already, ushering us all to follow him quickly. I fell in stride with Sora who was stroking the nearby wing of the new shining holy bird. "Is that _Biyomon_?" I asked in complete awe.

Sora nodded with a smile before checking over her shoulder to be sure Arnold was following us. His nostrils flared at her and she stuck her tongue out at him before turning around and showing much more pain and aggression than she seemed willing to show to Arnold. I had never even met him, so I didn't know _why_ we hated him so much, but if he was as bad as everyone else found him to be, I was sure he deserved his bubble prison if not so much more.

"Biyomon digivolved past mega," Gatomon explained, nuzzling her head under my chin, "I guess Sora mastered the crest of love, understanding that every life should be valued, even if it's the life of some egomaniac who attempted to kill everyone and everything for his own selfish reasons." Sora didn't look happy, but it was obviously true that she had chosen to save this man's life.

Takeru, who was walking with his brother, looked back to me and smiled, I smiled back to him and then he said, "Love is the crest felt by all in the world," he was reciting from something I was sure, "to fully understand the concept of love you would have to understand that love means something different to everyone and that everyone has it just as strong as you do, even if it's darkened or plagued."

"You should write that down," Sora joked humorlessly, "That's good. You could use it for your book." Takeru grinned at her, his eyes crinkling and Sora rolled her eyes.

Summer, Spring and Winter were leading the way now, weaving us through the maze, rounding corners whenever necessary. Sora wasn't talking and I knew something really big had gone on. I just hadn't been around to find out what it was. I had been busy following a dark urge, falling prey to what I should not have done. That Gaia woman was just so dark...

"So what was the beast back there?" I asked, trying to rid my mind of Gaia when the familiar pulling sensation tried to lead me to the right. My mind could not forget the beast that had been slain. It was a horrible sight to see, and I was sure we should not leave it here. Not like that.

Sora looked up and seemed almost angry. "Behemoth," she replied simply, "And so many others. It devoured other creatures, like the ones in those bubbles. It _deleted_ them all, just like the virus, but instead it absorbed their data and grew stronger until it was too powerful for its own good."

"It had to be stopped," Agumon assured me. I had nearly forgotten he was next to me, "Palmon doesn't want us to kill things, and I think she'll be mad that we had to. But it was just so mean. It had to be done."

"There is always another way," Angemon said wisely from where Yamato and Takeru were walking. "Killing and violence are never the _only_ answers. I think what we have done is not _wrong_ , I am not trying to shame you Varodurumon and I am proud of you for choosing to do what we could not."

"I understand," Biyomon—Varodurumon—said. "You think that, given better circumstances, we may have been able to discover a new way to dispose of our foe."

"Now," Angemon said, "dispose is a rather negative word—"

"Can we stop talking about this?" Sora said, shuddering as she held herself, glancing back once more to Arnold.

We moved forward and started walking faster now, I was trying to rid myself of the feeling in my chest, but it was growing stronger now, and I needed something different to focus on. I tried to ask Gatomon questions, but nothing came out. Instead I just walked, watching as Winter and the others all turned to the right. We were closer as a group now, walking in a bundle, it was clear to me that there was danger lurking around a nearby corner, and Winter likely knew as well. I wondered if she was choosing once more to lead us toward it. I reached for Takeru's hand but he retracted it quickly, gasping, before informing me that he had in fact broken it. Upon closer inspection I saw that was obvious. I felt horrible for missing the fight, and getting out unscathed, but I was glad his injury was not more serious or permanent.

We would be ready this time, with Betamon, Labramon, Veemon, Gatomon, Angemon and Varodurumon to fight alongside Winter, Spring and Summer. And Iori too, I couldn't forget him and his metal pole.

Ken was visibly shaking with anticipation now, and I wanted to comfort him, afraid that what we found would not be to his liking. Winter had mentioned that there were many in need of hospitalization, and I was frightened that Miyako might just be one of them.

And then Ken stopped walking entirely. It seemed no one noticed though as they all moved past him, walking onwards to follow the fairies. He looked to me as I walked near him and he whispered, "I think I feel it too, the darkness."

I gasped, "You're sure?"

He shook his head, "Not at all," he admitted, "M-maybe I'm just nervous." I smiled and took his hand, adjusting Gatomon in my arm. He smiled to me.

"Don't be so nervous," I told him with confidence I didn't know I had. "We'll go together."

And then as the others turned one last corner, a scream echoed around the chamber. Panic filled me and by the way Ken's hand tensed up, he had been instilled with terror as well, but the scream faded into nervous shouting. "You scared me!" I heard Mimi call out. My heart fluttered with excitement. Mimi was here!

Then Melga had shouted out, "Hideto!" And he was off, running toward his partner. Ken and I paused as one at the corner and I looked to him to inquire whether he was ready or not, but the bubble containing the bee bumped into the two of us and we stumbled forward. In this new hallway, the walls were lined with injured people and digimon, many were crying and most were keeping close to someone that they had been missing during their time apart. I could see Jou crying over his leg, but with Gomamon around to keep him company, and there was Neo, bleeding from his shoulder with Dracomon willing to help him out.

Mimi was sitting between a hungry looking shark and a fluffy purple ball, looking over Koushiro who looked to be _very_ seriously injured. Palmon and Tentomon were together, worriedly looking over his wounds. Hideto was hugging both of his partners now and watching as Mari came to join him, already holding Tapirmon in her arms. Terriermon and Lopmon were crying with one another, holding each other tight and refusing to let go. Yamato perked up at the sight of Gabumon but was worried to see he was injured. Iori was already sitting amidst four Armadillomon, holding the one that was his partner close to himself. Nearby was Wormmon and Hawkmon, and Ken was staring that way with tears in his eyes.

"Miyako," he managed to say.

Even over the noise of the hall Miyako had heard his quiet voice and she looked up to him, never letting go of her round stomach. "K-Ken?" she stuttered, trying to get to her feet. Hawkmon was there for balance and soon she was standing, walking with a kind of limp toward Ken who was pushing past everyone in his way.

They met each other in the middle of the hall, surrounded by those who had fallen and Miyako wasted no time in throwing her arms around him and kissing him. Ken was crying now, still worried but so relieved to be back in her arms. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

"Oh, it was h-horrible!" she started, already crying, "I w-was in the Dark Oc—"

"I know," Ken cut her off, "Iori told me, I'm so sorry I wasn't there with you."

"I-it's not your f-fault!" she said hugging him tightly. She spotted Daisuke, Kurayami and I over his shoulder and she grinned at us, " _And_ ," she added, looking directly at Kurayami, "it's not your fault that you killed him." I turned to Kurayami, ashamed that I had forgotten what she had done in the midst of this new world. I didn't blame her either, and she seemed embarrassed about having been called out, turning into Daisuke's arms. "Ken I love you," Miyako said through her tears, "I j-just I didn't w-want to be without y-you!"

"I didn't want to be without you either," he assured her, holding her close, and then he jumped back, staring down to her stomach and his tears thickened, "it's moving," he noted in awe. "It's so big!"

Miyako slapped him half heartedly across his shoulder and he looked up apologetically but she didn't seem to mind. She _was_ big too. Not too far into the pregnancy though, she still had a bit to go.

Then I looked down to Agumon as he made his way through the crowd to where Spring was sitting, looking down to a man laying on the floor. My heart jumped and I pushed forward rushing toward him. I slipped past Miyako and Ken and then over Koushiro's legs, stopping above Taichi who was laying, motionless on the floor. "No," I gasped, falling to my knees. "W-what happened?"

"His insides are hurt," Summer said in a soft, defeated voice. She was still weak from whatever her mother was doing to her. I took her hand and stared down at the lifeless body of my brother. "He is alive."

Her words slapped me into another round of relief, but it wasn't enough. Just because he was alive did not mean he was going to stay that way. I reached forward and took his hand. It was warm—really warm. His chest was moving I could see, and he was breathing, but otherwise he showed no signs of life.

"What are we supposed to do with that _thing_?" Gomamon asked, looking up to Arnold who was floating above us, looking away indignantly.

Yamato looked up to Summer and stared her directly in the eye, "Mess him up," he suggested, "take his memories. Do something to avenge everyone who died because of him."

"No!" Takeru insisted, "Fighting violence with violence just leaves room for more hate and destruction."

Koushiro mumbled something incoherent and so Mimi propped him up with Palmon's help. The fluffy purple ball seemed to find a loose thread on his shirt interesting and tried to snap at it with her beak but Mimi pushed her aside, "Peace," Koushiro said through his pain, "this world—made for peace."

Takeru nodded, "Yeah, exactly. We can't do something so... _bad_. At least not here."

"Then let's take him to Earth," Yamato suggested, "We'll get him to talk. We'll learn all there is to know, and if he won't tell us anything," he turned to Hideto and Mari, "we'll get Allias III to have a crack at it." For whatever reason, Kiyoko and Willis weren't here, and I didn't want to think the unthinkable, but it was true that Mari and Hideto had a lot of anger to give out, especially to this man, if what I was picking up from the others was true.

"Yes, I agree, let's go," A mysterious man said, "Can we go?"

"Bengoshi, sit down," Iori instructed, "We'll leave when we can."

"We can go now," Mari informed him, "Taichi has the keys in his pocket." My eyes fell to Taichi's pants where Spring was pulling out a bundle of large keys. There was a rusted key that lead to heaven, the silver key to Earth, the smaller copper key that lead to the Digital World, the sapphire key to the tunnel of time and the complicated wooden key to the In-Between.

"But we're not all here!" Terriermon piped up suddenly. I looked to him and saw that he was holding a digivice close to his chest, "We don't have Willis."

"Kiyoko isn't here either," Tapirmon added weakly.

I looked up to Winter who was already running through the world in her mind. She was scanning for any other life, trying to search through their eyes. When she finally opened her mouth to speak, someone else spoke in her place.

"Now those names _do_ sound familiar." The voice was familiar too, and when I looked up, I saw that Gaia was standing in the hallway we had come from. Her hands were on her hips and she pursed her lips thoughtfully. There were several startled gasps and Miyako actually hid behind Ken as though she were personally offended that this woman had shown herself. "Willis and Kiyoko—oh yes! I do recall hearing them... those from my land spoke ill of them. From what I gather, they met their demise."

I felt someone grab my arm tightly and I turned to see Spring, her face was filled with fear and panic and Gatomon was already trying to remove her tight grip from my forearm, but she wasn't looking like she was about to let go. There was a _massive_ part of me that _craved_ the company of this woman, but it was clear that right now, it would do more harm than good. I looked to the keys in Spring's hand and grabbed the one for Earth, and yanked myself away from Spring, turning to the open space in the hallway and slamming my fist forward, turning the key.

The mystical door opened itself up and I grabbed the bronze coloured doorknob and pulled it open, revealing a busy street.

I heard a scream behind me and when I turned to look I saw that Miyako had been pushed aside and Gaia was weaving her way through the crowd, desperate for the escape I had provided. I felt stupid for having thought she wouldn't want this for herself—I had intended to only allow us to leave, but I obviously hadn't been thinking clearly.

I grabbed Spring's hand and I pulled her behind the door, keeping the keys close to me. I wouldn't allow Gaia to get her hands on them, because she could easily trap us here, and although Summer had gotten us here, it was possible that she wouldn't be able to leave.

"Don't let her escape!" Summer screeched from behind the door. "Get her!" And then there was a massive struggle and I winced, trying not to feel guilty for what I had done. Gatomon leapt from my arms, assuring me she'd be back and she hurried after them too, rushing into the door. When I braved a look around the door I found that Summer and Winter were gone. As were many of the digimon and that Bengoshi man.

There was silence for a while and then Yamato stood up, "We need to get out of here. We don't belong." Everyone seemed to agree, and Yamato, with limited help from me, pulled Taichi into his arms and headed for the door. Sora was quick to get under Jou's arm on his broken side and helped him limp and hop toward the door as well. Palmon and Tentomon kept the monsters under control, and Iori guided the monsters in their bubbles through the door with the help of the Armadillomon's.

Takeru and Daisuke helped Mimi with Koushiro, and Takeru was wincing from the pain of his hand, though he wouldn't admit it or request a break. Michael and Hideto had Neo easily and followed Takeru through the door. Mimi offered Mari some help but she seemed to be able to limp well enough on her own, and so Kurayami and Mimi were gone next, dragging Arnold with them.

I looked toward Ken and Miyako who were on the ground now. Miyako was crying silently, in a way that said she was _broken_. These were not tears of happiness, and my heart sank even lower as I stared toward her. Spring grabbed my arm again, this time more gently, her face was filled with sadness as she looked toward Miyako.

"W-what's wrong?" Ken asked hesitantly, trying to pull her to her feet, "C-come on, we have to go. You can go. Y-you're alright." He was trying to convince her into feeling better, but it wouldn't work. Something was seriously wrong. She looked up, her face red and stained with tears and then she looked down again, unable to form words in her panic. "What _happened_?" Ken shot loudly, "Talk to me!"

"B-baby!" she cried, her voice barely understandable, "coming!"

Ken's face blanched and my stomach twisted painfully as Spring held tighter to my arm, wincing away. "N-n-now?"

Miyako nodded, the tears coming faster and harder and she looked like she just wanted it all to end. "Now!" she confirmed.

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 07:** Uh Oh! Some pretty serious drama is still to come in the final chapter, and to continue on into the final part of the trilogy! Tai and the others need to learn what it means to Begin Again!


	48. Begin Again

**Y/N:** This is the end of the story. It was good to wind down after all of that action and to just finally have everyone all in one place after such a long time. The third part of the trilogy will be a little while coming, since it's a big undertaking, but for your enjoyment, we have put together a Christmas story set in the future world with their children all around. It's just really fun and refreshing to write the kids, instead of all this intense emotion and stuff. It'll start coming out on the first. Also, I hope you've guessed the theme for the chapter names. It's Taylor Swift songs! Yay.

 **U/N:** So this is the last chapter which effectively makes this the shortest of the main stories, and so far 03 is the longest. Obviously we've been following the episode count for the individual seasons so since Savers had 48 episodes, we put in that many chapters. This is quite different from Savers, but we kept the elements that involved some rather physical combat and pretty human/adult issues. So there's that. Anyway, we're going to have a break for most of December and not post things because, like, we've been writing like crazy and that's crazy, but I'm sorry if that's like a crazy long time, but you'll have Christmas to look forward to!

 **Title: Digimon Adventure 07: Virus**

 **By: YukiraKing and UrazamayKing**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Digimon or its characters.**

 **Part 5: The Land of White**

 **Chapter 48: Begin Again**

 _ **Taichi Yagami:**_

 _Beep._

 _Beep._

 _Beep._

The first thing I was aware of was an incessant beeping. It grated on my nerves, but my body didn't want to cooperate. My eyes weighed a ton, and every muscle was screaming at me, and I wasn't even _moving_ yet. I tried to piece together what happened, and I gasped, eyes flying open as I looked for Behemoth.

He wasn't there.

I wasn't even in the same all white room as I'd been in before. The walls were a buttery yellow, and the lights were fluorescent above me, stinging my eyes. I squeezed them shut, trying to relax the tensed, pained muscles. I took in the feeling of the bed beneath me. It wasn't comfortable, but it wasn't bad. It was thin, and too narrow. My back was propped up, and so were my knees. The pillow and sheets were stiff and scratchy, and didn't smell anything like the laundry detergent I used at home. They smelled like the air did. Everything was too clean, _sterile_.

"Relax, Taichi."

It was Hikari. I opened my eyes, even though it hurt, and flopped my head to the side. She was sitting on a chair beside my bed. Her eyes were shining, and there were tracks of tears still on her cheeks, though she wasn't crying anymore. Her hair was a mess, and she looked miserable, and tired. But she was beautiful, because she was alive.

I'd known that Koushiro had taken her to safety. But it was different to know that she'd stayed safe, or relatively safe, while she'd been gone. I hadn't been able to _know_ if she was even still alive, until now. Mom was going to be over the moon.

"Wha' 'ppen'd?" I slurred, trying to get the words out. My mouth wasn't cooperating very well. I wiggled on the bed, looking around some more. Behind Hikari there were frames on the wall, all boasting something to do with health and wellness. There was a model of a skeleton in the corner, and the incessant beeping was coming from a machine. There was a tube inside the vein in my elbow. There was a cotton swab and tape holding it in place. The tube led to an IV bag.

"You got electrocuted," she explained gently, taking my hand within hers. She was being very careful, and I wondered just how much damage I'd taken. She looked positively terrified that she was going to hurt me. "You're due for more pain medication soon. Do you want me to call the doctor?"

"Jou?" I asked, hopeful. She shook her head, and looked sad.

"You missed a bit while you were out," she told me. "Jou's here somewhere though. He's getting his leg set. Emiko's going to have a field day with his cast. I'm thinking about getting her some markers for her birthday."

So I hadn't missed _that_.

"Beh'moth?" I asked. I eyed the glass of water beside my bed, and Hikari helped me drink some of it while she explained.

"Sora and Biyomon managed to achieve super-ultimate status," she told me. "Behemoth was going to kill Arnold. He was insane—they _both_ were—but Arnold was in control of his actions. Behemoth seemed to live entirely to destroy things. He absorbed most of the other monsters, and he got _so_ powerful. Behemoth is dead, Taichi. And I let a horrible darkness escape that world, even though I didn't mean to. I keep doing that. Why do I do that?"

"It's not your fault," I assured her, much more clearly now that my throat wasn't so dry and scratchy. She shook her head and played with the blanket that was covering me.

"It kind of _was_."

I was startled, and Mari apologized when I recoiled as the pain spread through me. I didn't even realize she was there. She was leaning against the wall on the other side of my bed. I turned to look at her. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she was favouring one foot. I struggled to see why, and she rolled her eyes, pushing me back down, saying that she twisted her ankle, and assuring me that it wasn't that big of a deal.

Behind her, I saw Mimi was sitting beside another bed. There was a curtain that _could_ be drawn to separate the beds, but my friends evidently didn't think it was necessary, as they'd shoved it against the wall, so that Koushiro and I were in the same "room". I was very concerned when I saw that it was Koushiro on that bed.

"Behemoth got him," Mari told me. "He got Hideto and Jou too. Lopmon and Gomamon aren't in the best shape either, after fighting with him. Veemon's not doing so well, and the monsters got to Melga and Terriermon before Behemoth absorbed them."

"Agumon?" I demanded, desperate to know that he was alright, and wasn't stupid enough to get electrocuted before the fight had even really started.

"He's fine," Hikari assured me, patting me on the back. I rolled back over, and just stared at the ceiling. I was in too much pain to continue looking between the two girls. The ceiling was a good middle ground. "Tatum and Michael left with Winter, Spring and all the digimon, while Summer brought the rest of us in here. It's crazy out there. There are reporters that want to know the story. Yamato and Sora were talking to one of the doctors the last I heard, telling _him_ the story, so he could share it with the reporters. Did you know that the two of them are wanted by the police?"

"You're kidding," I said, laughing—and regretting it.

"They really are," Hikari told me, not sounding amused at all. "Iori's getting his nose fixed up right now, and Daisuke is finally getting his stitches. He cut his forehead open, you know?"

"I saw that," I said, thinking back.

"Takeru's hand is broken, but he's already got a cast on it," she added, worried about her boyfriend. It still struck me as strange some days to think that my baby sister had a boyfriend. And then, after _that_ thought struck me, I realized that he was obviously okay if he needed a cast. I'd thought he was dead somewhere. I'd missed _that_ while I was unconscious.

"Hideto was getting _his_ stitches," Mari commented. "That's why it took so long for Daisuke. Sora had to get glass extracted from her back, which probably wasn't fun. Neo's still in surgery. It's stressing everyone out. And that's not even factoring Miyako in on top of everything else."

"What's wrong with her?" I asked, worried.

"She went into labour," Hikari told me. "She's only twenty-five weeks. She was freaking out, trying to convince the baby that it couldn't come out yet, and the doctors didn't know how to handle her panic attack. She spent two months in the Dark Ocean, and she's still trying to deal with all of that on top of this. It would help if they'd let Ken be in there with her, but they won't."

"It's a delicate delivery," Mari said, in a mocking tone, obviously not approving of the doctor. "Sure, it's risky, and I get that. I do. But having the mother dealing with _this much_ stress isn't going to help the baby at all. She's afraid that the baby's going to die."

"Won't it just be extra tiny?" I wanted to know.

"You don't know anything about babies, do you?" Mari asked dryly.

"The absolute minimum length of a pregnancy where the baby could survive, is twenty-three weeks, and it's rare," Hikari said solemnly. "There's a better chance for Miyako's, because it's twenty-five weeks. But that's still just over thirty percent. She could lose it."

"There's nothing that can be done?" I asked.

"Not anymore," Mari said with a heavy sigh. Miyako was one of her closest friends, and she was obviously _very_ worried about the situation. "If her water hadn't broke before we got here, then there were a couple options that could delay it a few extra days, enough to get a steroid injection that would help the baby's lungs to mature, but her labour was too far along by the time we managed to get her in her for that to be a viable option."

"It would take too long to kick in," Hikari added, just in case I didn't get it. I didn't, so it was nice that she'd foreseen that.

"They took her right into the maternity ward," Mari continued. "Ken's been pacing the waiting room since. I was there too, but he's in a tizzy, and I just couldn't be around him anymore. Hideto's still up there, but that's mostly because it pulls on his stitches when he moves, so he's stuck. Kurayami's there too, trying to calm Ken down, but he's panicking just as much as Miyako was. He missed the pregnancy; he doesn't want to lose the baby before he can _know_ it. Not even Summer's managed anything, and she's got actual magic on her side. Michael's been texting me for updates, but I don't have anything worth telling him—though I guess you're awake now, so that's something. He just keeps sending me updates on the news we've missed."

"Gay marriage is officially legal in all fifty states," Hikari offered, fiddling with her phone, having just gotten an update herself. "He also, apparently, has become more popular on social media since his disappearance. Also, Mr Smith isn't doing what he was paid to do, because he fired Michael, or something."

"That doesn't make sense…." I couldn't help but point out. Michael had hired _him_ , not the other way around. I didn't really care though. It seemed so trivial now, what with all of our family and a bunch of our friends and co-workers still trapped inside the Coliseum, and a supposed "darkness" roaming free because Hikari had apparently let her go.

"Doesn't have to," Mari said. "It's Michael."

"All it's making _me_ do is remember that I haven't been to work for two months, due to unpredictable circumstances, and I know that means I'm fired," Hikari said sadly. "I loved teaching, but the principal hated me. There's no way he'd take me back. And I don't know if I could go back there at all, not after Noriko."

"Then find somewhere else," I suggested. "You're great. Someone will take you."

"But will I have _time_?" Hikari wanted to know. "We might've won the fight against Arnold, but the battle is far from over. We've still got so many people to deal with. How long will it take to end the racism against digimon? How long will it take to take out the DWD?"

"I think it's called _EVOLVE_ , actually," Mari offered. "And I don't know. All I know is that I'm sick and tired of people messing with the peace we fought for. Lalamon gave her life to find that peace, and EVOLVE is just stomping all over it. And we took Behemoth's life, to try and regain it, but it won't amount to anything. It was _Arnold,_ not Behemoth that was the problem. I'm not saying Behemoth wasn't super dangerous, because he was, but why is it Arnold that's getting the easier sentence? Why did Behemoth have to give his life, just to save Arnold's? It wasn't fair."

I knew not to touch that subject with a ten foot pole. Mari was definitely having flashbacks to losing Lalamon, and I knew she didn't actually want to talk about it, even if she was alluding to it. She didn't like it when anyone's partner—or _any_ digimon really—was taken from them. Sure, Behemoth wasn't _technically_ a digimon, but I could see her point. Arnold created him, and controlled him. Why was Behemoth getting the larger punishment?

I also realized that I wasn't there for the majority of the battle. I didn't actually know how bad Behemoth had gotten. He'd seemed pretty bloodthirsty to me, and he _had_ electrocuted me, so I didn't exactly hold a fond place for him in my heart. But I didn't know if any of his actions were his own. I probably would _never_ know.

"Katsue sent an update," Mari said, after her phone pinged. "They're working hard. They've managed to hack into Arnold's computer—they figured out his password before we'd even _caught_ Arnold—to try and undo the block between Earth and the Digital World. It's a step, but of course we're going to have to get rid of the virus before it really gets opened."

"Mantarou told me that Momoe, Chiziru, Jenna and Chi are in the Coliseum right now," Sora said. I looked to the foot of my bed, towards the door. She was standing in the doorway, being careful about how she was standing. I understood. I was in a lot of pain too. She'd taken a tumble in some glass, and her back was all shredded.

"How'd they get there?" Hikari asked.

"With that device Evelen stole for us," Sora told her.

"Who's Evelen?" I asked, trying to place her but coming up blank.

"Neo's friend," Sora said, at the same time Mari supplied me with "A bartender." I summarized that Neo was friends with a bartender. Strange, for him—to _have_ friends—but not out of the realm of possibility.

"You should send an update for her when Neo gets out of surgery. I think she'd like to know," Sora concluded. "Anyway, we've got a way back _in_ if we need to get there, before the block is taken down. I'm actually headed back to headquarters. There are a lot of stressed out individuals that are crowded, and I'm worried about Biyomon. I'm not doing much here, except abusing Summer's magic to hide my identity, anyway. I can worry just as well from there, and while I'm there, I can maybe help Biyomon deal with what's happened. She's not taking it very well. She really didn't want to hurt Behemoth. Mantarou's going to come pick me up, so he'll be here in ten minutes or so. He's desperate for any updates on Miyako—though can you believe he was honestly surprised to find out she was pregnant?"

"Sora," I interrupted. "You're rambling."

"I'm anxious," she explained, but I already knew that. I knew _her_.

"How's everyone in here?" an enthusiastic voice came from behind Sora. She stepped out of the way, and a doctor came into the room, followed by some guy that made Mari roll her eyes and look at him sadly all at once. I took him to be that lawyer she'd been worried about. Summer came with them too, and Hikari looked to her, hoping for news of the baby. Summer shook her head, and Hikari sighed. "Are you in a lot of pain?" the doctor asked me, and I shrugged—which only showcased how much pain I was in, when I clenched my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut. He chuckled. "I can fix that, just give me a minute." He injected pain killers into my IV drip, and assured me that I'd be feeling it in no time. I silently resented his enthusiasm. Couldn't he be as miserable as the rest of us?

He continued to check my vitals, and shone a light into my eyes. I was just getting more and more irritated by his presence. I wanted to know how Miyako was doing. I didn't matter as much. I already knew I was going to live through it. I wasn't feeling _that_ bad. But the baby was at risk. They should be dedicating all their manpower to ensuring its survival.

Seeming to realize that I didn't want him around anymore, he told me to call for a nurse if I needed anything—he pointed to a button, in case I was planning on legitimately _hollering_ for one—before moving over to Koushiro. I strained my ears to hear his diagnosis, even if it was prying. I wanted to know if he'd be okay. Mimi looked at the doctor, hanging on his every word. Koushiro seemed to be in another world though. I wondered how much medication he was on, but he seemed coherent enough.

"I think I need some amphetamines," he decided, looking up to the doctor.

"Those won't actually help you with your recovery," the doctor said, when Koushiro had interrupted him midsentence. "They have nothing to do with your situation."

"I'm highly intelligent," Koushiro drawled. "I _know_ what they're for. I have however deduced that I'm in need of them."

"We can discuss it at a later time, of course," the doctor assured him.

"Do you really need them?" Summer asked. Koushiro nodded, growing impatient with the doctor. Summer did something with her hands, and then the doctor was more agreeable, and left the room, being trailed by the lawyer, in order to write up a prescription. I could hear the lawyer asking a string of questions, suggesting checks that could be done to ensure he _truly_ was working at one hundred percent, and there weren't any hidden maladies.

Mimi and Summer were murmuring with Koushiro, who wasn't answering any of their questions. His eyes were unfocused, and I knew he was lost within his mind, running over some information he'd gathered somewhere, and trying to fit all the pieces of the puzzle together. I would question him about it later. For now, I was just happy to see that he was doing alright.

It didn't stop me from wishing for some sort of miracle for Miyako's baby though.

"Hey, you're awake!" Takeru said cheerfully, waving a hand that was covered in a yellow cast at us as he peeked into the room, with a cardboard cup holder in his hand, with two cups of whatever. Yamato was with him, and he smiled my way when I met his eyes. "That's great. You know, if you wanna head to the waiting room, you probably could. We can just get a wheelchair, and wheel both you and the IV, if you're feeling up to it."

"No," I protested instantly. Hikari's hands found my own again, and Mari looked startled. Sora was worried, and both Takeru and Yamato's smiles slid off their face slowly. "No wheelchairs. I don't want one." It would be too much of a reminder of Rei. Rei, who obviously wasn't among the people that were brought to the world of white, and was most definitely out of my grasp now. Hers wasn't the only name that hadn't been mentioned either. I'd noticed that Kiyoko and Willis weren't here in the hospital with us. Hikari would've mentioned them when she was giving me the run down if they were. She was thoughtful like that, and knew I was worried about all of us, not just my best friends.

"Okay, then, so you don't want to go," Takeru said awkwardly. "Great."

"I'll go with you," Hikari said, boosting his spirits instantly. "I'll come down with any news, Taichi. I'll keep you in the loop."

"Thanks," I told her.

Yamato and Sora stood on either side of the door, as Hikari passed through, taking Takeru's drinks as he told her he bought one for her, and she took his other hand as he did so. Neither Yamato nor Sora seemed in a hurry to say anything. They were just standing there. I gave up on waiting for them, and lied down on my flat pillow. It was quiet for a good long while, and then Yamato's father's voice filled the air.

"Yamato?" he called. I looked again, because I was feeling nosey, and saw Hiroaki hug Yamato. He was crying and I assumed that meant he had just come from seeing Takeru. I was glad he got that chance.

"What're you doing here?" Yamato asked. "I thought you'd have gone to the Coliseum to be with Fumiko by now. What're you waiting for?"

"Fumiko and I have actually put an end to our relationship," Hiroaki admitted, embarrassed by his audience.

"What? When?" Yamato asked shocked.

"After you and Iori blew up at us during dinner, we had a pretty serious discussion, and chose to split up for a bit, to see what it would be like. Right before the virus, we officially broke it off," Hiroaki explained, still softly, not wanting to share his relationship drama with the rest of us. His whispers weren't very quiet though, I heard him perfectly fine. "I've been trying to tell you."

"Not for _me_ , I hope," Yamato said, sounding horrified at the thought.

"No," Hiroaki said, shaking his head. "It was for me."

"Alright then," Yamato said, still sounding shocked and awkward about the whole thing.

"Sora, he's waiting in the parking lot for you," Hiroaki added. "He's afraid to come inside. He doesn't want to hear any bad news."

"I'll head down then," Sora said, waving at me.

"Who's outside?" Yamato asked.

"Mantarou," I told him. Sora sighed and sent me an exasperated look, and Yamato looked to her, shocked.

"You said you were going for a walk," he pointed out blandly. She shrugged her shoulders, and looked at the ground. "Why do you always _do_ this? I don't care if you don't want to share everything, that's fine. I share _everything_ with you, because I trust you, but I don't expect the same in return. I never did, but you can't even tell me the truth about where you're going? If you can't _trust_ me, Sora, just tell me. But don't lie to me. I think I deserve that much decency."Yamato was evidently letting off whatever steam had been building up inside him for the last while. Or maybe he was continuing a previous argument, I didn't know. And when I looked away awkwardly I found that Mimi was in the same boat, watching with sad confusion.

"I _do_ trust you," Sora protested, but it was weak at best. She really _didn't_ trust him, and I wasn't overly shocked by the revelation. I'd suspected it for awhile, but I never thought she'd actually confirm it like this.

"I made _one_ mistake," Yamato said, sighing. "Just the one. Six years ago."

"It was enough," Sora told him softly. "I have to go."

"Go then," Yamato said, and she did. He watched her leave, and then sighed. "You got a minute?" he asked his father. Hiroaki nodded, and Yamato dragged him off to try and sort through his feelings about Sora. I had a feeling he was actually ready to move on—he couldn't long for her so desperately now that he knew how she really felt. I just hoped it was the right move for him to make.

"That was awkward," Mari commented, and I agreed. She sat on the bed beside me, and I tried to sit up without leaning. It was a struggle, but it wasn't unbearably painful anymore. I figured that meant the pain medication had kicked in.

Koushiro's head was rolling down to his shoulder, and Mimi pressed the button on the side of his bed to lay him down better. He was out like a light. Summer was standing at the foot of the bed and reached out to Mimi. "You need nourishment," she ordered. Mimi put up a protest, but it wasn't very strong. "Come with me to the cafeteria. We'll get something warm to drink, and see if there is any news on the honourable one, yes?"

"Okay," Mimi agreed. "But we'll come back after, right?"

"You can return whenever you wish," Summer told her gently. She took Mimi's hand, and led her to the door, stopping to look to me and Mari. "Is there anything you would like?" she asked, but we declined her offer. She closed the door behind her, and once it was closed, the walls Mari had built up crumbled. She leaned over on me, resting her head on my shoulder and her shoulders started shaking. She wasn't crying, but she _could've_ been, if she wasn't forcing herself not to.

"You scared me," she scolded me. "I thought you were dead. People always die on me. I don't want to be left alone."

"You wouldn't be alone," I pointed out. She pulled back and scowled at me.

"You wormed your way into my good books, Taichi Yagami," she told me. "The least you could do is make an effort to stay alive for me. I've lost Lalamon and my grandmother already…more even. I can't lose you too. Don't do that to me."

"I couldn't leave you," I told her, rolling my eyes. "You'd take that key and drag me back by the ear. You know you would. I'm not going to leave you alone. You've got more friends than just me too, and you know it. Tapirmon would be there, and Hideto, and Neo. And—" _Kiyoko, Willis, Rei._ They weren't here right now, and probably never would be again. I winced, and shook my head, before continuing with a softer voice. "You're stuck with me. I'm not going anywhere unless you tell me to go. We're kind of a kick butt team. Well, you kick butt and take names, and I just watch, but still, you won't be alone."

She looked over to me from the corner of her eye, and when our eyes met, we both leaned in instinctively. Our lips touched, and we lingered there for a few seconds, and then the door was opening. We pulled away, our eyes wide as we realized what we'd done. Hikari was in the doorway, crying, and all thoughts of the kiss left my mind.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The baby," Hikari said, before she choked on her tears. She leaned against the doorframe, and Mari and I looked to each other, swallowing thickly, while we waited for Hikari to pass on the news.

 _ **Willis Kennedy:**_

"She's gone," Astamon's voice broke the growing silence. We all stared toward the place where the gleaming white door had appeared and disappeared just as quick. Terra—or Gaia, I supposed—was gone now too. I was confused. Only Kiyoko seemed to entirely understand what had gone on, because he had been the one to unveil her secrets. If only he could explain it to me, perhaps then I would be able to understand.

But as of now, I could only think back to all of the time I had spent with her, and all of the lies she must have told me. But none of it added up. Why would she be so helpful and so kind if she were as treacherous as Kiyoko had implied. I had been planning to have a dinner with Kiyoko and Terra. I wanted him to get to know her, and get to know that she had the potential to love. If he could see the better sides of her, then he could have perhaps put the past with his parents where it belonged. In the past. If he could take this woman who reminded him so much of his mother and watch as she showed him a better side of herself, perhaps a small broken piece of him would fix itself.

But that wasn't possible now, because it was just as Astamon had said. She was _gone_.

"Willis!" I turned at the sound of Rei hissing my name and I caught sight of her and a small blonde girl standing under an arched doorway. Kiyoko was already making his way over to them, but I wasn't ready. I was still in shock. Still confused. But I knew that I had to go too. I couldn't wait here forever for answers.

I turned and moved quickly, but my movement seemed to have caught Astamon's attention. I heard his movement behind me but never turned back. Kiyoko reached for my arm and grabbed it tightly before yanking me through the door.

"Hellfire!"

The shout came from Astamon, and it was loud and furious.

The blonde girl had slammed the door shut behind us, but that couldn't stop the bullets from reaching us. Rei screamed as the walls seemed to explode with the force of the bullets. Heavy, damp dirt was raining down on us from all around. Kiyoko pulled sharply downward and I came crashing to the packed dirt floor. As I slammed into the ground my senses seemed to rush back to me. My heart began beating faster, my mind began reeling and processing the events quicker than it had before, and I knew that we had to escape _now_.

I risked a glance through the holes in the wall and saw that Astamon was approaching now that the firing had ceased, and if he were to catch us there was no way we could survive. We had to go. It was my turn to pull Kiyoko around.

I jumped to my feet and ensured that he was able to do the same before rushing toward Rei and the blonde girl who were both hiding behind a large orange-ish root that was growing through to the center of the room. I leapt over the root, practically dragging Kiyoko behind me and spotted a door to our right. "Go," I instructed, and Rei nodded reaching toward the door, but never raising herself high enough for Astamon to catch sight of her. But the door's movement was enough. I heard him let out a yell of excitement, so I pushed on the girl who I still could not identify and we were all rushing through the door. "Don't stop," I warned, and they all listened, hurrying through another door immediately to the left, and then another in that room. I didn't want to stop at all but this room was filled with shelves made of wood and vines. They lined the rooms and were filled with junk that Terra—Gaia—had collected over the years.

It was the perfect place to hide, especially since Astamon had no chance of knowing where we had gone. The labyrinth that Gaia had crafted for herself was perfectly convenient for us and would make the most ideal home for a game of hide and seek. Luckily, that meant that it would be difficult for Astamon to locate us.

Rei seemed to be on the same page as me and she had begun dragging the girl she had found along with her, through the maze of shelves. Kiyoko followed quickly and I took one last glance to the door, worried that maybe if Astamon _had_ seen which direction we had gone, running into these shelves would not be wise. But I didn't have a choice because the others were already out of sight.

I caught up to them quickly though and soon we had woven ourselves deep into the massive chamber and found a perfect hiding place. We sat in an intersection of shelves so if Astamon were to find us we would have three alternate directions to run no matter which way he came from.

"Okay," I said in a whispered tone, "What the hell just happened?"

The others all looked shocked that I had thought it wise to speak, but eventually Kiyoko, after looking nervously all around him, decided to respond in a tone even quieter than mine had been. "Terra was always Gaia," he said from where he sat on the ground with the blonde girl. She and Kiyoko actually looked rather similar, only her hair had more of an orange tone to it than his.

Rei sighed, slumping down to sit with the rest of them, "But who is Gaia?" Rei asked.

"Terra," Kiyoko explained helpfully.

Rei and I both groaned audibly and it was the blonde girl who decided to save us from further frustration, "Gaia is a woman who was born long before the worlds ever encountered separation. She was married to a dark man known as Sigma, who you should all know of," she shot Kiyoko an apologetic glance, "and Gaia was cast aside because of her vicious and compulsive need to have _everything_."

"Great," I nodded, thankful for some kind of explanation, "Who are you though?"

She looked shocked and then apologetic, "I'm so sorry, I'm Norn."

"Norn!" I gasped, falling to my knees, "Sorry, I didn't recognize you." I had only seen her the one time and I was kind of busy with the prospect of saving all of the worlds from the Yggdrasil drones. But if what she was saying was true, even Sigma feared Gaia's darkness, and her greed, and now she was out there—somewhere. Where had she gone exactly? We knew of all nine worlds and that simply was not the key to any of them. I could visualize all of the keys in my head having recently handed them out to everyone and even though I could not pieced together which key went where, I knew that the stick Kiyoko and I had found in the dump was not one of them. "Where is she?" I asked, hoping Norn might have the answers I was looking for.

She looked to me and shook her head, "No idea," she admitted, ashamed. "She wanted me to tell her what it was for, and where it would go, but I had never seen it before. I knew it was a key. I could feel its power, but never had I seen it before."

"What are you doing here at all?" Rei asked, taking her hand for support when she showed sadness in her eyes.

"She wanted my information," Norn explained, "All that I could give her..."

Kiyoko put his hand gently on her shoulder and she nodded her thanks for the support she was getting, "When did you arrive in Witchenly though?" Kiyoko asked.

Norn's face lit up, realizing that had been what Rei must have been wondering too, she looked embarrassed, then worried. "I fled the In-Between..." Norn explained quietly, "I—the virus... it came through the tree, through the tunnel. I sealed the world the best I could and left through the nearest tunnel. It was all I could do to escape the virus. I don't know what would happen if I were to die. I don't know where Yggdrasil came from or what purpose he really served for the worlds. All I know is that I'm all that's left of him. I was worried, and so I fled. I'm pathetic."

"Because you saved your own life?" Rei asked, shaking her head, "Absolutely not. Being strong doesn't mean you're only thinking about other people. You can't get strong if you never worry about yourself too. Besides, what you did was for the better. Who knows what might have happened if you died, like you said." Norn seemed relieved that we didn't blame her for what had happened—but how could we? She hadn't sent the virus, she was in the same predicament that we were.

"But can you leave now?" I asked, worried about my rising hopes, "You can leave through Yggdrasil's tree, right?"

Norn shook her head, "I told you, I sealed the world," she looked even more ashamed of herself now, "The only way back is with the key."

I nodded as a whole array of negative emotions washed through me, "But that's fine..." I decided, even though my words weren't very convincing. "Ter—Gaia is coming back, we'll just take advantage of that." Then I slowly looked to Kiyoko and bit my lip, "I'm sorry, by the way. For not believing you, and for anything I've said that might have upset you."

"Now isn't the time," Kiyoko said flatly, and I felt a pang of guilt hit me again. He wasn't ready to move on, I figured. "I forgive you though," he said, catching me off guard. "The only reason I didn't fall for her charm was because of my lingering connections with Sigma. He hated her, and so I did too, even though I didn't know who she was. I would have done the same if I were you."

I laughed a little, relief overflowing inside me, but Norn quickly grabbed my arm with her right hand, digging her fingers into me, she looked afraid now. I silenced myself immediately and Rei moved to safety, keeping behind me as Kiyoko prepared himself to run. My eyes fell down to Norn whose left forearm opened itself up, like it had been cut in half. The pieces of her arm stretched and moved themselves back toward her elbow and the translucent pipe that appeared to make up her insides spun itself around, her entire hand splitting apart and melding itself back together as a kind of funnel.

I watched, confused and amazed at Norn's new arm as the piping began to glow. Silence had captured us all once more, and we waited, no one daring to say a word. My eyes flicked between Rei, Kiyoko and Norn and soon I would be prepared to make my move. I was prepared to get out of here. If Norn was worried, then I was too, and we could find our way back to the exit. Astamon wouldn't stand a chance against the Fallen Angels, and they'd be more than happy to help me out if I could just explain to them what had happened. But for now, we sat, still trapped in the total silence that Norn had wordlessly requested of us.

There had not been a single sound until Rei adjusted herself behind me and bumped a glass vase. It wobbled back and forth for a while, and we all waited, too afraid to touch it for fear of knocking something else, and then finally it stopped its sound, balancing itself out. "Sorry," Rei said in barely a whisper. But just as she had spoken, something had moved ahead of us, and Norn wasn't taking any chances. A blast of blue light shot from her new cannon arm and I was too busy being in shock to notice the way it had begun melting the shelves ahead.

When my eyes finally looked away from Norn I spotted Astamon, aiming his gun toward us from between all of the shelves.

Panic quickly shot through me and I grabbed both Rei and Kiyoko, setting off at a run the opposite direction. I didn't bother to look back, knowing that Norn was smart enough to run from danger now that we had spoken with her, but I did hear the firing of Astamon's weapon and I couldn't stop the worry from creating an almost overbearing amount of stress inside my chest. The sound of Norn's gun fired back though, and that was enough for now.

I turned sharply, and although I had no idea how Gaia had been thinking in terms of this miniature maze of shelves inside her larger maze of rooms, I had a feeling I could use logic to get us to the exit. I had my bearings correct, and I knew that, so I did not fear getting lost. Rei and Kiyoko both seemed willing to do as I said, because they took every turn I requested of them until I had managed to find the exit.

We came to a stop outside the maze, debating silently if we should wait for Norn or not, but soon the question answered itself. A massive orb of whatever it was that Norn had been shooting melted a way through the shelves and continued straight through the wall at the other side. Rei's grip on me tightened but Kiyoko was curious and was already rushing to the hole the ball was making, looking through the dirt as it cascaded down from the ceiling. And then Norn shot through the hole in the shelves she had created, firing behind her as she went. "Go!" she had shouted before rushing past, floating through the air—which was apparently something she was capable of doing.

Rei released me and followed Kiyoko who was climbing through the hole after Norn and I was last, jumping through and chasing after them all. Norn's blast was still melting its way through room after room and we didn't stop running for a second, chasing after it. Norn did though. Every now and then she would slow herself and fire toward Astamon again, but eventually it proved to be pointless because we had arrived back in the messy room we had started in.

Rei let out a strangled gasp as she reached for the door that would lead back to the garden outside. She threw it open and practically shoved Kiyoko through it. I was next and then Norn ensured Rei's safety. We closed the door after we'd all gotten out, but knew that we weren't really safe just yet.

"Oh my god," Rei gasped, looking around. I hadn't even bothered, but when I did I could understand what she had been so shocked about. The garden that Gaia had put so much effort into was essentially gone now. The flowers were already dead, the orbs of light that once floated through the air had dispersed, delivering no more nutrients to the world around them. The vines and trees that made up the ornate gazebo in the center of the garden were all dying and rotten, as if Gaia's sheer energy had kept the life in the land. It was sad to see such a beautiful and serene place gone so quickly—and it was worse to know that Masks Square was running out of food too, and that we would soon be unable to eat anything at all. We were so going to die. From starvation, if Astamon didn't catch us first. It was probably part of Gaia's plan.

"We need to keep going," Kiyoko reminded us all and he was right. Standing around, waiting for Astamon to kill us was no way to keep ourselves safe.

We were running again, and it wasn't until we were nearly back to the bonfires that the idea of breaking the door came to my mind. It was surely too late now, Astamon had to have come that far. But if we had broken the door there was no way he could have continued following us, unless there were other exits that we just didn't know about.

Norn looked horrified at the world around her, as though this wasn't the world she remembered protecting, but we didn't have time to worry about it, we needed help.

But when we arrived at the bonfires, no one was present. There wasn't anyone around even inside the huts. "Damn," I muttered, and Kiyoko and I shared a look. We had to get to the church grounds. They weren't far away, and as we travelled along the thin path I worried that maybe seeing the two groups of digimon fighting would cause Kiyoko's anger to resurface.

But the church grounds were barren too. We threw open the massive doors only to find an empty church where the broken deity statue was waiting in the tainted moonlight. It was literally horrifying. We were in a horror movie, surely Astamon had to catch us now and kill us in some gruesome horrible way.

And just as the thought crossed my mind, the window above the deity shattered and a figure leapt through, landing in the direct beam of the moonlight.

"Astamon!" Rei shrieked as he held his gun at the ready.

"Hellfire," he said again. His massive gun was on his shoulder, and soon there were bullets being fired everywhere. Norn was doing her best to usher us to safety, but that didn't stop the bullet from hitting.

Rei's scream was loud and shocking, echoing through the empty church, and her body fell limp as she tumbled backwards down the stone steps that made up the church entry. I didn't even know what was happening as my legs acted on their own, chasing her down the steps. I fell to my knees next to her and propped her head up. She was crying. So she was alive.

Kiyoko was next to her a second later, crying too. I searched for the bullet wound, hoping to see it on her leg or somewhere we could fix it, but when her arm moved away, her jacket moved and I saw the blood pooling up near her stomach. "R-Rei!" Kiyoko choked out in a panic, "N-NO!"

I looked up to Norn who was standing in the doorway, with Astamon's hand held around her neck, and she was lifted into the air, choking. I handed Rei to Kiyoko using my shaky hands and used what little energy I had left to carry me up toward Astamon, but he caught sight of me and Norn had been thrown directly toward me. The two of us toppled backwards, back down the stairs into a heaping pile near Rei.

I looked up to Astamon and saw his gun held high and ready to strike one last time. "I promised my lady, Gaia, that I would dispose of you." He said, his voice weak, "I will not fail her. If she were to return to see you alive, she would never take me with her. I would be stuck here forever. I will not allow that." He aimed his gun and I tried to push Norn off of me, but I was too weak with fear now, and no matter how much I tried to convince myself that it wasn't the end—I knew it was.

Until, "Octogravity."

Astamon flipped upside down, nearly dropping his gun.

"Gravimon!" Kiyoko shouted in shock as Gravimon appeared out of thin air. Astamon would not have this though, and he did not hesitate to fire his gun, sending many bullets directly his way.

Norn surprised me as she stood up, and helped me to my feet, "Get Rei," Norn said flatly, "We can't leave her here. She's dying."

"She's _not_ ," Kiyoko barked, but obeyed, jumping to his feet. He scooped his arms under Rei's legs and I did the same under her arms. She howled in pain and I winced apologetically, but we couldn't leave her here, Norn was right. If Rei had any chance of surviving, it wouldn't be here, in a battle field. "W-we need to bandage her?" Kiyoko said, confused.

"Sure," Norn nodded, but she didn't seem to have any confidence that Rei was going to survive. It worried me. Norn knew everything. I felt tears in my eyes as I looked down to Rei, watching as her own tears poured from her eyes. I wondered what she was thinking. Was it true that the prospect of death brought on flashes of your life? Was it true that she would be remembering Neo, and Taichi and Pal and Pul? And her accident? Would she remember her parents, even though she rarely spoke of them? "What is this?" Norn asked.

I looked over my shoulder, as I had been walking backwards and spotted the dump. The perfect place to hide. "Go in," I insisted, "Do it." I looked over Kiyoko's shoulder to the church where Gravimon was holding his own against Astamon. I swallowed thickly, hoping that whatever he was doing was enough. I knew Gravimon did not like me much, but I hoped that he had enough passion for saving the four of us that he could pull through with adrenaline. Would he give up if he found himself unable to continue, or would he fight to the death?

We rushed into the dump, under the sign and I didn't hesitate to start carrying Rei up the nearest pile to get into the mess. She groaned again and the tears intensified, and I knew now that we couldn't carry her any further.

"Oh no," I jumped at the sound of Porcupamon's voice but was pleased to see him. I set Rei's top half down next to him and Kiyoko did the same with her bottom.

"Can you help?" I asked Porcupamon sharply, "is there anything here that might help?"

"M-maybe," Porcupamon said nervously before diving into his pile to search.

I looked to Kiyoko and saw him staring at Gravimon before looking back to Rei nervously. "He'll be okay," I assured him, but he didn't seem to believe me. And I had spoken too soon. As I stepped around the pile to see Gravimon I spotted that Astamon had fired a well aimed bullet straight through his shoulder. Gravimon fell to the ground, bellowing in pain as Astamon leapt around him. Luckily, as a digimon, we knew Gravimon was alive, at least for now. Otherwise he would have burst into data.

Astamon caught sight of us and horror filled me again. We had no other defenses to keep him from us. I backed up and tripped over Porcupamon who had brought up as many band-aids as he could find. I could feel only sadness as I fell toward the piles of junk. There was nothing to save Rei, and nothing to save us. We were all gone, and it was because I had trusted Terra.

"Easy does it," a pair of arms had caught me before I reached the ground and placed me back on my feet. I looked back to see Phelesmon who winked at me. He flew down, past the junk and took his place standing amongst the others. I could see Karatenmon, Arukenimon and Mummymon, Witchmon, Reapmon, Zamielmon, Strabimon, FlaWizardmon, NeoDevimon—even Tactimon and Zanbamon had arrived. They were all going to work together to stop Astamon.

"Move aside," Astamon shouted, "I'm on official business, by order of Lady Ga—er—Terra."

"Terra has no business hurting our friends," Tactimon said boldly.

"Go home, Astamon," Zanbamon said sharply, "We know Terra has gone. We saw the Garden. We saw the death she left behind. She left us here, and we will not hesitate to take you as prisoner."

"Or _kill_ you," at Phelesmon's words, Astamon prepared his gun, which was a mistake. The entire army that had accumulated was now after him, chasing him away from us, which I was thankful for. I began scanning the crowd though, desperate for _some_ digimon that might be able to help us cure Rei. I came up short, and then my mind was buzzing, trying to remember if Gaia's garden had any healing plants—I knew it was dead, but the magic may still be present. There had to be _something_ we could do to help her.

"R-Rei?" I said, bending down to her and lifting her into my arms. Kiyoko was quick to join me, "Are you okay?" She shook her head, but said nothing. Tears were in my eyes again, "you will be." I was lying though. I took another look to the blood and lifted her shirt to see the wound. I winced, seeing the place it had hit.

Norn brushed my hand aside to take a look and tears were instantly pouring from her eyes. Porcupamon put his hand gently on her leg to comfort her, but it didn't seem to be helping.

"Do something," Kiyoko demanded, "now."

Norn looked up to him and nodded before softly adding, "I shall try."

Kiyoko stood, seeming to understand what that meant, and looked off toward the piles of junk. He ran his hands over his face and groaned, trying to hold back his tears. He was failing horribly and the tears poured right down his cheeks and dripped off his chin. I didn't know how to help. I didn't know what to say to him, because it had been my fault. I had caused this problem by trusting Terra. I had suggested to give her the key. I was the one who _made_ the virus. It was entirely my fault. There was nothing anyone could say anymore that could change that. I couldn't stop crying now myself, and we all sort of waited as Rei cried, unsure of what to do to help her.

Kiyoko gasped. I looked up to him and he wiped his eyes with his dirty sleeve before leaning to the left to try to look at something in the distance. I glanced over to where he was searching and saw nothing, but he was running a second later.

"Kiyoko!" I shouted, looking back to Rei. He couldn't leave her. He would regret it, I knew he would. I stroked Rei's head, brushing her messy hair out of her face and I sighed, staring down to her paling face. "Rei, I'm so sorry."

She looked up to me, opening her eyes for the first time since she had been shot, "No," she simply said.

I knelt down and kissed her forehead to say goodbye, and then I found myself running after Kiyoko. He was far ahead of me, running fast, determined to find something. Had he caught sight of something that could save Rei? A doctor? Jou? No, that wasn't possible.

He was running though, running fast and strong as if he were chasing something. I called out to him but he didn't stop. I was much faster than he was though and I caught up to him easily, grabbing his arm, "Come back," I insisted as he rounded on me, "Rei needs you. She's part of your family, remember?"

He didn't say anything through his tears, but he paused, and his face lit up. He had found what he was looking for, just behind me.

Slowly I turned and came face to face with the Spirit of the Dump. The being that scared Gaia so much. Fear shot through me instantly, realizing that the danger had not all vanished just because Astamon was busy now being chased by the Fallen Angels and the Wizards. But if Gaia was afraid of something, didn't that mean it was on our side? Unless this was the same as Sigma fearing Gaia... perhaps this spirit was even worse than Gaia herself.

But I was going to risk it. The spirit was simply standing still, towering over us in his long tattered brown cloak. "You're not going to hurt us, are you?" I asked, realizing now that there was no aggression in the stance in front of us. The spirit did not respond, so Kiyoko and I both stepped forward, "Gaia didn't like you... but she doesn't like us either." The spirit moved back suddenly as we came too close. "You don't have to be afraid of us."

The cloaked figure lowered itself until it was at our eye level, with the hood hung low over his face still. "I'm not afraid of you, Willis."

I was shocked at the pitch of the voice, "Who are you?" I asked, tension and excitement building up inside of me. I looked to Kiyoko who nodded and I reached forward with both hands, taking hold of the thick hood. I hesitated, staring into the darkness where the face should be, nervous suddenly to see who I was speaking to, and then all at once, I threw the hood over her face and I gasped.

"Lalamon!"

 **Next on Digimon Adventure 08:**


End file.
